By Scott Shephard

Seven of the ten largest producing copper mines in the US are in Arizona. In our recent experience, the mines themselves can be hard to see but the evidence in the form of huge shaped mounds of tailings are what give them away. In one case, south of Tucson on I19, we drove by miles of these piles but never saw the mine - even when we drove directly in to the mining area.

Given that copper mines are open cut mines, you’d think that they would be obvious. But in the case of this photo, of the ASARCO Ray Mine south of Superior, Arizona, it took a drone to get a good view. All I can say is that this open cut is HUUUGGGEEE. To give you an idea of scale, the red arrow in Exhibit A points to a sort of a parking lot for 4 dump trucks. (For the record, they are called “haul trucks.”) You need a ladder to get into a haul truck (Exhibit B).

I suspect environmentalists would have a problem with the kind of large scale scarring that open pit mining perpetrates. But the same environmentalists are probably just as dependent on copper as you and I are. We are surrounded by copper: it’s in the wiring of our houses and cars, it’s in electric motors, and it’s in cabling for computers, to name just a few. Without copper, then what?

As an aside, I should say that copper is not in the US penny. Due to the cost of copper, all pennies minted after 1982 were made of zinc with a very thin coating of copper. But chances are that if you have a penny made in 1981 or before, your penny is worth more than a penny. What about 1982? Half of all pennies were made of pure copper and half were made of zinc. Why? No one’s saying but I’ll bet those who love conspiracy theories have some ideas . . . .

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