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Tyrone Emma Expansion Project

Posted December 2022

This project will impact people, water, and wildlife habitat and does not meet industry best management practices.

In September, GRIP filed a protest with the Office of the State Engineer to block a water rights transfer needed by Freeport-McMoRan to construct and operate a new open pit at its Tyrone Mine. Five other protests were filed by private landowners near the proposed Emma Expansion Project, which would be located 17 miles south of Silver City on Highway 90 directly south of Tyrone’s existing open pit operation and north of the Apache Mound subdivision.

This mine expansion will cover approximately 337 acres of disturbance, including construction of an open pit 550 to 600 feet deep which is 200 feet below ground water level. Freeport is now responding to agency and public comments. The draft water quality discharge permit has not been released yet, as NMED (New Mexico Environmental Department) continues to have questions about the groundwater modeling.

Note: This information comes from GRIP (Gila Resources Information Project). Keep current on the latest information about the Emma Pit mine expansion and receive suggestions for possible future comments or actions at GRIP’s website.