asarco mineral discovery center

Worth a visit to get the view of such an expansive operation! Enjoyed the comfortable bus ride and such informative guide.

Great tour, huge machinery, went to the pit, saw the entire process of getting the copper, must see.

Quite an in depth tour of a huge copper mine, narrated by knowledgeable guides. The tour begins in the Mineral Discovery Center .... guests then board a 40 or so passenger bus that winds through crushing and separating facilities to a parking spot that overlooks the open pit mine. We spent as much time as needed asking Dave, our guide many questions. Back on the bus and down to an observation area in the crushing and separating facility where again, Dave explained the processes and answered all questions.A fascinating hour or so tour well worth the admission fee.

We toured the open pit copper mine. It was very interesting and our guide was full of information about the whole operation. Took at bus to the top to view into the pit and learned about how they mine the copper ore. This is a great learning experience for everyone. They also have a very nice gift shop.

This open pit copper mine is a mindbendingly big hole in the ground. They say they have moved seven times as much soil and rock as was excavated to build the Panama Canal. The visitor center was interesting. My one complaint was that there were several videos showing in a small space and the sound overlapped badly. The information about the importance and ubiquity of copper in modern life was fascinating. We took the tour and it was well done. A bus took the visitors to an overlook to view the whole pit, then to the milling operation. The guide was knowledgable, personable and easy to hear and understand. A very worthwhile two hours or so.The visitor center presentations are free. The tour was less than $10 per person and well worth it.

It's an interesting place to learn about open pit mining. They have a nice center with a film & other information. This was all free. Also a nice little gift shop with copper things. It was quite reasonable. You can pay for a tour, which we did, & it takes you to see the actual mining process. There were only a few of us that day so we had plenty of time. The tour was about an hour or so. It's not too far outside of Tucson, so if you're looking for something to do in a morning or afternoon, this is a good stop.

This tour of a large open-pit mine and the large concentrator plant will educate you on minerals extraction and beneficiation. It is suitable for teenagers, college students, adults, and seniors. You will learn about the scope of operations necessary to extract low-grade copper ore, to crush it, to mix it into a slurry, and process it through separators, flotation cells, clarifiers, and disc filters to finally yield a dry, powdery concentrate which is 28% copper (that is then set to a smelter in Hayden, AZ). You'll also learn about the environmental steps that are taken to store and stabilize the mine's tailings.Our tour leader, David, was very knowledgeable and took the time to explain each of the above steps in language simple enough for a non-metallurgist to understand.The tour begins at the ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center with a short walk 50-100 feet to an air-conditioned 20 passenger van for the drive up to the mine site. At the mine the van stops at an overlook where you can exit the van and look into the open-pit, which is HUGE! Then you drive back to the crushing and concentrator plant to view how the ore is turned into the 28% concentrate. At the concentrator you will have to walk about 150 yards. The tour is handicap friendly and can accommodate someone in a wheelchair or with a walker.Then its back to the visitors center where they have a selection of gifts and mineral samples for purchase. At the Discovery Center there are multi-media exhibits that describe the mining process.There is a charge for the hour and a quarter tour, e.g.$7.00 for seniors, however there is no charge to visit the Discovery Center. Full information is available at www.mineraldiscovery.com.I live in Tucson and this is definitely someplace that I would take out of town guests to. It can easily be coupled with stops at San Xavier Mission, the Titan Missile Base, and lunch or dinner at Elvira's in Tubac.

This is a different and interesting mine and plant tour. I guess it appeals to any one who is interested in technology, manufacturing, or extractive metallurgy. It covers the life cycle of copper from the mine to the semi-refined ore.The tour starts at the ASARCO gift shop where copper items prevail. It proceeds by bus to the rim of the open pit copper mine and passes all the really heavy trucks and shovels. The mine is huge. The tour moves inside to the ball crushers, flotation ponds, and concentrators. An attempt is also made to explain the smelting operations at the ASARCO plant in Hayden and the electrolytic refining in Amarillo. This is a unique side of manufacturing that is seldom seen by the general public.Look for the wild horses by the side of the road on the trip up and back from the mine and plant.The tour ends back at the gift shop and the collection of old and discarded mining equipment.PS - We got there about an hour before the tour started and drove about 1 mole to the Diamond Casino for lunch. The breakfast burrito was big enough for 2 people.

The mine tour was closed, but the museum was very, very interesting. All different kinds of minerals were on display. The gift shop also had a good collection for sale. The video in the Video Theater gave us a good idea what the open pit mine operation entailed. The best part of our visit was seeing the mine equipment displays outside. Big! Big! Big! There was no admission charge - can't beat that!

This is tour was just not suited for my kids (6 and 10) and I imagine it won't be of interest to your kids unless they have some prior fascination with minerals, geology and gemology. Kids just will not appreciate the enormity of the operation. There is a weak introductory movie that was created about 15 years ago. The guide knew a lot about the factory and the process, but just couldn't relay it in a way that will be of interest to children. If you're geek at heart. If you like to watch the Discovery Channel. If you like to watch "How it's made", you will will enjoy this tour, but you may find it long and drawn out. There really isn't a lot to see. It's an automated process so you just see a lot of dirty churning machines and conveyor belts in a smelly factory. Use the bathroom before getting on the bus or you'll be using a port-a-potty.

I took a young friend to the Mineral Discovery Center (no charge) and the mine tour (reasonable charge). The Center has displays and boards that provide interesting information about the history of the mine and mining process -- a good presentation. 30 minutes in the Discovery Center should do it unless you really dive into the details, and the videos. The 1 hour mine tour started with a 5-10 minute overview by the tour guide in the Discovery Center. He was very knowledgeable, but rattled off the information SO fast that it was hard to digest or keep up -- almost like being hit in the face with the rush of water from a fire hose. The bus ride up to the open-pit mine was at a more relaxed pace, and therefore much easier to understand. But the rush was on again when we got off the bus to view the open-pit mine, and then when we visited one of the production buildings. It felt like we were being pushed and herded, and for me, it detracted from the overall experience. I would say share less information or allow more time.A nice excursion if you are interested in open-pit mines and mining. And since the Discovery Center itself is free, there is no risk because there is no cost.

Stumbled on this on the way to Mt. Hopkins, NOT following Suri's directions, and glad we came back. Did not have time for the tour, but sounded very interesting.ASARCO is in a tough position: they are involved in one of the dirtiest industries in the world, and their operation is HUGE, so it's not like it wouldn't be noticed. It's very water-intensive, and one does not need to be here long to figure out that we're in the middle of a desert. Only a tiny percentage of the raw materials end up as finished product (in this case mainly copper), and every step of the process involves harmful chemicals (I am going to avoid the use of the word "toxic," because it is so context-sensitive, but the shear scale of operations means that the tiniest problem could be greatly magnified. Consequently, they need to apply a lot of makeup to make operations presentable, and the film in the visitor center almost makes it seem like ASARCO is doing the environment a favor! Lipstick on a pig might be a little too critical, as it appears from the film, since I did not see the tailings sloughs in person, but they are quite visible from satellite photos, that ASARCO has made huge efforts to prevent harmful chemicals (sulfur gases, toxic metals, etc) from escaping to the environment. Remediation also seems reasonable (again, did not see in person); keep in mind that this is a desert, and not a thousand-year old redwood forest, or Blandings turtle habitat.Stellar gift shop featuring, surprise, a lot of cool copper stuff as well as other minerals and art etc from local artists. The visitor center manager was helpful and friendly, and had a lot of good advice.So Capitalists- don't get me wrong; we need a lot of copper, and it's better to see it extracted with a moderate amount of environmental oversight. Environmentalists- not a mine-booster, but keep you eye on them, and reduce your own consumption.

This was like one kewl tour that I hadn't expected. For me it was kinda like spur of the moment. The big mine truck displayed just off I-19 caught my eye so I thought I'd go see wut it was all about. As I walked into the main visitor center I was amazed at how nice the museum/gift shop was. Everything was so neatly displayed and orderly. I bought my tour ticket and after a guided indoor up close overview of some of the processing equipment and procedures we were going to see we then boarded a almost new bus which took us into the main complex. As we drove on the "wrong" side of the road (they'll explain why) we were passed by large dump trucks with wheels taller than the bus we were in. Some full of ore heading to the processing area, others on the way back to the pit. We were taken to a overlook where you could look into the pit and it was like so large and so far to the bottom those huge trucks that you saw earlier looked like Tonka Toys. The huge shovel was actually being powered by electric and looked like it was hooked by an extension cord. The magnitude of the size of the pit was accented by all the tapering shelving of the earth and the winding roads the trucks used to get to the bottom. After re-boarding the bus the next stop was the rough processing plant where big rocks were made into little ones. So totally kewl how the ore is loaded into a large rotating drum filled with wut amounts to steel cannon balls that fall and crunch the rocks where it is again subjected to another smaller crusher that makes pea gravel. On the other side of the crushers the small pieces are soaked and like mixed in a stirred liquid which generates a thick foam in which the actual copper is suspended to be swept off and further processed. It's really stuff that most of us never give a thought to as how copper is produced.The final processing is done in another state or wutever at another site. Upon returning to the visitor center as you get off the bus you are allowed to like pick from a box, as a souvenir, a small piece of the actual raw ore. The outdoor self guided tour of old mining equipment on static display from this and other mines is very interesting. This is stuff the average person like never sees in a normal lifetime. One thing that stuck out was the so totally oversize aspect of tools and equipment used. At the end there is one of the nicest gift shops of stones and jewelry I've ever seen, although I was disappointed in that there was really little or nothing actually directly produced by this mine to like buy as a souvenir. Overall it's one of those gotta do in a lifetime experiences and the whole operation was very well laid out and organized. The admission price was very fair, allow a few hours to see it all. Oh, and if you're not a local.....maybe the summer here in the desert isn't the best time to enjoy this attraction LOL.

The low cost of the tour feels like it is done for PR, but it was really a good experience regardless. It starts with an explanation of the copper mining process, and then we were bussed to the actual working mine, where we saw both the indoor and outdoor mining processes. It was a great learning experience and we were given a sample of fool's gold at the end of the tour.

When in Tucson, be sure to visit this site and take the tour; the price is quite moderate. It is best to have reservations ahead because each tour is limited in size to the capacity of the small bus used to drive you around, about 24 people, and the tours fill up quickly. You can walk-in as we did, but then have to wait for the first available tour. You get to see every aspect of the operations at the mine site on the 70 minute tour. The tour includes a trip to the edge of the pit to see the mining opetation, and then includes a mill tour. The guide knows his stuff and we learned a lot about modern copper mining and some of the economics. There is a wonderful "discovery center" to visit as well with displays, movies, and a gift shop, too, and there is some mining equipment outside to stroll around for a hands-on experience. There are no food or drink concessions on site, so eat before you go. There is food at the very next exit south on the freeway.