Florence Copper is possible because of a rare copper deposit located in the Historic Copper Corridor of Arizona – a region steeped in copper mining history.

The deposit is large, and it lies 400 to 1,200 feet below the surface of private and state-owned land in Florence, Arizona.

The natural features of the deposit allow the copper to be extracted without disturbing the land and with minimal environmental impact. The deposit is porous and naturally shattered – this allows the copper to be recovered using a water-based solution in a process called in-situ copper recovery (ISCR). ISCR requires no open pit, no tunneling, no waste dumps, and none of the large equipment typically associated with traditional mining activity.

The extraction process occurs deep in the bedrock. It involves a simple combination of physics and basic chemistry to dissolve and then pump copper-rich solution to the surface. Once at the surface, the solution is converted into large sheets of up to 99.999% pure copper cathode.

During its lifetime, Florence Copper is estimated to create close to 500 jobs for Pinal County and generate $3.4 billion in economic activity for the State of Arizona. The project already has completed a successful Production Test Facility, during which over 1 million pounds of copper were produced. Florence Copper now is in advanced permitting stages to expand to commercial operations.

Categories: Mining & Metals