The Ted White Tour Part 2 - The Mine

THE MINE

Ajo was the first copper mine in the world to have an open pit.  All copper mines prior to that were underground.  The pit was begun in 1916 under the direction of John C. Greenway.

In the bottom of the pit is a small lake. This is the level of the water table in Ajo. When the mine was in operation this was pumped out for use in the flotation process.

The white building in the center of the above photograph is the Greenway Mansion. John Greenway lived here in the area overlooking the mine which is beyond the mansion in this picture. The buildings in the left foreground were once a Catholic school. Now they are apartments.

The rock pile contains overburden that had little or no copper ore.

The rock pile is shown on the left, while the white tailings dam is straight ahead.  The tailings contain the silt remaining after the flotation process leached all the metals from it.  The New Cornelia Tailings Dam is the largest earthen dam in the world.

Most of the buildings and other installations at the mine have been removed in the years following the mine closure in 1983.  The crusher, flotation process, and smelter are all gone.  Among the few remaining installations are two water tanks shown here.

This shows Ajo looking eastward from the ridge where Ted White's aunt and uncle lived in Arizona Guy.  This is a typical residential area.  The white church is Calvary Baptist.  Beyond the church is the football stadium and rounded gymnasium at Ajo High School.  The black material beneath the tailings dam is the slag heap.  This was the waste product from the smelter which is now processed by Minerals Research and Recovery and sold.  The Plaza is out of sight just to the right of this photograph.  The mine is further to the right.

At the foot of the tailings dam now is Minerals Research and Recovery.  This company is mining the slag heap which was the final waste product of the smelting process.  The material is crushed into various sizes of gravel for industrial use, such as sand-blasting.  In Arizona Guy this was the place Manny Molina worked that blackened his clothing.