I visited open mines twice but in the past I didn't get a good
photo of it. This time I visited ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center
in a cloudy day, and thus there is no hard shadow in the above
photos.
Open-pit mining is a mining method of extracting minerals from the
earth by removing the rocks. As a result, the mining process left
a big pit on the ground. This approach is safer than digging
tunnels because while collapsed tunnels could bury miners alive,
nothing would collapse in an open pit. Arizona provides almost
two-thirds of all copper mined in the United States. Not
surprisingly, ASARCO mine is a copper mine and today it is still
an active mine. Mining destroys the nature and logically most
people do not associate mining with beauty. Nevertheless, in my
view not only is the gigantic open pit a spectacular scene, but
also the colors and the patterns of the piled up dirt possess
certain painterly qualities.
