The Tyrone mine is a porphyry copper deposit. Mineralization is predominantly secondary sulfide consisting of chalcocite, with leachable oxide mineralization consisting of chrysocolla.

Tyrone mine is an open-pit copper mining complex and has been in operation since 1967. It is located in Grant County, New Mexico, 10 miles south of Silver City, New Mexico, along State Highway 90. The site is accessible by paved road and by rail.

Mine operations begin with drilling, blasting and loading copper bearing ore or waste rock within the active areas of the openpit mine. Drilling is performed with electric mobile drills. Blast holes are drilled to a depth of approximately 53 feet and are filled with blasting agents to a depth of approximately 31 feet. The remaining top 22 feet are filled with stemming material, which is a sand and gravel mixture. Blast holes are drilled on an approximate 24 to 30 feet spacing. Once the rock is blasted, electric shovels and/or loaders are moved into place to load haul trucks that deliver rock to stockpiles for leaching, or waste.

The available mining fleet consists of nine 240-metric-ton haul trucks loaded by one electric shovel with a bucket size of 47 cubic meters, which is capable of moving an average of 108,000 metric tons of material per day.

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