When a multibillion-dollar mine in the Patagonia Mountains begins producing zinc in early 2027, some of the trucks and equipment working there will be steered remotely by technicians at an office building in Nogales.
Australia-based mining giant South32 announced plans on Wednesday to build its high-tech remote operations center in the Santa Cruz County seat, about 70 miles south of Tucson. Construction is expected to start late this year on 9 acres west of Interstate 19, near Nogales’ Mariposa Industrial Park.
Inside the roughly 25,000-square-foot commercial building, workers will monitor and control autonomous and semi-autonomous equipment 24 hours a day for the underground Hermosa mine about 28 miles away.
“It looks like a NASA misison control center,†said Hermosa project president Pat Risner.
About 200 full-time employees are expected to work at the remote operations center in different shifts.
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South32 is calling the facility Centro, a name chosen by the community in earlier this year. Plans for the site also include a garden, an employee parking lot and a park-and-ride area to reduce commuter traffic to and from the mine.
“Locating Centro in Nogales enables us to help transform the Santa Cruz County economy by creating and training local residents without prior mining experience to fill high-skilled, good-paying jobs, so the next generation has more opportunities right here at home,†Risner said.
The mine has a goal of hiring at least 80% of its workforce from the surrounding communities. Earlier this year, South32 launched a workforce development task force with key partners in Santa Cruz County and elsewhere in Southern Arizona.
Skylie Estep, human resources director for the company in North America, said they are also partnering with school districts, colleges and tribal communities in the area to develop programs that will give local residents the skills they might need to land jobs with the mining operation someday.
“We are thrilled that the Hermosa project has decided to locate their remote operating center in Nogales,†said Nogales Mayor Jorge Maldonado in a statement. “This building represents a multi-generational investment in the city of Nogales that will help to transform and grow the local economy for all of us."
The Centro announcement comes two months after South32’s board approved into Hermosa to target what company officials have described as one of the world’s largest undeveloped zinc deposits.
The “advanced mining project,†as the company calls it, could also one day provide the only domestic source of manganese, which is needed to make batteries for electric cars and other renewable energy initiatives.
Both zinc and manganese are designated as critical minerals by the U.S. Geological Survey. President Joe Biden has authorized increases in domestic manganese mining and processing under the Defense Production Act to strengthen the large-capacity battery supply chain.
South32 is the world’s largest producer of manganese, but no significant ore deposits have been mined in the U.S. since the 1970s.
Last year, Hermosa became the first mine to be included in an Obama-era program aimed at streamlining the federal permitting process for critical infrastructure.
Zinc is used to galvanize steel needed for such infrastructure projects as bridges, wind turbines and transmission lines. Risner said that by 2031 global demand for the mineral is expected to outpace the supply by 3 million tons.
Since there are no zinc smelting operations in the U.S., he said, South32 plans to send the ore from the mine to a smelter in Mexico or Canada for processing.
Risner said the use of automated and semi-automated technology at Hermosa will provide opportunities for people currently under-represented in the traditional underground mining world, including women and people with disabilities.
Estep said someone with no mining experience could be trained in as little as 6 months to work as an entry-level controller.
Training for the “first cohort†of workers at Centro could begin next year, she said, with the goal of building out the workforce for the facility by the end of 2026.
Estep said anyone interested in learning more about employment opportunities should write to hermosahr@south32.net.
Mine construction work is already underway on the private land the company owns in the historic Harshaw mining district, about 9 miles southeast of the town of Patagonia.
Risner said workers there have constructed a water treatment plant and completed two, 25-foot-wide, concrete-lined starter shafts and are assembling the equipment that will be used starting this summer to extend those shafts straight down to a depth of about 2,900 feet.
The mine is expected to have a surface footprint of just over 600 acres.
Hermosa has drawn opposition from conservation groups and others concerned over potential impacts from the project on wildlife habitat in the Patagonia Mountains and water resources in nearby towns. Area residents have also raised concerns about heavy truck traffic and possible contamination from the mine.
According to South32, the Hermosa Project represents the largest private investment in Southern Arizona history and the largest ever in Santa Cruz County by a factor of almost nine.
Company officials estimate that Hermosa-related activity will eventually inject almost $1 billion a year into the economy of the rural county, which is expected to see its property tax base nearly double as a result of the mine.
In addition to Centro in Nogales, South32 is assessing the potential for future buildings and infrastructure for job training and operations throughout Santa Cruz County.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com. On Twitter: