ASARCO: The Copper Magnate

Founded in 1899 as the American Smelting and Refining Company, ASARCO is a mining, smelting, and refining company that primarily focuses on the mining and processing of copper. Based in Tucson, Arizona, the company is a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico. It was established by Henry H. Rogers, Adolph and Leonard Lewisohn, William Rockefeller, and Anton Eilers.

ASARCO’s three largest open pit mines are the Mission, Silver Bell and the Ray Mines located in Arizona. These produce 350 up to 400 million pounds of copper annually. The company performs solvent extraction/electrowinning at the Ray and Silver Bell mines in Pima County and Pinal County in Arizona, and a smelter in Hayden, also in Arizona.

Before ASARCO’s smelting plant in El Paso, Texas was suspended in 1999, the company was already producing 1 billion pounds of anodes every year. Furthermore, refining at the mines itself and at a refinery in Amarillo, Texas, they produce about 375 million pounds of refined copper per year.