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
If you are interested in other classic American locales we may have stock from the following locales.
American locales
Arizona
- Southwest Mine, Hendricks Gulch, Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona, USA
- Total Wreck Mine, Cienega Creek, The Narrows, Empire Mining District, Empire Mountains, Pima County, Arizona, USA
- Monterey formation, San Luis Obispo County, California, USA
- New Melones Dam, West Belt, Calaveras County, California, USA
- Salton Sea, Imperial County, California, USA
- Green River Formation (spanning areas of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.)
- Lake George, Park County, Colorado, USA
- Stoneham, Weld County, Colorado, USA
- Anacondas Yerington open pit, Yerington, Yerington Mining District, Singatse Range, Lyon County, Nevada, USA
- Hat lease, Goldfield Mining District, Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA
- Virgin Valley, Humboldt County, Nevada, USA
- Cedar Hill Quarry, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Pottsville Formation, St. Clair, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Iron Mountain, Pinto Iron Mining District, Iron Springs Mining District, Iron County, Utah, USA
- Topaz Mountain, Thomas Range, Juab County, Utah, USA
For the rest of our American stock, see below.
United States of America
Fossils from the USA - Meteorites from the USA - Minerals from the USA