An Apache Indian showed Spanish officer Lt. Colonel Jose Manuel Carrasco the site of the Chino mine in 1800. Carrasco recognized the rich copper deposits and began mining, but lacked the expertise to exploit the copper. He sold the Santa Rita del Cobre mine, as he had named it, to Francisco Manuel de EIguea in 1804 who imported convict labor to work the mine and build a fort to house the convicts and protect them from the Apache. The miners sent pack trains of mules loaded with copper to Chihuahua. Americans Sylvester Pattie, James Kirker, and Robert McKnight managed the mine in the 1820s and 1830s. from Chino. Chino is well-known among mineral collectors for its many native-copper specimens Santa Rita was located in the heart of Apache country and was plagued by Apache raids. Historians often state that an infamous massacre of Apache by John Johnson in 1837 took place at Santa Rita, although it is more likely that the incident took place further south, near the Animas Mountains. Johnson's attack incited rather than intimidated the Apache. Mangas Coloradas and his followers were especially menacing. Twenty-two fur trappers were killed nearby and the mine was cut off from supplies. In 1838, the 300 to 400 inhabitants of Santa Rita fled south toward the presidio at Janos, Chihuahua, 150 miles away, but the Apache killed nearly all of them en route. After that, Santa Rita was only occasionally operational until 1873 when Apache chief Cochise signed a peace agreement with the US and the mine was reopened. Apache raids in the area continued until 1886 when Geronimo surrendered. A mill to process the low-grade copper ore was established in 1911 in nearby Hurley but was replaced by a new Ivanhoe concentrator facility in 1982. Milling operations recently restarted at the Chino Concentrator after a three-year hiatus caused by low copper prices. Solvent extraction and electrowinning operations started in 1988 and have run continuously since. Reserves of copper ore at Chino are expected to last until 2015. A smelter in Hurley was commissioned in 1939 and was modernized in 1985 to increase capacity and achieve compliance with the Clean Air Act. In 2005, the smelter was permanently closed.
Current operations
In 2008, Chino's parent company, Freeport-McMoRan, announced that it planned to suspend mining and milling activities at Chino, but would continue reclamation activities and copper production from its SX/EW plant. About 600 people from the work force of 830 would be laid off beginning about Feb. 13, 2009. The mine reopened in 2011. As of January 2014, the operations employed approximately 1,035 people.
