MISSION MINE 1/25/2011

  Tuesday morning, 1/25/2011, we headed out from our casino parking lot in Sahauarita, AZ to tour the Mission Mine, an open pit copper mine, a few miles south of us.  First we spotted the perimeter process of removing the debris from the inside of the open pit mine.

 It looked like these 5 huge cats were having races down the hillside!

But then we were able to figure out that they were fabricating the new desert that they would later plant with desert life to let nature reclaim what man had disturbed.

 Then we got to the museum and the mine headquarters and after a little money exchange, we boarded a bus for a fascinating 90 minute guided tour.

 We were amazed at the 2 1/2 x 2 mile hole in the ground!!

 The dump truck you see below does not look big here, but later we stood next to one and we were amazed, especially when we learned that this one down in the pit is almost twice the size of the one we stood next to!!!!

  Then we got to tour the huge, on site place where they processed the ore and removed the copper.

 The place was huge and smelled like pine because of one of the chemicals they used for the process!

 Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly.

 Inside the plant.

 Here is one of the old tires that came off one of the smaller dump trucks. and two really handsome tourists.

This is the description of the tire.  Each one must be replaced every 3 months and costs $46,000.00 each!!!!  There are six on each truck!

 Ann above next to one of the smaller trucks and our truck next to the same truck below.

It was a fascinating day and then we went back to the Titan 2 museum to finish there.