Where in the world: Balkash, Kazakhstan
Copper--it's used to make everything from coins to cookware, and in the case of Balkash, an entire city was built on it.
In 1928, a wealth of copper reserves were discovered on the site where the city now stands along the northern shore of Lake Balkash. By 1937, the settlement that had been set up to provide goods and shelter to workers in the area had become the city.
Over the next few decades, the mining and metallurgical operations in Balkash supplied much-needed copper to the USSR and the rest of the world. After Kazakhstan gained its independence in 1991, Balkash continued to be a major hub for copper.
Today, about 66,000 people live in Balkash, and copper's still a really big deal. They build monuments out of it--like this one that commemorated the 50th anniversary of the company formed to mine copper from the region.
Its rich warm colors are also echoed in the architecture like on the facade of this mosque.
Each year, the anniversary of the opening of the copper plant is celebrated as a holiday, and nearly everyone has at least one family member who works in the industry. Since 1952, nearly 13 million copper cathodes have been shipped out of the city, and so many tons of raw copper have left Balkash bound for elsewhere that they've literally lost count of how much has been produced. The next time you see a penny or flip an egg over in your copper-clad skillet, you just might be encountering a little piece of Balkash's history.
