U.S. copper mines are reopening
purchasing.com
Faded copper boomtowns of Miami and Globe in the Pinal Mountains of Arizona, just 85 miles east of Phoenix, are about to boom again. And that could guarantee more North American access to copper in future years.
Soaring copper prices have companies scrambling to open new mines in the mineral-rich Globe-Miami Mining District or restart older ones that were closed when copper prices plunged a decade ago. Australian mining giant BHP Billiton's closed Pinto Valley Mine is getting ready to reopen this fall. Mark Blakely, project manager for the new Carlota Mine being developed near Pinto Valley by Quadra Mining of Vancouver, British Columbia, says financing is in place for the $220 million mine that will start construction in June. And it's now probable that Phelps Dodge (now a unit of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold) will reopen its Miami Mine.
When BHP and Phelps Dodge closed their Miami mines in 1998 and 2001, copper prices were in the range of 65¢/lb. Now, due partly to China's burgeoning economy, copper prices are more like $3.25 and have traded as high as $4 in the past year. Now, for the first time in a number of years, the overall outlook for the mining industry in Mountain America is about as bright as it could possibly be.
At Safford, Ariz., Phelps Dodge is constructing a new mine. Rio Tinto, another worldwide leader in copper production, increased its stake in the Resolution Copper Project near Superior in Arizona to 55% last year. The company says shaft sinking will begin soon. Redhawk Copper has acquired the Phelps Dodge mining claims in the Bunker Hill Mining District of Pinal County, Ariz. The claims encompass 520 acres and adjoin claims already owned by Redhawk so the firm company controls more than 5,100 acres in the Copper Creek property that will be further explored in preparation for development. |
