Hi! I'm visiting Arizona in a few weeks and I'm wondering if anyone knows of good locations to look for native copper specimens (actually collecting them, not purchasing), such as specific abandoned mines with tailings. I'll be going to Phoenix and Tucson, so Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, Santa Cruz, and Cochise counties would be best. Thanks!

  • Tweaker over here be looking for the holy grail of Cu.

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  • Stay the fuck out of abandoned mines. #1 it’s trespassing. #2 it’s dangerous as fuck. If the gases don’t get you, the 100ft shafts straight down will.

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    I have zero plans to go inside abandoned mines, I was just going to collect from tailings on the surface. It's not illegal if they're on public lands and mining claim isn't active anymore. I always check and make sure I'm not on an active claim. BLM allows people to collect up to 25 pounds of rocks per day.

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    Native copper was a rare find during active mining in Arizona, as most of the copper found was in porphyry deposits. That said, some float copper secondaries can be found in the area South of the New Cornelia Mine near Ajo, and some found near the Bullard Mine in NW Maricopa County.

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    To others reading this, those are just two of the possible dangers of abandoned mines! They also can include but are not limited to…

    Mountain lions who will wake up and chomp your throat before you even know they’re there. 

    Bats with diseases (Rabies is actually kind of rare in AZ, thankfully, but there’s no reason to tempt fate or harass the little guys in their homes. They deserve respect and can infect you with other things). 

    Cave ins may occur without warning—crushing you to death instantly if you’re lucky or trapping you in the dark to die alone. 

    Unstable explosives left behind might go kaboom and kill you with the rock or with just the rapid pressure from the explosion. 

    Above ground, a highwall can collapse on or under you.

    Flash flooding, even if it hasn’t rained by you, it might be raining somewhere else and all collect down there. 

    You just get lost. Even if you bring a rope to lead you out, you can drop it (sounds silly, but if you get spooked by something down there, it can and will happen), or it can unknowingly come loose from the anchoring point as you go deeper into the mine.

    Just look at all the stories of cave diving or spelunking by professionals that have gone wrong. People who know what they’re doing and still died. 

    There’s caves and mines available for tours which are much safer than the ones in the middle of nowhere. And you’ll have someone who can tell you the history and geology! Avoid the abandoned deathtraps.

    Edit: thought of another one! They have old asbestos mines here! Yaaay! (But seriously, don’t go in them). 

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    Why the hell did this get downvoted

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  • Most (99.99%) of what is mined is ore, not metallic copper. Maybe add a few more nines to that.

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  • I’ve never heard anyone give up a BLM or other public land spot that had copper. There are a few mine tailing piles where you can find chrysocolla but that’s it. Any malachite or azurite is a guarded secret.

    You should join the Arizona Rockhound Expeditions group on Facebook. They have a friendlier community than some of the other Arizona rock hounding Facebook pages, but I still don’t think anyone would tell you where they are finding anything close to actual copper.

    The only place I’ve seen pictures of malachite and copper come from a guy who goes into mine shafts around Mineral Mountain (out near superior).

    If you’d like to just see mineral specimens. I highly recommend checking out the mineral museum which is now on display at the Pima country court house in Tucson, AZ.

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  • Native copper is pretty rare. If you’re looking for the green colored minerals, those are copper oxide minerals, and not considered native copper. Native copper traditionally refers to the red metal copper forming naturally. Bisbee had some but it isn’t super common even at the time of active mining

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    I understand the difference. I'm looking for native copper since I know that some has been found in Arizona (https://www.mindat.org/locentry-1331397.html) but I'm not sure if there's anywhere publicly accessible where it can be found.

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    It definitely exists but would be hard to find in random waste dumps. I’ve seen a few pockets in active mine pits, very dendritic compared to the stuff in the Keweenaw region. Still accounted for a faction of a percent of the ore body, what wasn’t high graded would be buried in the leach pads or destroyed in the mill circuit.

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  • Most native copper I’ve seen comes from Michigan. Copper in AZ comes as oxides and sulfide ores.

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