El Chino Mine
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The El Chino (or just Chino; the "Chinaman") Mine is an open-pit copper mine located near Silver City, New Mexico. The mine is owned and operated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold subsidiaries.
Started as the Chino Copper Company in 1909 by mining engineer John M. Sully.[1]
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 1910. It is the third oldest open pit copper mine in the world after the Bingham Canyon Mine and Chuquicamata.
A mill to process the low-grade copper ore was established in 1911 in nearby Hurley but was replaced by a new (current) Ivanhoe concentrator facility in 1982. Milling operations recently (January 2004) restarted at the Chino Concentrator after a three-year hiatus caused by low copper prices. SX/EW operations started in 1988 and have run continously since. Reserves of copper ore at Chino are expected to last until 2015.
A smelter in Hurley was commissioned in 1939 and was modernized in 1985 to increase capacity and achieve compliance with the Clean Air Act. In 2005, the smelter was permanently closed.
The area where the mine is located is at an average elevation of 5,699 feet (1,737 m).
[edit] References
- ^ Stuckwisch, Michelle., Patricia Padilla, Gretchen Dickey and Ruth Vise. "Mining Became Big Business in Southwest". - El Paso Community College.
[edit] External links
- El Chino Mine is at coordinates Coordinates:
