Arizona Mining, the Copper State That Wires the Country

Arizona is not shy about it: the state seal has a miner on it, the capitol dome is roofed in copper, and the Copper State produces about 70 percent of America’s supply of the metal that moves electricity. This is our living master report on Arizona mining, updated as Season 1 of Hunting Hidden Treasures swings through the Copper State.

Five C’s, one that mattered most

Arizona’s schoolbook economy ran on five C’s: cattle, cotton, citrus, climate, and copper, and copper towered over the rest. Camps like Bisbee, Jerome, Globe, and Clifton-Morenci boomed in the 1870s and 1880s, and the Copper Queen and United Verde mines became legends. When electrification took off, Arizona’s porphyry copper deposits, enormous bodies of low-grade ore perfect for large-scale mining, made the state the backbone of American copper for the next century.

Arizona today

Freeport-McMoRan’s Morenci operation in the state’s eastern mountains is the largest copper producer in North America, a complex of pits, mills, and leach pads that has been working more or less continuously since the 1870s. Freeport runs a family of Arizona operations around it, including Bagdad and the Safford-Lone Star district, where newer technology keeps expanding what counts as ore.

The future is arguably bigger than the present. Resolution Copper, the Rio Tinto and BHP joint venture near Superior, sits on one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world, deep underground and years into one of the most watched permitting stories in American mining. And the demand side has moved in next door: Lucid Motors builds its electric vehicles in Casa Grande, a copper-hungry factory in the most copper-rich state in the country.

Who matters in Arizona

• Freeport-McMoRan, operating Morenci, North America’s largest copper producer, plus Bagdad and Safford-Lone Star.
• Resolution Copper (Rio Tinto and BHP), advancing one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposits.
• ASARCO, a century-old Arizona copper name with mines and smelting in the state.

We add companies to this report as work in the state moves, whether or not they are tour partners.

On the Season 1 tour

Episode 8 stands at Morenci, then drives the last mile of the thesis: from the biggest copper mine on the continent to the EV plant down the road that cannot exist without it.