Comments on: Casa Grande Copper Mine

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:31:36 +0000

I saw this mine on a flight from LA to Houston. From the air it looked perfectly round with perpendicular walls like it had been cut into the rock by a huge drill. Very impressive. It took me a while to google it out on the internet. If I’m ever in that area I’m going to drive out and get a look over the edge !! Very cool.

By: Lance Marczak

Lance Marczak — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:12:41 +0000

This is a video flying over the Copper mine with several powered paragliders. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6On1Br-Jdbg

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 02:50:07 +0000

More info on the Sacaton mine…

The abandoned Sacaton mine site, near Casa Grande, was being used at the same time for the filming of the excellent Gulf War thriller THREE KINGS, starring George Clooney, Ice Cube, and Mark Wahlberg as three U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The enormous mine tailings pile offered filmmaker David O. Russell the only location in North America that evoked the flat and extremely dusty environment of southern Iraq. The desert fortress movie set still stands on the mine tailings management area, complete with a huge portrait of Saddam Hussein.

more - http://www.miningimpacts.net/ds/dssum00toc.html

See - “Moratorium example sickens actors and crew” - 3/4 page down

By: pooms

pooms — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 18:31:08 +0000

Hey, great find for that Island Copper mine, James! I didn’t realize that that is where it was. Lucky it was hi-res as well.

By: James

James — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 08:21:35 +0000

(hi-res) Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
This used to be a huge open pit copper mine until it was closed down and flooded with ocean water in 1996. It looks at least 5 times bigger than the Casa Grande Copper Mine. The copper makes this 400m deep lake a bit lighter than the ocean. Without the water, it had the same spiral road around the edge to the bottom. My dad used to work here so I saw it before and during the flooding.

Found some history about it at http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/thesis/britton/ch3b.html and http://www.trcr.bc.ca/docs/1999-wilton-lawrence.pdf

By: jfedor

jfedor — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 22:03:12 +0000

It’s the Sarlacc pit!

By: Yuri

Yuri — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 21:54:55 +0000

Check this out (in low resolution ): Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
This is diamond mine “Mir” (Peaceful in russian) in Yakutia. It was open in 1955. Lot of photos here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/vad/213692.html

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:20:27 +0000

Here’s another one just south of Tucson, AZ.

I think this one is shut down, too.

Not as cool looking as the Casa Grande one, but it’s a bit bigger:

Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 22:02:42 +0000

Check out this copper mine near Salt Lake City: [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.530241,-112.142258&spn=0.178239,0.303326&t=k&hl=en](http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.530241,-112.142258&spn=0.178239,0.303326&t=k&hl=en)

By: MAW

MAW — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 21:43:07 +0000

Wow, that thing is huge. Just keep zooming out until you can’t see it, and look how much of Arizona you do so then.