Amazing tour of this gigantic open pit copper mine that you wouldn't believe is in Arizona. Nice gift shop ,reasonable tour price. Big trucks, loaders and processing facilities. Nice read more

Asarco Mineral Discovery - Piper in a bucket - Tours Near Me - Sahuarita, Arizona

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Staff in the visitor center and on the tour were all so friendly! This facility is an amazing demonstration of how we can choose to mine with less negative impacts on human health and our planet - they're careful about water usage and dust control; they use special processes without chemical to separate the copper so that tailings are less damaging on the back end; they are attempting to be transparent and educate the public. Highly recommend a visit if you're in or near Tucson, it's just a 20 minute drive south of town. read more

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This place is amazing !!! Great place to learn about copper. I enjoyed the bus trip to the mine. The guy who got on the bus and gave us the tour, he was amazing and very helpful and taught me a lot. The discovery gift shop was amazing. Thank you for a wonderful day !!!! read more

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Came here as part of my MSHA certification and it was so much fun. Learned a lot about the history of mining and got to see a lot of what goes on in an open pit mine. read more

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A real live open pit copper mining operation. Meet up in the museum/gift shop for a comfortable bus ride up to the processing plant with stops on the way to view the pit that is miles long, all in full operation. Tour gives enough time to see everything and plenty of information and answers for all questions. The museum/gift shop has plenty of explanations and artifacts on display. Outside the museum are a number of old pieces of equipment used on the mine site. A very worthwhile visit. read more

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Cynthia is the best tour guide ever! You will be on board a bus for most of the tour with a little level walking and lots of photo opps! So much fun and very educational--with a fabulous gift shop. read more

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The mine tour was a great experience and the tour guide explained to us in detail about the mining process for copper at Asarco. The tour consists of the open pit view point with the binoculars for close up view, the thickening pond with the unique(for the lack of better word) pine oil smell, the mill to break down the ore into smaller pieces, the cathode and anode bars. We finished of the tour with yet another visit to the gift shop and they have an amazing collection of stones, ores and silver and copper samples in cute little corked bottles. They have a short movie explaining mining, and display of various objects used in the mining process. Outside the museum, they have a huge collection of haul trucks, coal cart used from 1930s to mind 1970s, original head-frame used in 1900s and many more. The tour is an hour long and the price is reasonable too. If you are curious about mining, this is a perfect way to get started. read more

Asarco Mineral Discovery - The open pit ! - Tours Near Me - Sahuarita, Arizona

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If you are interested in mining, copper, Arizona, or are just looking for something to do one afternoon while visiting Tucson, this is worth stopping by. But, if you want to take the tour, you definitely want to make a reservation since the tours fill up completely. Without the tour, you can browse the gift shop, watch the video and look at some exhibits in the visitor's center. The tour involves getting on a bus with a guide and going into the mine. The mine is HUGE, so you get to go to the edge and look down to watch the trucks get filled by the shovels, maybe the drills boring blast holes, and, if you're lucky and come during the week, they blast M-F around 3pm. There is no guarantee that you'll see that, and the guide says it is pretty anticlimactic, but that is time to come if you want a chance. Once you've seen the mine, you move on to the processing plant where they take the blasted chunks, break them down, and concentrate the copper for further harvesting. The tour takes about an hour and is interesting, especially if you have questions about the process. Most of the big equipment (shovels, trucks, drills) that you see is in the distance because the mine works 24x7x365, but there are some older trucks near the visitor's center that you can take a look at and get some pictures. Those things cost millions of dollars each, so I can understand why they're not just sitting around looking pretty! Overall, it was a good visit for us. Even my teenager seemed to enjoy learning something new. If you are looking for more to do in the area, San Xavier del Bac mission is back up I-19 on the way to Tucson, Tubac is a little further south on I-19 (art, some restaurants and shopping), and the Santa Cruz Chili company is a few more minutes south on I-19 in Tumacacori. They have a nice spice shop -- I love the smell of that shop! read more

Asarco Mineral Discovery - An old mine cart... They use HUGE trucks these days - Tours Near Me - Sahuarita, Arizona

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The landscape took us out of this world and literally took us into a hole so grand. But the whole operation is so interesting and so profound- who could have thought the lowly copper have so much impact in this world. Anyways, it's a very interesting tour and well worth the visit. read more

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Definitely a highlight of our trip to Tucson for me! Really enjoyed the experience - the museum is very interesting, and the guide was extremely informative. We took the tour, which is a short bus ride to the mine site, where you get to see an active mine. The guide answered all of our questions, and you have ample time to take photos. Definitely an educational experience that people of all ages can enjoy. Cool photo ops with the giant tires and some of the old equipment as well. Highly recommend if you're in the area. read more

This was a nice stop to get out of the car. We stumbled upon it not knowof it before. Its free! We did not do the mine tour but still enjoyed it. The gift shop had nice items. Staff was friendly. read more

The Discovery Center is a small building with a one-room museum that is nevertheless worth seeing, principally for some very good videos of the mining and smelting process. The mine tour is the main attraction, an hour-long ride around the open pit mine with stops at an overlook and a tour inside a refining building. There is some informative patter from the guide, but mostly it's a chance to observe the immense scale of an open pit mine and the complexity of getting minerals out of the ground. The staff is friendly and reasonabily informative. Hints: Go early and avoid the crowds. This is mainly for adults although young children may enjoy the ride in the company bus. A little. read more

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A fun and informative tour. Highly recommend. You ride a bus through the mine site so it is a perfect tour for anyone.

The tour is about an hour. They take you up to the open pit. It's amazing how big the operations are. After a few minutes they take you to the crushing area. A stinky walk inside and you get to see the slurry. The big trucks and equipment are all in the distance. I was hoping for more, but it is interesting to see part of the process of getting copper. read more

Asarco Mineral Discovery - The pit - Tours Near Me - Sahuarita, Arizona

The ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center is a fantastic look into an open-pit copper mine and a copper mill just South of Tucson on I-19. The tour beings with a review of the rocks that are pulled out of the Earth and how they are eventually turned into large copper anodes. After the overview we climbed onto a bus and were taken on a drive to the mine while watching a short video and asking questions of the guide. Once at the pit time is given to look at the bulldozers, excavators, and dump trucks as they are moving about extracting rock from the incredibly expansive mine. There is also a large tire at the viewing deck that is great to take pictures with in addition to the fantastic pictures of the giant open pit. Next the tour goes to the mill where the guide reviews the operations that take the rough rock and grinds and separates it until only a fine copper powder is left. It was definitely neat to see the crushers, grinders, and separation pools all in action within this facility. There is definitely a lot of work going into extracting copper from the mine. This material is then loaded into trucks to be sent to the smelter which was not part of the tour. As the tour was finishing we went past the reclamation area where rock is moved when it has had all of the copper content removed. To finish off the tour a small rock with that slight teal tint was given as a souvenir of the tour. Overall: Open pit mine is an amazing sight to behold! Mill operations were very interesting to see Great knowledgeable guides read more

Asarco Mineral Discovery - Terex Dump Truck - Tours Near Me - Sahuarita, Arizona

It's tiny, but definitely worth the turn off the freeway! We knew the tour wasn't running on the day we came, but we decided to visit the gift shop and Museum. Both were VERY nice! The gift shop has many shiny things at reasonable prices. (Keep children on a leash in there) I got a ball of Copper and some bottles of garnet, turquoise, peridot, amythist, and quartz for just $1 each! ! The museum is quite interactive, fully air conditioned, and has a neat video. It is really only 2 rooms, but they are full of exhibits and information. I'm sure you all knew that 14 karat gold is only 58% gold, but did you know it is 30% copper? Fascinating! read more

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The mine tour is really a pretty unique thing, and I was looking forward to checking it out on a trip through the area. The mineral discovery center itself has a museum component but it's really not that large or impressive. The guided tour to an overlook on the pit and the mill is really the highlight of the experience. Looking out over the pit is amazing. It's enormous, and the scale is often deceiving since huge haul trucks are used in the pit. But if you look at the pickups and occasional worker on foot in the pit you get a sense of just how big it is. The visit to the mill was very interesting to see the process used to separate the copper, which is conceptually pretty simple but is impressive to see done on such a large scale. Our tour guide - well, I'm not sure if she'd had a few too many mimosas before starting work that day or if that's just how she normally is, but she existed somewhere between exuberance and insanity. Kept focusing on the most bizarre tangents and just going on about how delighted she was by everything around her. I don't think she was particularly conducive to learning about the mine, but her strange obsession with big-horned sheep has left me and my boyfriend with an in-joke for life. Definitely worth visiting for a very unusual experience and a glimpse at a big part of what makes our modern world possible - but be ready to try and suppress your laughter when the tour guide gets going. read more

Went on Saturday and did a tour with Vida and Barbara! It was amazing, very informative and so much fun! we did the 3:30 tour and walked around until our tour, we could watch movies, shop in the gift shop or enjoy beautiful nature. Vida was an AMAZING tour guide. A hidden gem here near the Tucson area! Cheap too! read more

This is an exceptional tour which I highly recommend for adults and children alike. Our tour guide, Claudia, was very knowledgeable and explained the complicated, highly technical operations in an easy to understand way. The bus driver, Barbara, was a confident experienced school bus driver who helped make the ride comfortable. We not only got to observe the open pit mine from a lookout high above it but we actually got to ride dowh the road to observe the operations. On the way, we saw wild horses grazing by the road and the humongous ore vehicles which dwarfed our bus. The tour lasts over an hour and is an incredible bargain.Be sure to check the tour times before you go since tours may be canceled if there are not sufficient people to go on them. read more

The entire family loved the informational videos, the hands on table with great explanations from our guide Tabitha, then the tour was fantastic! Saw wild mustangs, and the behemoth trucks driving up and down the mine, unloading and going by. Really enjoyed all the information about the process, product that leaves the mine, and what happens at various other destinations. Great gift shop, found the perfect souvenir ornament in copper. Great staff, really took care of us. And we loved exploring the cactus garden afterwards with all the old mining equipment and retired vehicles. read more

The grounds are nicely landscaped with mining equipment placed all around. The gift shop has a lot of neat items. However, the short elderly woman behind the counter was inexplicably rude to me. She was nice to the people ahead of me which made it strange. Then they required ID to use a credit/debit card. This is actually a violation of the merchant agreement. Disappointing that they cannot follow the rules and demanding ID does NOT reduce fraud. It was nice to take an air conditioned bus in the summer to see the pit and the mill. However, I know they use temp agencies to provide tour guides and drivers rather than pay knowledgeable people a decent wage/provide benefits. The info they provide is good, but don't expect the guides to be experts in the field like a docent at any other type of tourist area. read more