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Vol. II • No. 11
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Arizona Set to Open First New Copper Mine in Decade By Giles Lambertson
tured for easier access. A leaching solution is pumped down the hole and dissolves the ore. The resulting solution is pumped to the surface, where the copper is extracted and processed. If all goes as planned, the mine will be brought online in stages with eventual full production of 125 million lbs. of copper cathode per year. The project is appealing to state officials because it is environmentally friendly—nearly all the water pumped into the ground is recovered and reused — and because it will infuse Arizona’s economy with some $3 billion over the life of the mine. This low-profile copper recovery operation is quite different from the common image many people have in their minds when they think of copper mines — vast open pits.
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Mining is part of Arizona’s economic and cultural heritage dating back hundreds of years to when Native Americans plinked for turquoise and coal. Spanish explorers invaded the region in the 1600s looking for silver and gold to carry back across the Atlantic. Today, more than 300 operating mines plumb the Arizona desert landscape, most of them quarrying sand and crushed rock for industrial and commercial use — a $450 million takeaway in 2017. And then there’s copper. The reddish-brown mineral isn’t as ubiquitous as aggregate, but historic and operating copper mines dot a wide swath of the state running from Bisbee near the Mexican border 300 miles northwest to Jerome, which overlooks the Verde Valley in the Black Hills. Current mines are mostly clustered in the southeast quadrant of the state east of Phoenix and Tucson — and a brand-new mine is about to join them.
More than 300 operating mines plumb the Arizona desert landscape, most of them quarrying sand and crushed rock for industrial and commercial use — a $450 million takeaway in 2017.
In-Situ Mine In the fall of 2017, the state issued an operating permit for what will be Arizona’s first new copper mine in more than a decade. Vancouver-based Excelsior Mining was given permission to start developing a 9,500-acre property southeast of Tucson near Benson and Wilcox in Cochise County. As the year ended, all that remained after issuance of the state permit was a federal EPA goahead. Excelsior executives were not available for interviews for this article. Some $47 million in initial con-
struction costs will be invested by Excelsior to set up a mine that is expected to produce copper for a quarter century. But it won’t look like mining to casual observers. The operation eschews traditional mining methods as imagined in popular lore. Hard-hatted miners won’t trudge into a tunnel in the side of a mountain with pickaxes resting on their shoulders. Excelsior’s Gunnison Copper Project will extract copper by employing in-situ leaching. The method involves drilling down into a copper deposit, which may have been explosively frac-
In the fall of 2017, the state issued an operating permit for what will be Arizona’s first new copper mine in more than a decade.
Open Pit Mining Just 90 mi. north of Wilcox is a prime example of such an operation: the Morenci mine. Owned jointly by Freeport-McMoRan and Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining, the Morenci operation began nearly 150 years ago as an underground undertaking and has evolved into a whole complex of surface-mining activities. Together, they constitute one of the largest open-pit mining operations in the world. The mine employs some 3,300 people and, in 2017, produced 740 million lbs. of copper. McMoRan executives declined to be interviewed. As is typical of open-pit mining, the Morenci operation has miles of benches circling each gigantic excavation. The benching allows the holes to be stair-stepped into the ground one level at a time. An upward sloping haul road is carved see MINE page 4