Record economic impacts of Arizona copper production

Arizona produced 66% of the copper mined in the U.S. in 2008 with a direct economic impact to Arizona of $3.862 billion, a new high.

The report on the economic impact of the copper industry on Arizona for 2008 has just been released and the rest of the numbers are staggering. The report, prepared by Dr. George Leaming of the Western Economic Analysis Center in Marana, for the Arizona Mining Association, shows copper contributed a combined direct and indirect impact of $10.381 billion to the Arizona economy. This is up from $6.8 billion in 2007, a rise of 53%.

The industry in 2008 produced 949,354 tons of copper and other minerals with a value of $6.925 billion, up 13% from 2007.

One of the interesting calculations reported is that "Arizona copper production directly and indirectly provided federal government revenues of nearly $3.8 billion in 2008. That amounted to $19,400 of federal revenue per acre of land used by the Arizona copper industry in 2008."

Copies of the report are available from AMA or a pdf file can be downloaded from the association's web site at www.azcu.org.