Resolution Copper mine requires artificial rain to combat sweltering underground temperatures.
Photographer: Photograph by Anna Clare Spelman for Bloomberg BusinessweekA Mile Underground, America’s Largest Untapped Copper Mine Inches Toward Reality
Trump is giving Resolution the boost it needs, but obstacles remain for the $10 billion project
Reaching the site of the biggest undeveloped US copper deposit requires a 15-minute drop by steel cage into the sweltering bowels of the Arizona desert. There, more than a mile beneath the surface, the temperature can reach 175F (79C), so massive cooling units run constantly, churning out mist that condenses and drips from the ceiling, calcifying the pipes lining the tunnel walls.
It’s called Resolution Copper, and it holds enough of the critical metal to supply a quarter of US demand for years. Yet two decades and over $2 billion later, not a single ounce of copper has been mined. While engineers have thoroughly mapped the ore body and workers have built one of the deepest shafts in the US, the deposit owned by Rio Tinto Group and BHP Group has been stalled by permitting hurdles as well as tribal and environmental opposition.