The ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center shall communicate the vital importance of the mining industry in our civilization, educate students and teachers in the earth sciences, and preserve part of the mining history of Arizona, and the Western United States.
The ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center offers mine tours, school programs, and free exhibits to carry out this vision. The AMDC is supported primarily by gift shop and ticket sales, with additional funding from ASARCO LLC.
Opened in February 1997, the ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center is designed to convey the vital importance of mining in our civilization. Everything that we use every day was somehow extracted from the earth — either by farming or by mining, and “if it can’t be grown, it has to be mined.”