The expansion of the Pinto Valley Open Pit Copper Mine west of Miami is still under consideration by Capstone Mining Corporation, the mine’s owner.
The Canadian company employees approximately 550 persons at Pinto Valley. The mine site consists of 1,000 acres acquired in 1972 by an uncontested land swap along with various producing mine claims it owns on federal lands, west of the town of Miami
The latest information on the expansion talk was released July 30. Capstone’s report entitled “Second Quarter: Continuing Operations Momentum” which said, “Preliminary work continued in the second quarter of this year to evaluate potential expansion scenarios at Pinto Valley to take advantage of nearly one billion tons of (copper) resources not currently in reserves.”
The company said during the second half of this year these activities “will focus further on refining estimates and evaluating alternative infrastructure options largely surrounding tailings and water.”
Officials of Capstone Mining went on to say it will complete the necessary studies to select a preferred expansion alternate by the end of this year.
Darren Pylot, president and chief executive officer, said production at the Pinto Valley Mine produced strong second quarter results with 29 million pounds copper. Total copper production at the Pinto Valley Mine and its producing copper mine in Southern Mexico as of June 30 was 37.7 million pounds of copper at a production cost of $1.78 a pound. Production cost for copper at the Pinto Valley Mine alone was $1.80 cents a pound.
