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Article: ARIZONA COPPER.
- Article from:
- Rocks & Minerals
- Article date:
- January 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Arizona and copper are intricately linked in history. Production from the state has exceeded more than 80 billion pounds of the red metal. This enormous amount of copper, which, if placed on a regulation football field, would tower 3,000 feet high, was carved from the rock of several thousand mines and prospects. Some of these mines, such as at Ajo, Clifton-Morenci, Globe-Miami, Superior, Ray, Jerome, and Bisbee were, and are, among the largest copper camps in the world. At the end of the nineteenth century America was plunging headlong into the "age of electricity," and the copper of Arizona was essential to the new industrialization. Copper was squarely at the center of ...