Asarco Mineral Discovery

If you are interested in mining, copper, Arizona, or are just looking for something to do one afternoon while visiting Tucson, this is worth stopping by. But, if you want to take the tour, you definitely want to make a reservation since the tours fill up completely. Without the tour, you can browse the gift shop, watch the video and look at some exhibits in the visitor’s center.
The tour involves getting on a bus with a guide and going into the mine. The mine is HUGE, so you get to go to the edge and look down to watch the trucks get filled by the shovels, maybe the drills boring blast holes, and, if you’re lucky and come during the week, they blast M-​F around 3pm. There is no guarantee that you’ll see that, and the guide says it is pretty anticlimactic, but that is time to come if you want a chance.
Once you’ve seen the mine, you move on to the processing plant where they take the blasted chunks, break them down, and concentrate the copper for further harvesting. The tour takes about an hour and is interesting, especially if you have questions about the process.
Most of the big equipment (shovels, trucks, drills) that you see is in the distance because the mine works 24×7×365, but there are some older trucks near the visitor’s center that you can take a look at and get some pictures. Those things cost millions of dollars each, so I can understand why they’re not just sitting around looking pretty!
Overall, it was a good visit for us. Even my teenager seemed to enjoy learning something new.
If you are looking for more to do in the area, San Xavier del Bac mission is back up I-​19 on the way to Tucson, Tubac is a little further south on I-​19 (art, some restaurants and shopping), and the Santa Cruz Chili company is a few more minutes south on I-​19 in Tumacacori. They have a nice spice shop — I love the smell of that shop!

The tour is about an hour. They take you up to the open pit. It’s amazing how big the operations are. After a few minutes they take you to the crushing area. A stinky walk inside and you get to see the slurry. The big trucks and equipment are all in the distance. I was hoping for more, but it is interesting to see part of the process of getting copper.

It’s tiny, but definitely worth the turn off the freeway! We knew the tour wasn’t running on the day we came, but we decided to visit the gift shop and Museum. Both were VERY nice! The gift shop has many shiny things at reasonable prices. (Keep children on a leash in there) I got a ball of Copper and some bottles of garnet, turquoise, peridot, amythist, and quartz for just $ 1 each! ! The museum is quite interactive, fully air conditioned, and has a neat video. It is really only 2 rooms, but they are full of exhibits and information. I’m sure you all knew that 14 karat gold is only 58% gold, but did you know it is 30% copper? Fascinating!

The Discovery Center is a small building with a one-​room museum that is nevertheless worth seeing, principally for some very good videos of the mining and smelting process. The mine tour is the main attraction, an hour-​long ride around the open pit mine with stops at an overlook and a tour inside a refining building. There is some informative patter from the guide, but mostly it’s a chance to observe the immense scale of an open pit mine and the complexity of getting minerals out of the ground.
The staff is friendly and reasonabily informative.
Hints: Go early and avoid the crowds. This is mainly for adults although young children may enjoy the ride in the company bus. A little.

The ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center is a fantastic look into an open-​pit copper mine and a copper mill just South of Tucson on I-​19.
The tour beings with a review of the rocks that are pulled out of the Earth and how they are eventually turned into large copper anodes. After the overview we climbed onto a bus and were taken on a drive to the mine while watching a short video and asking questions of the guide. Once at the pit time is given to look at the bulldozers, excavators, and dump trucks as they are moving about extracting rock from the incredibly expansive mine. There is also a large tire at the viewing deck that is great to take pictures with in addition to the fantastic pictures of the giant open pit. Next the tour goes to the mill where the guide reviews the operations that take the rough rock and grinds and separates it until only a fine copper powder is left. It was definitely neat to see the crushers, grinders, and separation pools all in action within this facility. There is definitely a lot of work going into extracting copper from the mine. This material is then loaded into trucks to be sent to the smelter which was not part of the tour. As the tour was finishing we went past the reclamation area where rock is moved when it has had all of the copper content removed. To finish off the tour a small rock with that slight teal tint was given as a souvenir of the tour.
Overall:
Open pit mine is an amazing sight to behold!
Mill operations were very interesting to see
Great knowledgeable guides