ARDEVUR COMMODITIES

Aluminium (meaning “bitter salt” in Latin; called Aluminum in the USA) is a bright-silver-coloured non-ferrous metal with characteristics of softness, ductility, durability conductivity and non-magnetism. After Oxygen and Silicon, it is the third element on Earth in terms of abundance, the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust (composing about 8% of its mass) and the most-widely used non-ferrous metal. With a global production exceeding 40 million tonnes a year, Aluminium (chemical symbol Al) is a lightweight metal with such key properties as a high resistance to corrosion, making it a vital resource for many applications. Already used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, it experienced historical rises that brought it to be more valuable than gold during the XIX Century, being difficult to manufacture.

Copper (from the latin word “cuprum”) is a soft, malleable, ductile and highly conductive metal. Its name is given to the fact the metal was principally mined in Cyprus (aes cyprium) in the Roman era. With its symbol Cu and its characteristic red-orange colour, Copper was the first metal to be used by men (over 10000 years ago) and the first to be alloyed with another metal to create Bronze (more than 5000 years ago). It is today used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material and as a constituent of various metal alloys.

Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from Latin: Stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral Stibnite (Sb2S3). Its compounds have been known since ancient times and were powdered for use as medicine and cosmetics, often known by the Arabic name kohl. Metallic Sb was also known, but it was erroneously identified as lead upon its discovery. The earliest known description of the metal in the West was written in 1540 by Vannoccio Biringuccio.