Morenci is a census-designated place (CDP) and company town in Greenlee County, Arizona, United States, and was founded by the Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona. The population was 2,000 at the 2000 census and 1,489 at the 2010 census. The biggest employer in Morenci and the owner of the town is Freeport-McMoRan, the owner of the Morenci Mine, the largest copper mining operation in North America, and one of the largest copper mines in the world. The town was a site of the Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983. The large open-pit mine is north of the town.
Morenci, about 1910
This Porter 0-4-0 is an 18" gauge locomotive that was once used as a copper mining locomotive in Morenci. The locomotive is currently on exhibit in the Sahuaro Central Railroad Museum in Glendale, Az.
Old Morenci Concentrator, 1942
Malachite and Azurite from the Morenci Mine, which produces many fine specimens for mineral collectors.
Greenlee County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,563, making it Arizona's least populous county. The county seat is Clifton.
Benjamin F. Billingsley House in Duncan, Arizona
1901 Clifton railroad station, now used by the Chamber of Commerce and other community organizations.
Azurite specimen from the great Morenci Mine.
