Sunday, January 05, 2014

Freeport's land purchase near Twin Buttes mine



The front page headline story in today's Arizona [Tucson] Daily Star is about the sale of a land parcel by the Tucson-based Reid Park Zoological Society to Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, for $3 million.     Freeport has not said what their plans are for the lands and others they already own in the area.

We used the parcel numbers provided by Tony Davis of the Star, and the Pima County online GIS system to plot the land in relation to the Twin Buttes and Sierrita copper mines south of Tucson.  [Right, map prepared by Janel Day, AZGS]

I blogged in January 2012, that Freeport McMoRan's drilling program at Twin Buttes was winding down. Freeport was continuing to review historic drill holes and creating a detailed deposit model. Speculation iwas that when the mine reopens it will feed the Sierrita mill. In the Fiscal 2011 10Q report, Freeport reported:
In December 2009, we purchased the Twin Buttes copper mine, which ceased operations in 1994 and is adjacent to our Sierrita mine. The purchase provides significant synergies in the Sierrita minerals district, including the potential for expanded mining activities and access to material that can be used for Sierrita tailings and stockpile reclamation purposes. We are conducting drilling on the property and metallurgical studies to support a feasibility study expected to commence in 2012.

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