Arizona Mining Association

AZCU Profile: Phelps Dodge Mining Company
Using a strong foundation to build a better future for mining

The color of sunrise hints at the copper within the benches of Phelps Dodge's Morenci Mine.

Founded in 1834 in New York City as a mercantile company, Phelps Dodge entered the mining business in Arizona in 1881. It moved its headquarters from New York to Phoenix in 1987. Along with active production, Phelps Dodge is engaged in reclaiming lands affected by historic mining operations, many of which began more than 100 years ago. Its Process Technology Center in Safford, Arizona, is one of the world's premier labs dedicated to advances in modern mining.

Phelps Dodge is the largest producer of copper in Arizona and in the United States. It has three operating copper mines in Arizona: the Morenci Mine at Morenci, the Bagdad Mine at Bagdad, and the Sierrita Mine near Green Valley. (The communities of Bagdad and Morenci are company towns.) Phelps Dodge also operates copper mines in New Mexico, Chile and Peru.

Through its Climax Molybdenum Company subsidiary, Phelps Dodge is among the world's largest producers of molybdenum. Moly, as it often is called, is used in the production of highquality steels and as a catalyst to remove sulfur from petroleum products - among many other uses. The company produces moly as a byproduct at the Bagdad and Sierrita mines in Arizona and at a primary moly mine in Colorado.

Safety is a core value at Phelps Dodge. The company's philosophy is represented by the theme of Zero and Beyond. The idea is that the only acceptable goal for safety incidents is zero - not just at work, but in our homes and communities.

Phelps Dodge's Process Technology Center in Safford has developed many of mining's latest innovations. One recent example is a new process that makes certain types of copper-bearing ores more economical and practical to mine. This process, called copper concentrate leaching, was first demonstrated at the company's Bagdad Mine and is being implemented on a larger, commercial scale at the Morenci Mine.

Safford also is the home of the company's Central Analytical Services Center. Completed in 2005, the center uses the latest processes and robotic technology to analyze material for mining, research and environmental-control purposes. Further, the company is proposing a new copper mine at Safford for operation as early as 2008. Engineering, permitting and other work on the proposed mine is in the final stages. The mine will be the most environmentally and technologically advanced copper mine ever built.

The concentrate leach plant at Bagdad, shown during construction.

Phelps Dodge's other facilities in Arizona include a smelter and a copperrod mill at Miami. Continuous cast copper rod is the feedstock for the wire and cable industry. Phelps Dodge is the world's largest producer of continuous cast copper rod, with rod mills in Miami, Arizona; El Paso, Texas; Chicago, Illinois.; and Norwich, Connecticut.

Phelps Dodge has three copper mines in Arizona on care-and-maintenance status. These mines could be brought back into production based on the market price of copper and other factors. The mines are at Miami, at Ajo, and on the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation near Casa Grande. At Miami and Tohono, the company continues to produce modest amounts of copper from existing stockpiles previously mined.

Copper also is being produced on a small scale from existing stockpiles at the company's former Copper Queen branch in Bisbee, Arizona - although, mining ceased there in 1975. Today, the City of Bisbee offers tours of the historic underground Copper Queen Mine, and the company's non-operating Lavender Pit served as a movie set for a 2005 television movie based on a Stephen King novel, "Desperation."

The major work at Bisbee - and at other closed Phelps Dodge properties in Jerome, Arizona; Clarkdale, Arizona; and elsewhere - is reclamation.

Former mining or processing sites are being re-contoured, old facilities are being removed, underground aquifers are being monitored, and - where necessary - streams are being treated to protect the environment. Phelps Dodge is working to improve properties developed in past eras, even as it operates its active mines and develops new properties based on today's greater knowledge of operations, the environment and safety.

Safety is a core value at Phelps Dodge. The company's philosophy is represented by the theme of Zero and Beyond. The idea is that the only acceptable goal for safety incidents is zero - not just at work, but in our homes and communities. Toward that end, safety is a major focus of the Phelps Dodge Foundation, which supports a variety of programs in Arizona, including domestic-violence shelters.

To learn more about the company and the Foundation - and about public tours available at some of our mines - visit the Phelps Dodge web site, www.phelpsdodge.com.

Return to News