Rosemont Copper Mine

Useful Information

Location:	Pima County. 50 km southeast Tucson, Arizona. (31.851389, -110.757222)
Open:	All year Wed, Sat 9-12. [2012]
Fee:	free, children under 12 not allowed. [2012]
Classification:	Copper Mine copper/molybdenum (Cu/Mo/Ag) skarn
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Rosemont Copper Company, P.O. Box 35130, Tucson, AZ 85740-5130, Tel: +1-520-343-1730.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2007	mining plan filed.

Geology

The deposits are copper/molybdenum skarn deposits, which contain 0.45% Cu, 0.015% Mo and 0.12 oz/t Ag. The ores are sulfide ores, which means they contain sulfur.

Description

The Rosemont Copper Mine is located 50 km southeast of Tucson in Pima County. There is no working mine at the moment, but the property contains three open-pit mineable copper deposits: Rosemont, Peach Elgin and Broadtop Butte. The company is in the process of gathering all the required permits, but even in this early stage they started free public tours. This is a fine chance for the locals to get an insight into the plans of the mining company, where the mine will be, how big, where the processing plant will be, how the reclamation will be carried out and so forth. We think that's a fine way do do public relations.

The filed Mine Plan of Operations for a proposed open-pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains section of the Coronado National Forest was reviewed by the U.S. Forest Service. After ten years the U.S. Forest Service’s 2017 approved the mine. Opponents argued with multiple pollution aspects and harm to the local tourism industry. The project was stopped by a U.S. District Judge in 2019.

Annual production of copper is expected to reach 10% of total U.S. copper production. Estimates are 243 million pounds of copper, 5.4 million pounds of molybdenum, 2.9 million ounces of silver and 17,000 ounces of gold annually.