GILA COUNTY ― There are now 2,734 persons working in the area copper mines, according to the latest information gathered by the Arizona Silver Belt.

ASARCO continues to be the area’s largest employer, with 1,301 employees on the payroll at the Hayden Smelter/Concentrator and Ray Complex, according to company spokesman Doug McAllister. Several hundred of the ASARCO workers live in Globe-Miami.

Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold has some 800 persons presently at various jobs on its Miami properties, including 100 construction workers, according to Richard Peterson.

The local workforce at Freeport’s operations here will be growing as the company begins hiring an additional 200 to 250 employees this year for the restart of its Miami mine now underway.

Resolution Copper has 193 persons at its Resolution project near Superior, of which 125 are contract workers. Company President David Salisbury indicated that there are no major plans for expanding the number of workers at Resolution for at least the next four years.

BHP’s Pinto Valley Mine, which laid off 550 employees one year ago, still has 100 persons employed at the open pit mine site west of Miami.

The latest information about the operations of the Carlota Copper Mine west of Miami is there are about 340 workers there in which 100 are construction employees. The company expects to reduce most of the contract employees to a workforce of about eight during the last three months of this year..

Sophie Taylor, a spokesperson from Quadra Mining, told the Silver Belt, “Carlota’s long term workforce will be between 240-245, plus they’ll have eight to 10 long term contract employees working for Southwest Energy doing our drilling and blasting.

“For the first three quarters of 2010 Carlota will have about another 100 contractors (variable depending on the stage of the project) doing the liner extension on the leach pad, with the largest number during periods when we will be laying liner in the second and third quarters. Starting in the fourth quarter of this year, Carlota will have very few contractors (less than 10) on site, mainly contract maintenance personnel for mine and process equipment.”

Looking at a few figures given to us by other large employers in the Globe-Miami area, the Gila County government has 625 persons on the payroll, Walmart’s Claypool store has 199 workers, City of Globe has 130, Fry’s has 110 and the Safeway stores have 89 employees.

Ted Lake can be reached at teddlake@yahoo.com.