San Manuel smelter stacks toppled

At 1 p.m., a sharp clap of explosives sent the town's signature smelter stacks into free-fall and signaled the end of the age of mining in the community built around copper a half-century ago.

Crowds gathered in several locations around the small town, including a tent for about 200 invited guests on a bluff about a half-mile from the site where the twin stacks, each more than 500 feet high, towered over the town for decades.

Referencing the "big-bang theory" of the beginning of the universe, the stacks' demolition was called an end and a beginning by Ben Wichers, president of BHP Copper. He called the project to close and remediate the San Manuel properties the biggest such project ever undertaken in the United States.

"This is really the end of the line" said Lloyd Thomas, who worked as a mining geologist for Magma Copper Co. for 35 years before retiring in 1989. For decades, he said, San Manuel was known as "a great operation, full of challenges and lots of dedicated people."

He expressed hope for a new beginning for the town. "Nobody can make a living in San Manuel now," he said.

As 1 p.m. approached, the company-picnic atmosphere in the VIP tent vanished, a countdown was heard over the public address system and a ring of fire was seen at the base of one of the stacks, then the other.

Some couples hugged, as if standing graveside, and at least one audible "Oh my God" was heard as the explosion boomed across the ground and into the tent.

The 150 or so pounds of nitroglycerin gel in each of the two 500-plus-foot-tall stacks detonated nearly simultaneously.

In the photographers' area several hundred feet closer to the stacks, a concussion wave that could be felt deep in the chest followed the burst of flames by a few seconds as the stacks began to slowly tilt, like a pair of giant cigarettes against a backdrop of purple mountain and blue sky.

About halfway to the ground, the stacks broke at about midsection. One trailed a black puff of soot as they continued their slow plunge.

It took nearly 15 seconds for the stacks to hit the ground, after which another powerful concussion — like the percussion charge marking the end of a fireworks display — was felt.

Almost instantly the rubble disappeared in a tan cloud of dust. In a couple minutes, when it had dissipated, there was nothing but sky where the stacks had stood for so long.

Speaking in the tent before the demolition, newly elected State Mine Inspector Joe Hart said it was "a sad day in the mining history of Arizona. Mines raised me and all my children," Hart said, adding that they also put his kids through college.

He said San Manuel was known as a fine place to work.

In his duties as state mine inspector Hart, a Republican, said he takes visiting foreign mining experts and officials on tours.

"The first thing I do is show them San Manuel," Hart said, but as an example of the best of remediation.

Wichers said plans call for finishing the last of the four-year, $120-million remediation project in June.

"It's a sad day to see it go down," said J.D. McCain, long-time superintendent of the smelter as it was modernized into one of the top performers in the industry. "I watched those stacks from my backyard for 30 years," he said. When people on occasion would complain about smoke from the old smelter, he said he would reply, "It smells like money to me."

Another old Magma family member said it was a "terrible mistake" to close the property when copper prices were low in the late '90s. "Everything was in tiptop shape" when the decision was made to close San Manuel and dismantle its industrial backbone, said Onofre Tafoya, who said he labored 38 years underground. The work was "tremendously stressful," he said, but enabled him to "raise a family, save money and retire."

Debora Huerta and Tammy McCauley greeted people at the tent as volunteers. Huerta now works for Pinal County but is a 14-year veteran with Magma and BHP. McCauley still works for BHP in the industrial claims office.

"I got very sad watching it," Huerta said of her front-row seat at the demolition. "There's a lot of history there."

McCauley called the event both sad and exciting. "I'm hoping for a new beginning."

"This is a beautiful place," said Jeff Parker, BHP director of health, safety, environment and community. "It will be a bit surreal without the stacks," he said just before the blast that sent them crashing to the ground for burial. But the stacks coming down are a pivotal part of San Manuel's future, he added. "It sets the stage for the future."

Watch video of Wednesday's demolition from multiple angles, view a mini-documentary on the legacy of San Manuel's former underground copper mine, and share your thoughts on the state of Arizona's mining industry at go.azstarnet.com/sanmanuel.