ASARCO’s Mission Mine
Tues., Nov. 11, 8:00am, Lobby
Free bus tour of ASARCO’s Mission Mine. Limited to the first 39 who sign up on the clipboard in the lobby. Residents of Rancho Resorts Only, no guests due to space limitations. Be at the clubhouse at 8:00 a.m., November 11th.
One of the first stops on your tour is the Open-Pit Viewpoint. The viewpoint is securely fenced for your safety, and it has four binocular telescopes to provide a close-up view of the trucks and shovels working in the mine. The Mission Mine is a quarter-mile deep, two miles from north to south, and a mile-and-three-quarters from east to west. About six times the amount of earth moved to dig the Panama Canal has been mined here.
The Mission open-pit copper mine was at one time five separate mining properties, but over the years, Asarco has combined them into one integrated mining operation. The mine occupies around 20,000 acres of private, State leased, and Indian