The Chino Mine, also known as the Santa Rita mine, is an open-pit copper mine located in the town of Santa Rita, New Mexico 15mi east of Silver City. The mine was started as the Chino Copper Company in 1909 by mining engineer John M. Sully and Spencer Penrose, and is currently owned and operated by Freeport-McMoRan Inc. subsidiaries. The area where the mine is located is at an average elevation of 5699ft.Apaches, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans have all obtained native copper and copper ore from this site, once known as the Santa Rita mine,. The present-day open-pit mining operation was begun in 1910. It is the third oldest active open pit copper mine in the world after the Bingham Canyon Mine and Chuquicamata.HistoryAn 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 (presidio) 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.
