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.
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
- https://www.mindat.org/loc-3910.html
- https://ndep.nv.gov/land/abandoned-mine-lands/anaconda-home
- https://yeringtonmondays.blogspot.com/2016/03/yerington-monday-anaconda-copper-mine.html
- https://yeringtonmondays.blogspot.com/2016/03/yerington-monday-anaconda-copper-mine_14.html
We may have specimens from specific locales around Nevada including:
Nevada- Anacondas Yerington open pit, Yerington, Yerington Mining District, Singatse Range, Lyon County, Nevada, USA
- Driscoll Mine, Battle Mountain Mining District, Lander County, Nevada, USA
- Hat lease, Goldfield Mining District, Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA
- Liberty Mine, Reveille Mining District, Reveille Range, Nye County, Nevada, USA
- Majuba Hill Mine, Antelope Mining District, Pershing County, Nevada, USA
- Virgin Valley, Humboldt County, Nevada, USA
You can also click here to go back to our main USA page.