The Bagdad Mine is an openpit copper and by-product molybdenum mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Bagdad Inc., a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. It is located in Yavapai County approximately 210 km (130 miles) northeast of Phoenix, AZ (Fig. 1). Openpit mining has been ongoing at the Bagdad Mine for more than 75 years, with underground mining conducted prior to that. The porphyry copper deposit at Bagdad hosts both sulfide and oxide minerals that are economically mined through mill and leach operations. Copper and molybdenum concentrates are produced from an 83.5-kt/d (92,000-stpd) concentrator. Leach operations include an SX/EW plant that will produce approximately 2.7 kt/a (6 million lbs/year) of copper cathode from solution generated by low-grade stockpile leaching, and a pressure-leach plant to process molybdenum concentrates. Total copper and molybdenum productions at the Bagdad Mine have averaged approximately 95 kt and 5 kt (210 million and 11 million lbs), respectively, over the past three years (FCX, 2020). The Bagdad Mine has been a front-runner in innovation, particularly increasing mill efficiency and copper recovery via data science, machine learning and agile initiatives.
