Magma Mine--Magma Copper Company

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This mine was originally known as the Silver Queen Mine, which began around 1880 as a silver mine but became a huge producer of copper ore. William Boyce Thompson, a Montana native, purchased the rights to the Silver Queen mine and renamed it the Magma Copper Company in 1910. Thompson then purchased the LS&A property and added it to his Magma holdings. A mining engineer, financier, patriot, and extraordinary philanthropist, Boyce Thompson was a self-made millionaire who used his money to accomplish great things. He established the Boyce Thompson Arboretum to study plants and to help educate the public. Today, the Arboretum is a renowned sprawling sanctuary with a plant collection representing climates around the world.

Thompson contracted to have his ore hauled by wagon to Florence and then shipped by rail to Hayden for refining. This procedure was expensive so a railroad was build, at a cost of $165,000, from Superior to Webster. The Magma Arizona Railroad went into operation in June, 1915. A new, $3.6 million smelter began operating in Superior in March, 1924 to process ores from the Magma Mine.

Magma gradually rose through the ranks during the 1930s and 1940s, and by 1950 was the eighth largest copper producer in the United States. The company was working only the Superior mine during this period, and its ascent was possible because of the exceptional richness of Superior's ore, which was 6 percent copper. Magma then opened the Sam Manuel mine in 1956 and later acquired the Kalamazoo property nearby. The Magma Mine then became known as Superior Division.

Magma Copper Company became part of Newmont Mining Corporation in 1969, but again became an independent company in 1987 when Newmont spun it off. Finally in 1996 it became a part of BHP (now BHP Billiton), which is the world's largest mining corporation.

Due to economic reasons, the Magma Mine operated sporadically in its later years, and finally ceased production in 1995.

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