Town’s fate rests on copper
For the isolated mining town of Morenci, which lives and dies by the price of copper, the last few years have been a roller coaster ride of steep climbs and sudden dips. Over all, however, the direction seemed to be up.
Copper’s dizzying climb began in 2003, when prices surged in response to booming demand from China and other fast-industrializing economies. The price spike spurred a major revival of Arizona’s once-battered mining industry, and towns like Morenci, once devastated by layoffs, returned to flush times.
But the arrival of the credit crisis this fall has stalled the mining boom. Financial markets stripped copper of 60 percent of its value in only a few months, and expansion projects in Arizona, the nation’s leading copper-producing state, are being postponed.
"The end has come just incredibly abruptly," said Nyal Niemuth, chief mining engineer for the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. "There weren’t many of us predicting this collapse."
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At today’s price of about $1.67 a pound, copper remains marginally profitable to produce at many Arizona mines, giving some mining communities hope they may avoid broader layoffs.
