Touring An Open Pit Copper Mine

Thursday we drove about 25 miles south of Tucson to visit the Asarco Copper Mine.  We boarded a small little tour bus and headed up the road to the pit.  I do mean up! We were driven up to the rim of the massive pit.  We even saw a few wild mustangs along the way that roam on the mine’s property.  The land is actually leased from the Tohono Odham Indians.  They receive 2.4 million dollars a year and the sate of AZ is paid 4.2 million dollars a year.   The pit is 3 1/2 miles long and 1500’ deep.   Enormous!  It is hard to describe if not actually standing above it. 

        

The ‘tailings’ are everywhere and are very tall, as tall as small mountains!  You can see the mountains of tailings along the highway.  Tailings are the material left over after the extraction of ore from its host material.  The excavated rock is hauled either to the crusher or the debris piles in these huge monster trucks.  I am sitting in one of the tires!  These trucks are gigantic and the driver sits in a very small cab to drive these monsters.  Amazing! 

 

We also got to see how the copper was separated from the rock and the copper extracted by using chemicals, bubbles and water.   Almost like agitating huge vats of Pine Sol cleaner!  It smelled like it, too!  The finished product at this mine is a copper powder.  The powder is sent elsewhere for smelting to become the shinny copper we are used to seeing.  A bit of gold and silver are also found in the excavated rock. 

   

We found the process for mining very interesting and it is hard to fathom the huge process and money involved just to get to some copper! The amount of rock moved is mind boggling!!

Since we were that far south, we ate lunch at the Cow Palace, where I had lunch after the New Year’s Day hike.  Across the street was this restaurant with the skull entrance.  I sure would hate to meet the Longhorn bull that wore THOSE horns!!!