Walker Mining Co. - 1937-38 dated Arizona Mining Stock Certificate

Stock with nice mining vignette at top center. Copper mining has been a significant industry in Arizona, a state in the United States, since the 19th century. In 2007, Arizona emerged as the top copper-producing state in the US, generating 750 thousand metric tons of copper valued at $5.54 billion, which accounted for 60% of the nation's total copper production. Additionally, copper mining yields gold and silver as byproducts, and the byproduct molybdenum positions Arizona as the second-largest producer of that metal in the country. Although the earliest Spanish explorers discovered copper mineralization in Arizona, the region's remoteness made profitable mining and shipping difficult. Early prospectors of Spanish, Mexican, and American descent primarily sought gold and silver, neglecting copper. It was only after the Southern Pacific Railroad was completed in 1876 that copper mining became economically viable for widespread extraction and distribution. Until the early 20th century, all copper mining was conducted underground. Following the successful extraction of a large low-grade copper deposit from an open pit at the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah, this method was subsequently adopted for Arizona's porphyry copper deposits, leading to the establishment of the state's first open pit copper mine in Ajo in 1917.