Thanks for the looks and responses. Until now I really never thought about copper, where it came from, or how it was mined. I knew Arizona was nicknamed the Copper State but never really thought about why or what that really meant. Seeing this particular mine prompted me to start looking into it a little more. There are actually two working mines only a short distance from my home but they are so well disguised on their outer limits that you really don't know what's going on on the other side of the hill that you see. It's only through photos, tours, or aerial views can you really get a glimpse at what they are doing there. We are going to take one of their tours soon because I want to see what is going on in my own backyard. I'll be sure to share what I find.
I did discover that Arizona is the largest producer of copper in the country. In fact, in the entire world, only Chile produces more copper than Arizona. As both of you pointed out, this may not really be a good thing in the greater scheme of things, but for Arizona it is a great source of revenue and I think we all know, that is truly the driving force in this whole thing. It all boils down to money in one way or another. Whether it is good or bad is up to each of our own interpretations I suppose. Either way, from my layman's point of view, it is extremely interesting how they go about extracting the copper from the earth and the processing that goes into it. As a child I always played with my big Tonka dump trucks, shovels, and graders and pretended that I was moving the earth and building huge projects. Now as an adult, I think I may be channeling that child again by wanting to take this tour and see these giant trucks, shovels, dynamite blasting, and every other thing that they use when moving these mountains. I can't help myself.
