What is copper?

Given copper (II) sulfate, what less expensive metal could you use to precipitate the copper out of solution?

• It's for a chemistry test... please help! The full question is: If a mine had a rich copper ore in which the copper was mostly found as copper (II) sulfate, what less expensive metal could be used to precipitate the copper out of solution?

• Answer:

  for Cu+2 to be reduced to Cu metal, it takes 2 electrons with a force of Eo = +0.337 all of these will work Aluminum --> Al+3 @ Eo = +1.66 volts Magnesium --> Mg+2 @ Eo = +2.37 volts Zinc --> Zn+2 @ Eo = + 0.763 volts Iron --> Fe+2 @ Eo = 0.440 Volts prices as of today: http://www.metalprices.com/ Copper $ 1.7962/pound Aluminum $.8918/ pound Magnesium $ 1.36/pound Zinc $0.4992/pound "Prepared" scrap Iron $0.08/pound your answer ... all of the metals given are cheaper than copper, will do the job, but srap iron is the cheapest/ mole of electrons