Qualla: Copper Mining in Arizona

Copper Mining in Arizona: Introduction

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doc Searls from Santa Barbara, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Spanish knew there was copper in Arizona. So did the Native Americans who used the green and blue minerals of the Verde district to decorate their skin and textiles. But copper is heavy and cheap compared to gold, and the Arizona territory was brutally remote. For three centuries, prospectors walked past fortunes in copper while searching for silver. It took the Southern Pacific Railroad's arrival in 1876 to make copper extraction profitable. What followed transformed Arizona into America's copper giant, producing 750,000 metric tons worth $5.54 billion in 2007 alone, fully 60% of the nation's output.

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Image: Doc Searls from Santa Barbara, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

Copper Mining in Arizona: The Railroad Changes Everything

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Assignment_Houston_One", CC BY-SA 2.5. Before 1876, the economics of copper mining in Arizona were impossible. The metal had value, but shipping it from the desert interior by wagon cost more than it was worth. Silver and gold could justify the expense; copper could not. When the Southern Pacific's rails finally reach...

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Image: Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Assignment_Houston_One" | CC BY-SA 2.5

Copper Mining in Arizona: Underground to Open Pit

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Cornellrockey at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.5. For decades, all copper mining meant tunneling. Miners descended into darkness, following veins of ore through narrow passages, extracting what they could carry. Then Utah's Bingham Canyon mine proved that massive low-grade deposits could be profitably extracted from open pits, r...

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Image: The original uploader was Cornellrockey at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 2.5

Copper Mining in Arizona: The Mining Districts

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Assignment_Houston_One", CC BY-SA 2.5. Each district has its own story. At Jerome, the United Verde mine exhausted its rich oxidized ores by 1884 and closed, only to be bought by Montana copper baron William A. Clark in 1888 and reopened with new methods. At Ajo, Spaniards had extracted copper on a small scale since 1...

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Copper Mining in Arizona: Byproducts and Bounty

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Assignment_Houston_One", CC BY-SA 2.5. Copper was never the only prize. Arizona's mines produced gold and silver as byproducts, an ironic reversal of the early prospectors who had ignored copper while seeking precious metals. The Clifton-Morenci district alone recovered 2.79 million ounces of gold and 102 million ounc...

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Copper Mining in Arizona: The Modern Giants

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Assignment_Houston_One", CC BY-SA 2.5. Today, Arizona copper mining is dominated by corporate giants operating on massive scales. Freeport-McMoRan runs five of the state's leading mines; ASARCO operates three more. The Resolution Copper deposit in Pinal County could become the largest copper mine in Arizona's history,...

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Image: Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Assignment_Houston_One" | CC BY-SA 2.5