The Open Pit Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

TonieRich: The Chino Mine has closed the lookout point because it is too close to the haul truck traffic. They plan to move the lookout point to a new location, which has not been determined yet.

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Hidden : 6/5/2012
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Take in the view of the open pit mine & learn a little history of the area. I’m proud to say that both of my parents were ‘Born in Space’. I recently found out the Look Out area is open from 6:30am-6:30pm.

   Grant County’s igneous volcanic geology has fostered a rich mining heritage and economy for the area since pre-historic times.  Mineral resources have ranged from placer gold in the streams near Pinos Altos (1860) to silver outcroppings in Silver City (1870).
   The east-to-west conquest of the country, California Gold Rush of 1849, and Civil War superseded the documentation of the Santa Rita Mine as a treasure of American History. But the Santa Rita Mine has a colorful story…and is the longest continuous mining claim in the western United States.
The Mimbreno Indians (900-1250) collected native copper and other copper minerals.  The Apaches, who migrated into the area later, collected the copper from the surface for ceremonial and trade purposes.  The area was also a seasonal camp in the homeland of the Warm Springs Apache, whose leaders included Magas Coloradas and Victoro.
   Mining of the copper veins began shortly after 1799 when Lieutenant Colonel Jose Manuel Carrasco, a Spanish soldier stationed in Janos, Chihuahua, Mexico, was shown a copper deposit by a friendly Apache Indian.  This was the beginning of Santa Rita del Cobre (Santa Rita).
   In 1804the first land-title transfer occurred, when Carrasco sold a portion of the property to Don Francisco Manuel Elguea a merchant who directed mule trains loaded with the copper south to Mexico.  The Spanish soon established a military presidio and used convict labor in the underground mines.
Santa Rita was under Mexican rule for twenty-five years following the War of Independence from Spain in 1821.  Mule trains carried the copper south along the “Copper Trail” through Janos and Chihuahua to Mexico City.  It is said that, because of the clean quality and malleability of the Santa Rita ore, the metal in most all Mexican copper coins minted between 1800 and 1840 originated here.
   Misunderstandings between Mexicans and the Apaches eventually led to violence on both sides, and providing security for the miners and mule trains became increasingly difficult. By 1838 the political and financial instability of the Mexican government, and the Apache threat, forced the abandonment of the mines.  In 1860 the mines were reopened; however, the citizens of Santa Rita faced constant danger from Apache raids until the 1880’s. 
In 1873 the mine was purchased from the original Spanish owners by a Colorado silver miner, who eventually sold it to a Bostonian banker, who built a railroad spur up from Deming in 1883 to provide a transportation connection with the intercontinental railroad.  Underground (shaft) mining continued until 1910 when the open pit method using steam-powered shovels was introduced.
   The community of Santa Rita grew from a frontier settlement into a self-contained company town with its own post office, school, three churches, a theatre, bowling alley, jail, morgue, hospital, a company store/mercantile and over 5,000 residents. When the mine expanded in the 1950’s and higher-grade ore was discovered directly under the town of Santa Rita, the company began to have the citizens vacate the site.
   Residents were allowed to purchase and relocate the buildings.  A majority of the structures were moved to the neighboring “Mining District” communities of Bayard, Santa Clara and Hurley, where they continue to serve as landmarks of Grant County’s cultural and mining heritage. 
   The people born in Santa Rita, which no longer existed after the late 1960’s have come to call themselves “the people born in space.” Among the members of e Society for People Born in Space is a former astronaut Harrison Schmidt and baseball Hall of Fame member, Ralph Kiner.
   Over the years a number of major mining companies have operated the Santa Rita/Chino mine, including the Santa Rita Mining Company, Chino Copper Company, Ray Consolidated Copper Company, Nevada Consolidate Copper Company, Chino Mines Division of Kennecott Copper Corporation, Phelps Dodge Mining Company and presently Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. 
Overlooking the Santa Rita Mine is a popular geologic formation that has become a part of local folklore and a landmark since the early Spanish presence in the area.  The monolith, known as the “Kneeling Nun,” was formed more than 30 million years ago, when the land in this area was in volcanic turmoil. This famous silhouette can be seen from the east and west as you approach the Santa Rita Copper Mine.  It can also be seen from the Black Range, Traveling west on Route 152.
 
Facts:
  • The Santa Rita Observation Point is located on the east side of NM Highway 152 just south of milepost 6.
  • The mine pit is almost 1,500 feet deep and 1-1/2 miles across.
  • The 3000ton haul trucks are approximately 3 stories tall.
  • Higher-grade ore is crushed and sent to a concentrator where tiny particles of copper mineral are removed from the host rock.  The final product is called copper concentrate, ad is sent to the company’s copper smelter where metallic copper is produced.
  • Lower-grade ore is deposited by the trucks on nearby stockpiles, where it is “leached into solutions dripped or sprayed on the surface.  This solution is then sent to a solution extraction-electrowinning plant where copper is plated into large sheets, producing metallic copper.
  • The mine produces molybdenum that is used as a lubricant and I the production of steel.  Much of that “moly” is produced as a by-product of mining copper at this mine.

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