In 2007, Arizona was the leading copper-producing state in the country, producing 750 thousand metric tons of copper, valued at $5.54 billion.

[2] Byproduct molybdenum from copper mining makes Arizona the nation's second-largest producer of that metal.

It was not until the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876 that copper became broadly economic to mine and ship to market.

Native Americans used copper minerals of the Verde district at modern-day Jerome as pigment to decorate skin and textiles.

The first European to visit the area is thought to be Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo, who found silver at a location in central Arizona in 1583.

After the Gadsden Purchase brought the southern Arizona into the United States in 1853, the mine was reopened in 1855, and shipped high-grade ore to Swansea in Wales.

The success of the Copper Queen mine convinced Phelps Dodge to buy the adjacent Atlantic claim in 1881.

[8] The White Mesa copper-mining district is in the western part of the Navajo reservation, 112 miles (180 km) northeast of Flagstaff, in Coconino County.

The copper deposits consist of malachite and chrysocolla as grain coatings in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone.

In May 2009 Arizona Democratic congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick introduced legislation in Washington to complete the land swap.