DeAndre Dude’s radio sounds as he and I are ready to descend.
“Is your radio off?”
“Hello, this is radio tech.”
“Loud and clear.”
The Resolution Copper underground mechanical apprentice guides us nearly 7,000 feet down the No. 10 – the deepest single-lift mine shaft in North America. Dude is from a third-generation mining family, and among dozens of San Carlos Apache employees.
“My father was in mining,” he said. “When I was in school, he came home, talked about work, showed me pictures, and that’s when I kind of knew what I wanted to do.”
Dude doesn’t mind his dimly lit 15-minute commute to the bottom of the 28-foot diameter mine shaft, with the clanging cage moving about 500 feet a minute. The rattling metal drowns out the stillness, while descending into total darkness.
“Coming down here, we have a bunch of pumps, motors, hydraulics, so there’s always constant noise that keeps you away from the eeriness,” Dude added. “It’s a different world, really, just nothing but rock all around you.”
Industrial fans churn as warm water drips from an aquifer punctured by this very mine shaft some 5,000 feet beneath the surface. This is where Dude spends his time working – 12-hour shifts, four days a week – thousands of feet underneath the earth.
“The very first time was a little – little scary, not gonna lie,” Dude admitted. “But coming here, you have to not be afraid, or else your mind’s not on to like the danger zones and the critical risks that can kill you.”
Mining can be dangerous, but market demands underscore the need for this essential metal, which, among other uses, is critical for achieving a cleaner energy future: copper is used in manufacturing wind turbines, solar panels, chips, semiconductors and electric vehicles.
Roughly 29.4 million tons of copper is used globally, nearly a third of which comes from recycling scrap annually, according to the International Copper Association. Though copper can be repeatedly recycled without any loss of quality, global demand is simply more than that supply.
A May report by the International Energy Forum – made up of energy ministers from 72 countries – estimates between 35 and 194 new large copper mines must come online and begin production within the next three decades – a rate of up to six mines per year – to remain on the baseline toward the green transition and electrify the global vehicle fleet by 2050.
“Copper is fundamental to our future energy and national security,” Resolution Copper president and general manager Vicky Peacey told KJZZ. “It’s the foundation of climate policy and the most pressing issue in the entire world.”
Back above ground, Peacey says “not all copper deposits are created equally,” insisting “maybe not everything needs to be developed, but this one, this one makes sense.”
Resolution Copper points out the size of this particular ore body is extraordinary – believing this single deposit can yield 40 billion pounds of copper, meeting a fourth of the nation’s annual demand.
She calls it a generational opportunity.
“It is a 60-year project, right, at a minimum, with 10 years of construction, 40 years of production, and then 10 years of closure,” Peacey added. “But in reality, it could go much, much longer than that.”
That timeline, in part, depends on whether the project is in fact approved.
In 2019, the first Trump administration issued a final environmental impact statement – a year ahead of schedule – just days before Joe Biden took office. But the Biden administration withdrew it in 2021 to continue tribal consultation.
Production cannot begin until that’s resolved.
Despite decades of political wrangling and legal battles shrouding the project in controversy, Peacey says that attention has created greater accountability, adding “that, again, just builds trust and transparency, so we’ve got a lot of eyes on this.”
Mila Besich is mayor of Superior.
It’s a town of nearly 3,000 residents bordering the mine east of the Valley, and stands to reap the benefits from this boom-bust economy once again. The town’s Magma Copper Mine, which opened in 1910, shuttered in 1982 due to falling copper prices worldwide.
“It’s been a decade since the land exchange was passed,” Besich said. “Superior has been waiting a very long time, and we still don’t have this buttoned up, but we’ve been through this very painstakingly, arduous process.”
For context, the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration states it takes up to a decade just to secure a mine permit in the U.S., compared to three years for Canada and Australia.
A June report from S&P Global found the U.S. ranks second to last in the world for the amount of time it takes to develop new mines – from discovery to production – at 29 years.
Only Zambia, at 34 years, takes longer.
“It’s not easy to develop new mines anywhere,” Peacey shared, “and I think that’s really where Resolution Copper comes in. It is an underground mine, different than the other mines that we have in the U.S. that are all open pit.”
Resolution Copper has spent over $2 billion developing and permitting the project.
Superior and the neighboring company towns, like Miami, Kearny and Globe along the Copper Corridor, are counting on this huge gamble paying off.
“We always have Plan B in mind for Superior,” Besich admitted. “Our overall vision is to make sure that Superior has a diverse economy that isn’t completely reliant on mining, but respects the fact that mining is part of our DNA.”
She serves as vice chair for the National League of Cities’ Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee and also sits on the EPA Small Communities Local Governance Advisory Committee.
“We’re going to be ready for that mine to open,” Besich added, “but we’re also not only waiting for that mine to open to make sure that Superior is going to thrive.”
Last March, the company signed a good neighbor agreement with more than a dozen community governments, nonprofits and local citizens, including the Arizona Trail Association, Boyce Thompson Arboretum and Arizona Wildlife Association.
“[Superior] is not a mining town,” Peacey stressed. “It is a town with a mine, and we’ve worked really hard with the six communities around us to understand, 'What is their vision? What do they want their town to be?'”
Most of the company’s current workforce comes from a 40-mile radius.
“So we’ve got about 350 people today, 90% of our workforce comes from the San Carlos Apache Tribe to the town of Superior and everywhere in between,” Peacey said. “They depend on Resolution Copper for a job.”
And at full production, Resolution Copper plans to employ roughly 1,500 workers, generate $270 million in yearly wages – between direct and indirect jobs – and pay approximately $300 million in annual state, federal and local tax revenue.
Resolution Copper continues the slow dig, thousands of feet underground, toward the precious copper deposit. But for now, the estimated 1.4 billion metric ton ore body – worth about $200 billion by today’s copper market price – remains out of reach by merely a mile and a half.
“It’s not so much the wait,” Peacey emphasized. “It’s just the opportunity that is sitting there, right at our fingertips.”
For those who’ve been beside Resolution Copper throughout the last decade, they may never see this mine fully in operation. Dude, my guide on the No. 10 mine shaft, wants to still be around and see the potentially colossal prize. “Hopefully I’ll be here once we start pulling out some of that rock.”
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The nonprofit Apache Stronghold has argued its religious freedom case all the way to the highest court in the land. On Friday, the nine justices are meeting in conference once again, and an answer may arrive as soon as Monday. -
Resolution Copper is betting on gaining access to a large and lucrative copper ore east of Phoenix. A lot of money has already been invested in the project – over $2 billion – and opponents say some of it has been used to buy influence. -
Resolution Copper wants to dig up a massive amount of copper ore beneath Oak Flat inside the Tonto National Forest. And by doing so, a site that some Apaches consider sacred may be destroyed. -
While Resolution Copper is taking a proactive approach to meet its tremendous water needs, their actions may still have a lasting and severe impact on the local hydrological landscape around Oak Flat. -
Discovered in Arizona’s Copper Triangle, Oak Flat is home to one of the richest copper deposits in the world. But the battle to mine there — about 60 miles east of Phoenix — has been bogged down by decades of politics. -
Oak Flat — an area east of the Valley — may soon be home to a massive copper mine. It holds cultural and spiritual significance to many Apaches, whose ancestors were forced off the land by the U.S. military. -
Watch a KJZZ panel discussion about Oak Flat — an area sacred to generations of Apaches that may soon be home to one of the largest copper mines in the world.
