U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan.

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
posted by scalefree on Jun 13, 2010 - 156 comments

The new monetary standard: Copper.
posted by bigmusic on Apr 19, 2009 - 51 comments

How much is a penny worth today? Oh, about $0.0105465. Of course, it costs more than that to produce them. Is the penny worth keeping? The old copper penny had bactericidal qualities. You could drop a copper penny in a glass of wine to discern its nature. They were the subject of various high-school chemistry experiments. According to some, they were excellent conductors of luck. And the new zinc pennies? Their melting point is lower, and they don't have the same ring to them. Some people like them, others like to eat them. What are they good for? Not much. The time has come to abolish the penny.
posted by sfenders on Nov 19, 2006 - 75 comments

Copper - tales about Copper and Fred, his dog. By Kazu Kibuishi.
posted by PenDevil on Jul 30, 2004 - 6 comments

Copper is a beautifully drawn web-comic about a dog and his boy. The author Kazu Kibuishi is also about to release Flight, a highly anticipated anthology which includes the works of Derek Kirk Kim, Jen Wang, Clio Chang, Rad Sechrist, Vera Brosgol and Enrico Casarosa, all a group of artists who met over the Internet (Most links are to comics) Scott McCloud sends in a review from the year 2054.
posted by vacapinta on Jun 4, 2004 - 10 comments