U.S. Mining Project Starts Lead to Banner Year for Construction in Rocky Mountains Region

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--It has been a good year for construction starts on Metals & Minerals projects in the Rocky Mountains region. The region has seen the value of its Metals & Minerals Industry construction starts more than double from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $3.5 billion today.

One of the largest projects to begin construction in 2013 is a $1.6 billion mine expansion and mill addition project at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Incorporated's (NYSE:FCX) (Phoenix, Arizona) copper mine in Morenci, Arizona. Freeport-McMoRan said that it expects total capital expenditures for the year to approach $5.5 billion worldwide.

In Colorado, Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company (Victor, Colorado) is spending nearly $600 million to expand mining and processing capacity. The project includes construction of a high-grade ore flotation mill, Valley Leach Facility No. 2, and the 16,000-gallon-per-minute adsorption-desorption recovery facility No. 2.

The increase in activity comes at a time when mining firms are cutting back on capital expenditures due to declining demand and metal prices. The price of copper and gold has declined significantly this year. Copper has lost about 10% of its market value in 2013, and gold has declined about 30% this year.

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