ABSTRACT
The predominantly Latino town of Superior, Arizona is located approximately an hour from metropolitan Phoenix, in east central Arizona. A former copper mining town, it has endured multiple cycles of boom and bust. The Magma Mine closed in 1995 leaving behind an economically and socially devastated community. This small, declining community is now the site of controversy over a proposed new copper mine to the east of the town. Resolution Copper Company (RCC), formed by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, seeks to extract copper from one of the largest deposits in the world, some 7,000 feet below the surface of pivotal landforms for the community, Apache Leap, and the conservation area of Oak Flat. Situated both on the mountainous edge of the Sonoran desert and on the cusp of new mineral development and technology, Superior is a place of competing identities, histories, and diverse meanings. The new mine would significantly alter the physical and cultural landscape of the region through the infusion of new jobs and funds into the community but at the expense of scenic and historic places of immense significance to some stakeholders. New mining will require that the Federal conservation area (Oak Flat) be moved to the private ownership of the mining company through a land exchange for other environmentally sensitive lands within Arizona. This requires congressional action to proceed and has been blocked in Congress for years, although the bill passed the House in 2011 for the first time.
