El Chino Mine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The El Chino mine located near Silver City, New Mexico

The El Chino (or just Chino) Mine is an open-pit copper mine located near Silver City, New Mexico. The mine is owned and operated by Phelps Dodge Corporation subsidiaries.

The mine is located in the town of Santa Rita, 15 miles east of Silver City. The huge open-pit mine was once the largest in the world (see Chuquicamata) and is perhaps the oldest mining site still being used in the American southwest. Apaches, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans have all obtained native copper and copper ore from this site, once known as the Santa Rita mine, and in the 1800s, a tunnel mine. The present-day open-pit mining operation was begun in 1901.

A mill to process the low-grade copper ore was established in 1911 in nearby Hurley. Milling operations recently (January 2004) restarted at the Chino Concentrator after a three-year hiatus caused by low copper prices. Reserves of copper ore at Chino are expected to last until 2008.