When the Port of Tucson chose mining as the focus of its annual industry expo, it didn’t know the downturn in the sector would put the proposed Rosemont Mine on hold or close the Sierrita Mine in Green Valley.
But the challenges the industry is facing make the three-day convention, spotlighting the port and Southern Arizona, even more timely, said Stefan Baumann, director of business development for the port.
“We did not anticipate the commodity rates would drop down as badly as they did,” he said. “But because of the state of the mining industry right now, there is extra value for everyone involved.”
Along with an address by Gov. Doug Ducey and keynotes by representatives from Grupo México and Fresnillo plc, the Inter-/multimodal Development Expo Arizona-Sonora will feature panels and breakout sessions covering new technologies, sustainable mining, doing business globally and multimodal transport.
Transportation and technology are areas that can improve efficiency and help the industry weather its current troubles, Baumann said, and the region has a lot to offer.
“Everything that the mines are doing, whether it’s inbound or outbound, is heavy, so on the transportation side of things, if they are exposed to an additional mode of transportation, namely rail, then they are exposed to additional efficiency,” he said.
Currently, copper cathode — the raw material used to cast copper rod, tube, brass and other extruded copper product — is stored at a COMEX warehouse at the port, which is licensed to store product for the industry.
The port also handles sulfuric acid coming in from Canada through rail tank cars, which is then transloaded to be delivered over the road to area mines.
Growth potential for the Port of Tucson includes loading copper concentrate through a new system of specialized containers that offer dust-free, “pit to ship” transport, officials said.
“They load at the mines, they come over the roads, we put them on a train, and then they can go via rail to the Port of Oakland, for example, and load into a bulk vessel,” Baumann said.
As for technology, Tucson is already the technology hub for mining worldwide, said Mary Poulton, director of the Institute for Mineral Resources at the University of Arizona.
Companies such as Modular Mining Systems, Split Engineering and Call & Nicholas are well-known in the mining industry.
“We talk about biotech and optics all the time, but these are well-established, proven high-tech companies that do business worldwide,” she said.
The expo will feature a session about SmartMine, a project the university is working on with Tucson-based nMode Solutions, which applies cutting-edge sensor technology to the mining industry, Poulton said.
This year’s event will also spotlight Sahuarita and the Caterpillar Global Mining proving grounds, where the company’s Demonstration and Learning Center allows buyers and equipment operators for Caterpillar to better understand the company’s equipment and technology.
The proving grounds are in unincorporated Pima County, but they are still considered part of the Sahuarita community, said Victor Gonzalez, the town’s economic development manager.
“Many of the employees for Caterpillar and other mining companies like Freeport and Asarco are residents of Sahuarita,” he said. “As much as a third of the total labor force in the mining sector in Southern Arizona live in and around the town.”
Although the effects of the slowdown in the mining industry have yet to be fully felt in the region and long-term growth is expected, officials said, the expo offers companies an opportunity to look beyond the state for business opportunities.
“We’re going to expose them to successful mining operations in the rest of the world,” Baumann said. “Just because Arizona is doing badly right now, it doesn’t mean that the mining suppliers need to be suffering and waiting for things to improve.”
