Anaconda's Yerington open pit

Yerington, Yerington Mining District, Singatse Range, Lyon County, Nevada, USA

A strangely named one here – formerly known as the Empire-Nevada or Nevada-Empire mine.

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Anaconda’s Yerington open pit is a former copper mine, exploiting various copper minerals including native copper, libethenite, malachite, and pseudomalachite.

This site may be known as:

  • Anaconda Copper Mine
  • Anaconda’s Yerington open pit
  • Empire-Nevada mine.
  • Nevada-Empire mine.
  • Weed Heights mine/quarry.

It should not be confused with Yerington Mine, just to the north, which appears to still be active.

According to a sign on the site, the site was operated from 1951 and at its peak produced 13000 tons of ore a day.

Yerington Monday’s website traces the history of the site back a little further, stating that the Empire Nevada mine was founded in 1918 before Anaconda acquired the site in 1941 and eventually opened the ‘open pit’ in 1952.

This is actually a really interesting writeup on the site, if you have time to have a quick read.

The site is now flooded and is being cleaned up by the NDEP.

Mindat lists 31 minerals from the site, although there are few photographs of specimens; perhaps specimens from this site are relatively uncommon or simply not well represented within mindat collectors collections 🙂

 

Further reading

 

 

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