Stack implodes into dust heap of history
Cheers erupted at 8:46 a.m. Saturday in Superior after the historic copper smelter stack from the Magma Mine crashed to the ground.
But the cheers only came because the controlled demolition offered such a spectacle. Many of the people lined up along the streets watching the destruction were sad to see the 293-foot brick stack fall.
Even though smoke hasn’t wafted from the top of the stack since 1971, the 94-year-old smelter about 60 miles east of downtown Phoenix was a symbol of the region’s mining heritage, and had sentimental value for those who lived and worked in Superior.
That includes Larry Palacio, a Gilbert retiree who spent more than 21 years working at the Magma Mine after he graduated from Superior High School in 1955.
“I did just about everything,” he said, standing along Main Street waiting for the warning sirens before explosions that caused the stack to topple. “I was a mucker, mechanic, worked the cage.”
Resolution Copper, which is developing a much larger mine at the site, determined the stack could not be preserved and was dangerous for workers.
The brick was falling apart and even attempting to patch it up would have been too risky, company officials said. The structure also was heavily contaminated with arsenic and other remnants from smelting copper.
But demolishing the facility was not an easy decision for Resolution because many community members wanted to preserve the facility for its historical significance.
“There’s a lot of tears being shed in Superior today,” Resolution spokesman Jonathan Ward said, as the dust cloud from the demolition blew away from the town.
Many people reached out to Resolution regarding the demolition. Ward said one man even told the company about his grandfather who worked for years in the mine and had his ashes scattered around the smelter.
Tracey Medlock, of Gilbert, also was sad to see the smelter go. Before she graduated high school in 1976, she was one of a handful of families of mine supervisors that lived near the stack. She came out to watch the demolition as well, and pointed out to friends where her family home used to be.
“We were No. 4 Smeltertown Road,” she said, pointing to the hills near the stack.
But some of those who came out to watch the stack’s final moments seemed to understand the predicament.
Palacio said the mining work was dangerous, so he quit to take a job with the federal government inspecting mines, which he held until 2016.
“I saw a lot of people get killed in there,” he said. “I almost got killed a couple times.”
He said he saw the safety concerns with the stack.
“I can see that in some places it is falling apart,” Palacio said before the demolition. “Somebody might get hurt.”
To honor the history of the smelter stack, Resolution is sponsoring a free exhibit at the nearby Boyce Thompson Arboretum that will open Nov. 20 and run through May 20.
The multimedia gallery, housed in a building at the west side of the Arboretum’s parking lot, includes large historic photos of the mine and the region, as well as historic maps. It also includes a video of the mine’s history that includes interviews with former Magma workers. The exhibit will be open during normal arboretum hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Magma Copper Co. began mining the site in 1911 and the smelter opened in 1924 and melted copper from ore until 1971, when Magma began taking its ore to another smelter.
Magma stopped mining in Superior in 1982 amid low copper prices, and resumed in 1990 under a new Magma Copper Co. formed by Newmont Mining Corp.
Mining company BHP acquired the Superior mine when it merged with Magma in 1996, and operations at Superior stopped that year.
But the copper ore deposits below the historic mine attracted new attention.
Rio Tinto of London now operates the Resolution Copper Mine on the site in a partnership with BHP-Billiton of Australia. They are digging shafts to mine a large ore deposit below the historic Magma Mine.
The mine, which faces opposition from many members of the San Carlos Apache tribe as well as some outdoor enthusiasts, is working through its permitting with the U.S. Forest Service.
The Forest Service is expected to issue a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project in May.
Development work is well underway on the mine, but it will not produce any copper until it is fully permitted. The required tunneling and other development work also is extensive, meaning the first copper production is years away. .
As part of its agreement to build a new mine, Resolution also is cleaning up the historic mine tailings and contamination from the smelter.
Resolution has spent about $40 million on rehabilitation projects so far, including covering up large piles of waste rock near the smelter.
But initial estimates a few years ago determined the cost to stabilize and clean up the smelter to be $12 million or more, compared with $2 million to demolish it. Eventually Resolution officials determined it was not feasible to safely stabilize the smelter at any cost.
Vicky Peacey, Resolution Copper Mining’s senior manager for environment, said the company’s analysis showed that the stack was simply too unstable to remain standing, especially with the remediation work that needs to be done to remove contaminated soils around the structure.
“It’s better to take it down in a controlled manner than to have it come down on its own,” Peacey said.
If the smelter were to blow over in a wind storm, not only would the falling brick be dangerous, but it would allow arsenic and other dangerous materials built up in the stack to potentially blow over the town.
The demolition was postponed multiple times in the past month to ensure minimal winds blowing from the southeast to ensure the contamination blew away from the town.
The demolition was handled by ERM Group, which has operations around the world.