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Copper workforce in Arizona keeps growing
The run-up in copper prices over the past year means more jobs at Southern Arizona's copper mines this year.
The two leading Arizona mining companies, Asarco and Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., are also considering expansions of some of their existing facilities.
Perhaps most notably, Freeport is apparently looking at the possibility of reopening the Twin Buttes Mine south of Tucson that has been closed since 1994 when it was under other ownership. It said "operation plans and expansion opportunities" at Twin Buttes and its Sierrita Mine, also near Tucson, are being assessed.
Freeport is trying to fill nearly 500 vacancies at its four Arizona sites, including about 60 jobs at its Sierrita mine south of Tucson near Green Valley. Its other Arizona operations include a mine and smelter in Miami and mines in Morenci and Safford. It's also trying to fill another 280 jobs at its Chino and Tyrone mines near Silver City, N.M.
Asarco, whose workforce is smaller than Freeport's, is trying to fill about 100 vacancies at its three Arizona sites. Those are the Mission Mine south of Tucson, the Silver Bell Mine northwest of Tucson and the Ray Mine and Hayden smelter south of Globe.
Freeport's total Arizona mine workforce is 5,470 this year. It employs another 1,130 people at its southwest New Mexico mines.
Asarco, owned by the Grupo Mexico conglomerate, has a total Arizona workforce, including its corporate office, of about 2,361 employees.
In Southern Arizona, in particular, Freeport reported 4,803 employees; Asarco reported 2,262.
Both companies have boosted workforces since copper prices started rising again in 2009 following a crash in late 2008 and early 2009.
If prices remain near today's levels for an extended period, total statewide industry employment could rise by 2,500 over today's level of about 11,000 jobs, predicts Marshall Vest, a University of Arizona economist.
"Producers are clearly weary about the volatility of copper prices and guard against over-expanding," said Vest, of UA's Eller School of Management.
If the proposed - and highly controversial - Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson and the Resolution copper mine in Superior actually come on line, that would add more jobs, said an Arizona State University economist, Tom Rex.
But new mining jobs' broader economic impact will be miniscule, since mining has accounted for only 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent of all jobs statewide in the last several years, said Rex, associate director of the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research.
However, mining is one of the few Arizona industries showing growth over the past year, said Lee McPheters, director of ASU's Economic Outlook Center.
Globally, as demand for the metal grew in China and India, copper prices shot up rapidly through 2010 and early this year to above $4.50 a pound on several occasions in February and early March. But as the Chinese government sought to cool its economy a bit this year, prices dropped to about $4.05 in mid-March, although they soon rebounded to the low $4.30s. Overall, copper prices were headed in March to their first monthly decline since June 2010, Bloomberg News recently reported.
In Arizona, skilled workers are in particularly high demand at Freeport and Asarco's mines and other facilities, their officials say. Those include mining engineers, metallurgists, supervisors, mechanics, electricians, plant operators, truck drivers, boilermakers and diagnostic-level electricians.
"We're hiring as fast as we can, it seems. Times are real good right now," said Tom Aldrich, an Asarco vice president. "We haven't done anything to increase production at the facilities. The only thing we've done since the recession was to get our production back to its capacity where it is now."
Asarco is conducting engineering studies for a possible expansion by 2012 at its Mission Mine that would mean expanding the capacity of its south mill by about 50 percent. That's about 9,000 tons per day of copper ore. That expansion would probably mean a few more employees at Mission, probably 10 to 20, Aldrich said.
Freeport has already expanded production at Morenci, from about 496,000 tons of ore daily in 2009 to about 699,000 tons today. It also restarted its Morenci mill about a year ago. Its increased mining and milling activities will allow actual copper production in Arizona to increase by about 125 million pounds a year, the company said. It's also evaluating the possibility of increasing Morenci's mining rate and the potential for a new mill there.