The following lists of copper mines in the United States:
The following lists of copper mines in the United States:
Leading copper-producing mines in the U.S., 2018–2021, in order of output: [1] The mines on this list account for more than 99% of U.S. mine copper production.
| Rank | Mine | County and State | Owner | Source of copper | Annual production (thousand tonnes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Morenci | Greenlee County, Arizona 33°05′26″N109°22′00″W / 33.09056°N 109.36667°W | Freeport-McMoRan (72%), Sumitomo Group (28%) | Open pit, copper-molybdenum ore, producing copper cathode, copper and molybdenum concentrates | 286 (2021) [2] |
| 2 | Bingham Canyon | Salt Lake County, Utah 40°31′23″N112°09′04″W / 40.523°N 112.151°W | Rio Tinto | Open pit copper-molybdenum ore, producing copper cathode, molybdenum concentrate, gold, silver, sulfuric acid | 202 (2021) [3] |
| 3 | Safford | Graham County, Arizona 32°56′50″N109°39′03″W / 32.9472°N 109.6509°W | Freeport-McMoRan | Copper ore, leached | 120 (2021) [2] |
| 4 | Sierrita | Pima County, Arizona 31°52′26″N111°08′02″W / 31.87389°N 111.13389°W | Freeport-McMoRan | Copper-molybdenum ore, concentrated and leached | 86 (2021) [2] |
| 5 | Bagdad | Yavapai County, Arizona 34°35′05″N113°12′43″W / 34.58472°N 113.21194°W | Freeport-McMoRan | Copper-molybdenum ore, concentrated and leached | 83 (2021) [2] |
| 6 | El Chino | Grant County, New Mexico 32°47′30″N108°04′02″W / 32.7917425°N 108.0672635°W | Freeport-McMoRan | Copper-molybdenum ore, concentrated and leached | 56 (2021) [2] |
| 7 | Pinto Valley | Gila County, Arizona 33°25′55″N110°57′27″W / 33.43194°N 110.95750°W | Capstone Mining Corp. | Copper-molybdenum ore, concentrated and leached | 54 (2020) [4] |
| 8 | Ray | Pinal County, Arizona 33°08′58″N110°59′14″W / 33.14944°N 110.98722°W | Grupo México | Copper ore, concentrated and leached | 56 (2018) [5] |
| 9 | Robinson | White Pine County, Nevada 39°15′33″N114°58′24″W / 39.25917°N 114.97333°W | KGHM Polska Miedź | Copper-gold-molybdenum ore, open pit, concentrate products | 51 (2018) [6] |
| 10 | Mission Complex | Pima County, Arizona | Grupo México | Copper-molybdenum ore, concentrated | 44 (2018) [5] |
| 11 | Continental Pit | Silver Bow County, Montana | Montana Resources LLP | Copper-molybdenum ore, concentrated | 33 (2015) [7] |
| 12 | Tyrone | Grant County, New Mexico | Freeport-McMoRan | Copper ore, leached | 55 (2021) [2] |
| 13 | Silver Bell | Pima County, Arizona | Grupo México | Copper ore, leached | 19 (2018) [5] |
| 14 | Eagle Mine | Marquette County, Michigan 46°44′47″N87°52′50″W / 46.74639°N 87.88056°W | Lundin Mining | Underground mine producing nickel and copper concentrates | 18 (2018) [8] |
| 15 | Phoenix | Lander County, Nevada | Newmont Mining Corporation | Gold-copper ore, concentrated and leached | 16 (2018) [6] |
| 16 | Lisbon Valley | San Juan County, Utah | Lisbon Valley Mining Company | Copper ore, open pit, heap leached | 10–15 (2018) [9] |
| 17 | Miami | Gila County, Arizona | Freeport-McMoRan | Copper ore, leached | 5 (2021) [2] |
| 18 | Carlota | Gila County, Arizona | KGHM Polska Miedź | Porphyry copper open pit, producing copper cathode | 3.2 (2018) [10] |
| 19 | Pumpkin Hollow (see Anaconda) | Lyon County, Nevada | Nevada Copper | IOCG skarn, underground, producing copper concentrate | - (2019) [11] |
| Mine | County (Borough) and State | Operator | Type of Deposit | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pebble | Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska 59°53′50″N155°17′43″W / 59.89722°N 155.29528°W | Northern Dynasty Minerals | Porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum | Pre-feasibility [12] |
| Rosemont | Pima County, Arizona 31°51′05″N110°45′26″W / 31.85139°N 110.75722°W | Hudbay Minerals | Porphyry skarn | Permitting [13] |
| Resolution | Pinal County, Arizona 33°18′11″N111°06′00″W / 33.3031115°N 111.1001195°W | Rio Tinto 55%, BHP 45% | Porphyry copper deposit beneath the inactive Magma Mine | Permitted [14] |
| Back Forty Mine | Menominee County, Michigan | Gold Resource Corp. | Volcanogenic massive sulfide | |
| Northmet | St. Louis County, Minnesota | Polymet Mining | Copper-nickel-PGM deposit in disseminated and massive sulfides in layered mafic intrusion | All state and federal permits issued for an open pit mine [15] |
| Black Butte | Meagher County, Montana | Sandfire Resources America | SEDEX copper-cobalt-silver | Permitting [16] |
There are hundreds of inactive or defunct copper mines in the United States. The list below includes only those with Wikipedia articles.
Butte is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers 718 square miles (1,860 km2), and, according to the 2020 census, has a population of 34,494, making it Montana's fifth-largest city. It is served by Bert Mooney Airport with airport code BTM.
The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine in the western United States, located in Butte, Montana. It is one mile (1.6 km) long by one-half mile (800 m) wide, with an approximate depth of 1,780 feet (540 m). It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet (270 m) with water that is heavily acidic, about the acidity of Coca-Cola, lemon juice, or gastric acid. As a result, the pit is laden with heavy metals and dangerous chemicals that leach from the rock, including copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's largest gold mine, the Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia.
Quadra FNX Mining Ltd was a Vancouver, British Columbia-based company that produced copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, gold, cobalt, and molybdenum with operations in Nevada, Arizona, Chile, Greenland, and the Sudbury Basin, Ontario, Canada.
The Grasberg mine has one of the largest reserves of gold and copper in the world. It is located in Mimika Regency, Central Papua, Indonesia near Puncak Jaya. It is operated by PT Freeport Indonesia, a joint venture between the government of Indonesia, government of Papua, and American company Freeport-McMoRan (FCX).
Hudbay Minerals Inc. is a diversified Canadian mining company primarily producing copper concentrate and zinc metal. Much of its history has centered on Flin Flon, Manitoba, where it has mined for over 90 years. Hudbay currently has operations in Manitoba and Peru, and is working towards building a copper mine in southern Arizona. The company also has exploration properties in Canada, Peru, Chile and the United States.
KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., commonly known as KGHM, is a Polish multinational mining corporation headquartered in Lubin, Lower Silesia, Poland. Founded in 1961 as a state enterprise, the company is considered a major global producer of copper and silver. Since 1997, it has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). The company is also a component of the WIG30 stock market index.
In the United States, copper mining has been a major industry since the rise of the northern Michigan copper district in the 1840s. In 2017, the US produced 1.27 million metric tonnes of copper, worth $8 billion, making it the world's fourth largest copper producer, after Chile, China, and Peru. Copper was produced from 23 mines in the US. Top copper producing states in 2014 were Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. Minor production also came from Idaho, and Missouri. As of 2014, the US had 45 million tonnes of known remaining reserves of copper, the fifth largest known copper reserves in the world, after Chile, Australia, Peru, and Mexico.
In the United States, gold mining has taken place continually since the discovery of gold at the Reed farm in North Carolina in 1799. The first documented occurrence of gold was in Virginia in 1782. Some minor gold production took place in North Carolina as early as 1793, but created no excitement. The discovery on the Reed farm in 1799 which was identified as gold in 1802 and subsequently mined marked the first commercial production.
Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858. The industry suffered greatly from the demonetization of silver in 1873 by the Coinage Act of 1873, known pejoratively as the "Crime of 73", but silver mining continues today.
In Arizona, copper mining has been a major industry since the 19th century. In 2007, Arizona was the leading copper-producing state in the country, producing 750 thousand metric tons of copper, valued at $5.54 billion. Arizona's copper production was 60% of the total for the United States. Copper mining also produces gold and silver as byproducts. Byproduct molybdenum from copper mining makes Arizona the nation's second-largest producer of that metal. Although copper mineralization was found by the earliest Spanish explorers of Arizona, the territory was remote, and copper could seldom be profitably mined and shipped. Early Spanish, Mexican, and American prospectors searched for gold and silver, and ignored copper. It was not until the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876 that copper became broadly economic to mine and ship to market.
Gold mining in Nevada, a state of the United States, is a major industry, and one of the largest sources of gold in the world. In 2018 Nevada produced 5,581,160 troy ounces, representing 78% of US gold and 5.0% of the world's production. Total gold production recorded from Nevada from 1835 to 2017 totals 205,931,000 troy ounces (6,405.2 t), worth US$322.6 billion at 2020 values. Much of Nevada's gold production comes from large open pit mining using heap leaching recovery.
Lundin Mining Corporation is a Canadian company that owns and operates mines in Sweden, United States, Chile, Portugal and Brazil that produce base metals such as copper, zinc, and nickel. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was founded by Adolf Lundin and operated by Lukas Lundin. While it was incorporated to pursue an interest in a diamond mine in Brazil, the company re-structured and raised funds to develop the Storliden mine in Sweden. It purchased the Swedish Zinkgruvan Mine from Rio Tinto and then merged with Arcon International Resources for its Galmoy Mine in Ireland and Eurozinc for its Neves-Corvo mine in Portugal. The company subsequently purchased and operated the Eagle mine, Candelaria mine, and Chapada mine.
Tenke Fungurume Mining SA (TFM) is one of the largest copper and cobalt producers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Construction on the site began in the latter part of 2006, and in 2009, TFM produced its first copper. The mine has since become a vital source of income for local communities and the country by way of royalties and taxes, as well as the largest employer in the region.
The Polkowice-Sieroszowice mine is a large mine in the west of Poland near Polkowice and Sieroszowice, Polkowice County, 350 km south-west of the capital, Warsaw. Polkowice-Sieroszowice represents one of the largest copper and silver reserve in Poland having estimated reserves of 387 million tonnes of ore grading 2.65% copper and 54 g/tonnes silver. In 2018, the mine produced over 196,000 tonnes of copper and over 428 tonnes of silver.
The Robinson Mine is a porphyry copper deposit located at Ruth, White Pine County, Nevada, in the Egan Range, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Ely. The mine comprises three large open pits: Liberty, Tripp-Veteran and Ruth. The ore is extracted using conventional surface methods, and is then processed into a copper-gold concentrate, and a molybdenum concentrate in a concentrating plant. Since 2012 the mine has been owned and operated by Polish copper miner KGHM Polska Miedź
The Sierrita Mine is a large copper mine located in the Sierrita Mountains of Arizona, in the southwestern part of the United States. The mine is located in southern Pima County, southwest of Tucson and west of Green Valley-Sahuarita.
Molybdenum mining in the United States produced 65,500 metric tons of molybdenum in 2014, worth US$1.8 billion. The US was the world's second-largest molybdenum producer, after China, and provided 25% of the world's supply of molybdenum.
Pinto Creek is a tributary of the Salt River in Gila County, Arizona, within the Tonto National Forest. The creek winds for 28 miles (45 km) northward from the Pinal Mountains, through the Sonoran Desert, before emptying into the tail of Theodore Roosevelt Lake. Since the 1980s, the Pinto Creek watershed has been the site of environmental disputes over water rights and mining operations.