History DD: Copper Mining in Nevada
While gold and silver were the first metals mined in Nevada, copper mining has always been an important part of the state's economy. From earliest pioneer days through 1962, before the current Nevada gold rush, $1.1 billion in copper was mined in Nevada.
This report will highlight the four most important Nevada copper mining districts: Battle Mountain, Yerington, Mountain City, and by far the largest, the Robinson District near Ely. Of the four, Yerington and Robinson are still actively mining copper, although Robinson also produces gold. Battle Mountain is back to its origins, mining gold and silver.
The Battle Mountain District, Lander County
The Battle Mountain District lies southwest of the town of Battle Mountain (see Map). For many years it was a major producer of copper. Within the boundaries of the District, the copper is found in several different types of deposits, particularly a porphyry like Bingham Canyon, and in veins.
Although silver was discovered in 1863, the first mining claims were not located until 1866. Most of the claims and later activity were centered in Copper Canyon and Copper Basin.
The Battle Mountain District contains several subdistricts. The two most important are Copper Canyon and Copper Basin. The Copper Canyon Mining Company operated mines in both areas from 1916 to 1955. In addition, it operated a mill at Copper Canyon from 1941 to 1957.
In the period 1866 to 1961, the area produced 15,000 tons of copper, 150,000 ounces of gold, 2,000,000 ounces of silver, 5,000 tons of lead, and 1,500 tons of zinc.
In 1967, Duval Corp. acquired claims at Copper Basin and Copper Canyon from American Smelting and Refining Co. Copper was produced from both milling and leaching processes. With modern methods, the amount of copper produced increased dramatically. From 1967 to 1974, 102,083 tons of copper came from the combined milling and leaching operations.
Low copper prices depressed the copper market. In 1977, copper production by milling was phased out, and the mill was converted to a facility to process gold. Battle Mountain remains as a thriving town near Nevada's booming gold mines, and as a travel center adjacent to an interstate highway.
The Mountain City District, Elko County
The Mountain City Districts covers a number of subdistricts in north central Elko county, including the Cope, Murray, Fairweather, Sooner, Marseilles, and Van Duzer Districts. It is north of the Independence Range where great gold deposits are being mined today.
The Mountain City District, like Battle Mountain, was a silver district at first. Between its discovery in 1869 and 1881, it produced $1,000,000 in silver. Gold was mined as well, mainly nuggets of gold in stream beds, called placer gold. Copper was not mined until over 60 years later, when S. F. Hunt, a prospector and geologist, discovered the very rich copper ore body. Like the great Spanish copper deposit, it was named Rio Tinto.
Like Rio Tinto in Spain, the copper orebody of Rio Tinto in Elko County is overlain by a thick gossan. The word "gossan" comes from a word meaning "iron hat." It consists of a rusty colored deposit of iron minerals. Often, it is a clue to the presence of an ore deposit below it.
S. F. Hunt saw the gossan at Mountain City. Hunt used the technique of drilling to look beneath the gossan. A long, narrow hole is dug into the Earth. Material in the hole is pulled out to be examined. At a depth of 240 feet beneath the surface, Hunt found the copper deposit.
The mine was operated by a subsidiary of Anaconda Mining Company. By the time the miners had mined all the ore in 1947, 94,900 tons of copper had been produced. For much of the life of the mine, it was the highest grade copper mine in the country; that is, it had the greatest amount of copper per amount of mined ore rock. During the early days of mining Rio Tinto, the ore contained 37% copper. The average grade for the life of the mine was 9.7%.
Over 25% of the ore was shipped directly to a smelter in Utah. The rest was turned into copper concentrate at the mine. Like the great Spanish Rio Tinto deposits, the mines of Mountain City produced gold and silver as well as copper.
Today, little remains of Mountain City's mining days. Not really a ghost town, new residents with newer interests live there. The mines are closed. But not far away to the south, in the Independence Range, Nevada's world-class gold rush is roaring on.
Yerington District, Lyon County
Copper was found in the Yerington District very early in history of Nevada, in 1865. A number of copper veins were mined around Yerington. Many of these mines were of a type called skarn, in which hot fluids from a granitic type rock change limestones into ore. Often skarns contain very interesting minerals. In the Yerington area, skarns are found with garnet and epidote. Copper in these mines is found in the mineral chalcopyrite.
The other major ore deposit type in the Yerington District is porphyry copper, just as we have seen in Battle Mountain, in Bingham Canyon, in many Arizona mines, and in Chile. The granite-type rock adjacent to Yerington in the Singatse Range contains scattered pods, veins, and grains of chrysocolla, a blue copper silicate mineral, along with green malachite, purple cuprite, and brassy chalcopyrite.
The early mines followed veins and skarns. Until 1940, the district produced over 17 million dollars, chiefly in copper. However, a very large and important copper mining company, Anaconda, began exploring the granitic rocks next to the town of Yerington. In 1953, Anaconda produced copper at its mill in the town of Weed Heights, adjacent to Yerington. Between 1953 and 1965, Anaconda produced 803,224,674 pounds of copper, worth $255,154,480.
The Yerington pit is played out now, filling with water. But another copper mining company, Arimetco, is operating the MacArthur pit, afew miles north of Yerington. Last year it produced 12,995,000 pounds of copper. The town of Yerington has been a ranching and farming center, as well as a mining town. It never depended entirely on copper mining, and it never became a ghost town.
The Robinson District, White Pine County
Although the Ely District was organized in 1868, it produced little until the smelter in nearby McGill was completed in 1907. Copper was discovered here in the early 1870s, but without sufficient demand, the lack of transportation, the low grade of the ore, and the difficulty in extracting the copper made it unprofitable to mine it.
Copper was re-discovered in 1900, at the same time as the silver boom in Tonopah was beginning. Mark Requa optioned the copper claims of Edwin Gray and Dave Bartley. Requa was the son of a Comstock engineer. His initial interest in the area was to build a feeder railroad to the Eureka and Palisade Railroad. However, the copper soon interested him. He organized the White Pine Copper Company in 1902, and soon solved problems related to metal extraction and transportation.
When he went east to secure financing for the new mine and smelter, he learned that the company that owned land next to his, the New York and Nevada Copper Company, was bankrupt. He purchased it and created the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company.
The Guggenheim family already controlled the Utah Copper Corporation at Bingham Canyon. With their financing, the mine and smelter near Ely were built, along with needed railroad lines. Requa ultimately lost control of the company to the Guggenheims.
The first blister copper was shipped in 1908. The mine earned only $622,470 in the first year, but brought in $6,561,787 of copper in 1909.
Besides Ely, four company towns were created to house the miners and smelter workers. Ruth was built near the mine, and McGill was built near the smelter. The two other company towns were Kimberly and Veteran. Ruth, Kimberly, and Veteran became copper open pits. Ruth was moved and survives in its new location. The pits were named after the towns that they displaced.
Consolidated Coppermines Company, and later, Kennecott Copper Corporation, owned the Robinson District copper mine. The ore was carried by rail 22 miles to the McGill Smelter.
The copper mine of the Ely area continued until declining copper prices forced its closure in 1978. In that time, more than 4.5 billion pounds of copper were taken from the Robinson District. Gold is a by-product in this mine. In its first 60 years, 2.7 million ounces of gold also were produced.
In 1986, gold mining resumed in the Robinson District. As hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold and silver were extracted, Magma Copper Company bought the claims that had belonged to Kennecott and the gold mines. BHP purchased Magma Copper Company as it prepared to begin mining copper again.
The new mine will send 46,000 tons per day of ore to the mill. The ore will be ground, subjected to flotation, and filtered until it consists of a concentrate of 28% copper. The concentrate is carried by truck to a smelter in Arizona. The project will produce 142,000,000 pounds of electrolytic copper each year, along with 92,000 ounces of gold and 343,000 ounces of silver. The mine is expected to be open for 17 years.
When it is finished, it will be reclaimed. It will be reshaped by earth moving equipment. Then vegetation native to the Great Basin will be planted. A unique strategy uses cattle to help to recondition the land and soil.
Other Nevada Copper Districts
While no other areas in Nevada produced as much copper as the four highlighted districts above, a number were well-known copper camps. The Santa Fe District in Mineral County near Luning produced almost 9 million pounds of copper between 1906 and 1920. The Yellow Pine District in Clark County principally mined zinc, but it also produced copper, lead, gold and silver. From 1902 to 1921, it earned $19,999,424.
Many of these other copper districts are mining gold today. In addition, many precious metal mines produced copper as a by-product. Among the more noteworthy of these districts are the Buffalo Valley, Bullion, Hilltop, and Lewis in Lander County. Lander County is noted as well for its turquoise deposits; turquoise is a copper mineral. Copper was an important by-product in the gold mines of Goldfield, in Esmeralda County. While a minor component in relation to the precious metals, copper was found in the Comstock District. The Peavine District near Reno in Washoe County produced copper as well as silver and gold. The Bristol and Pioche districts in Lincoln County were known for beautiful malachite. Copper was not restricted to Mountain City in Elko County--the Dolly Varden and Contact districts produced copper, as well as the Victoria Mine in southeast Elko County. White Pine County's copper production was not confined to the Ely area, but the Robinson District's tremendous tonnage statistically overwhelms all the other copper deposits in the county. Copper ore was mined at Majuba Hill in Pershing County, along with the Antelope and Tobin and Sonoma Range districts.
Copper Mining in Nevada: Historical, Economic, and Social Impacts
The mining industry in general contributed $1.75 billion to personal income in Nevada in 1995. Approximately 60,800 jobs in Nevada in 1995 came directly or indirectly from mining. All this comes from an industry that utilizes only one-tenth of one percent of Nevada land.
The MacArthur Pit in the Yerington District employed 99 people last year. The Robinson Project employs 430 people. The average weekly salary of Robinson Project employees is $846.15, compared to the average weekly salary for the rest of White Pine County: $513.75.
The history of Nevada is, to a great extent, the history of its mines. Nevada became a state due to the importance of Comstock Silver to the Union in the Civil War. However, betwen 1940 and 1978, copper was the most valuable metal mined in Nevada. In 1964, copper represented 60% of the state's mineral production.
Boom towns around the Robinson District and other mining areas brought people to Nevada from all over the United States and the world. Around McGill, communities arose of Serbs, Greeks, Austro-Hungarians and Japanese. The company provided housing, recreation and a hospital. Unions campaigned for better working conditions at these mines.
Nevada presently is one of the world's great producers of gold. The faithful old copper mines are still plugging along in the shadow of gold.
References on Nevada Copper Mining
Blake, David W., Kretschmer, Edward L., and Theodore, Ted G., 1978, Geology and mineralization of the Copper Canyon deposits, Lander County, Nevada, in Shawe, Daniel R., ed., 1978, Guidebook to Mineral Deposits of the Central Great Basin: Nevada Bureau of Mies and Geology Report 32, p. 45-48.
Coats, Robert R., and Stephens, Edward C., 1968, Mountain City Copper Mine, in Ridge, John D., ed., 1968, Ore Deposits of the United States, 1933-1967, The Graton-Sales Volume. New York: American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc., p. 1074-1101.
Elliott, Russell R., 1984, History of Nevada. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 447 p.
Kirkemo, Harold, 1964, Copper, in U.S. Geological Survey, and Nevada Bureau of Mines, 1964, Mineral and Water Resources ofNevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 65, p. 81-87.
LaPointe, Daphne D., Tingley, Joseph V., and Jones, Richard B., 1991, Mountain City, in LaPointe, Daphne D., Tingley, Joseph V., and Jones, Richard B., 1991, Mineral Resources of Elko County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 106, p. 171-176.
Moore, James G., 1969, Yerington, in Moore, James G., 1969, Geology and mineral deposits of Lyon, Douglas, and Ormsby Counties, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 75, p. 26-28.
Nevada Division of Minerals, 1996, Major mines of Nevada 1995:
Nevada Bueau of Mines and Geology Special Publication P-7, 28 p.
Stager, Harold K., 1977, Part II, Mineral Deposits, in Stewart, John H., McKee, Edwin H., and Stager, Harold K., 1977, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Lander County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 88, p. 60-106.
Tingley, Joseph V., Horton, Robert C., and Lincoln, Francis C., 1993, Outline of Nevada mining history: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication 15, 48 p.
Tippett, Michael Charles, 1967, The Geology of the Copper Basin Ore Deposits, Lander County, Nevada: Masters Thesis, University of Nevada, Reno, 31 p.
Theodore, Ted G., and Blake, David W., 1975, Geology and geochemistry of the Copper Canyon porphyry copper deposit and surrounding area, Lander County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 798-B, 86 p.
Theodore, Ted G., Blake, David W., and Kretschmer, Edward L., 1982, Geology of the Copper Canyon Porphyry Copper Deposits, Lander County, Nevada, in Titley, Spencer, R., ed., 1982, Advances in Geology of the Porphyry Copper Deposits, Southwestern North America. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, p. 543-550.
Wilson, W. R., 1978, Geology of the Robninson Mining District, Nevada, in Shawe, Daniel R., ed., 1978, Guidebook to Mineral Deposits of the Central Great Basin: Nevada Bureau of Mies and Geology Report 32, p. 55-61.
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Please direct questions to: Tom Lugaski
Last Modified May 20, 1997
Copyright University of Nevada, Reno 1996
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