Copper Mining

We’ve seen the remains of several older underground copper mines.  You can tell by the color of the ground along with rocks on the ground such as malachite.  For instance, the only mine we found in the Superstition Mountains wasn’t gold but copper.  This one was near Tucson.

We’ve seen quite a few open pit copper mines in both Arizona and New Mexico.  These are ones that are still active.  The colors of the hills are neat.  I’m amazed at how large they are and the amount of work that goes into them.  For instance, there is a large mine near Silver City.  It’s one of the largest and oldest in the world. Native Americans and Spanish explorers have mined copper here.  Now you can see massive open pits where the ore is being removed (9000 acres and 1.75 miles across).  Several miles away you can see large hills of trailings (what is left after the copper is removed).  Essentially, they are moving mountains to find copper!