VIDEO: Railway copper theft crackdown in England

BBC footage shows arrest being made in a campaign to crack down on dealers who buy stolen metal that has been launched by the Transport Police in Yorkshire, England. Copper theft on railways has led to thousands of hours of delays to passengers every year. Yorkshire authorities say the problem is costing them millions a month.

Click here for the video by the BBC.

MINING.com reported earlier this week one of the four bronze sculptures that included a Jules Dalou, sculptor of the famous Triomphe de la République in Paris, stolen from the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa since January, were probably melted down and the copper content sold for a paltry $250.

But the Joburg heist is by no means the most daring according to AP: in one stunning case in 2005, thieves took a two-ton, $5.2 million bronze by famed English sculpture Henry Moore (works of his are also at the Johannesburg Art Gallery) only to melt it down and sell it for scrap as the piece was too well known to sell on the art market.

MINING.com reported last month British Telecom had to talk down the value of its 75 million miles of copper cables criss-crossing the United Kingdom after an analyst at investment bank Investec calculated that the scrap value of the copper is £50 billion ($77 billion) at today’s prices – almost $50 billion more than BT’s market cap.

Click here to read why British Telecom won’t be digging up its copper cables, not yet anyway.