Up until recently, economies around the globe were on a fairly steady upward trajectory, a growth that put pricing pressure on some of the raw materials needed for both production and infrastructure. That pricing pressure has, in some cases, led to a bit of a black market where the materials are forcibly recycled through various forms of theft. Copper is one of these materials, and a variety of anecdotal news reports suggests that theft of copper from various places it’s in use has been an ongoing nuisance in the U.S. Now, the FBI has performed an analysis of the situation that suggests copper theft actually poses a serious risk to the national infrastructure.

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