Tucked away in the historic mining district of southwestern New Mexico, about 15 kilometers southwest of the town of Silver City, is the Tyrone Mine, which is the quintessential example of the large-scale, low-grade porphyry copper mine. The mine is using the traditional method of open-pit mining to extract copper-bearing ore and then simply placing the extracted copper ore directly into the leach pads as part of the run-of-mine leaching operation. A solvent is sprayed over the copper ore, which dissolves the copper, which is then extracted from the solution.
Tyrone Mine’s operation in the year 2024 saw the mine keeping its toes wet as it extracted and produced 19.5 thousand tonnes of copper. The copper leaching and recovery operation extracted an average of 57.7% copper from the copper ore. Although the copper recovery is not very high, it is quite common and suitable for the operation as it is the ROM leaching operation that is extracting copper from the oxide and secondary sulfide copper minerals found in the mine.
Tyrone Mine’s copper outlook is based on its copper reserves and its copper resource base. The mine’s copper reserves comprise about 91 thousand tonnes of copper at an average grade of 0.17%, which is the sum of the mine’s proven and probable reserves. The mine’s copper resource base is comprised of its measured, indicated, and inferred copper resource base, which is about 181 thousand tonnes of copper at an average grade of 0.26%. The mine’s copper outlook is quite favorable and is set to be a long-time contributor to the United States domestic copper supply.
