Remote center in Nogales will control mining operation in Patagonia Mountains

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Mining jobs are coming to southern Arizona to support a project in the Patagonia Mountains.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs spoke at the groundbreaking event Wednesday for a remote operations center about its benefits for the region.

Centro will sit on 10 acres in Nogales. It’s a remote operating center for South32 Hermosa, a zinc and manganese mine in the Patagonia Mountains.

Some will be watching for its environmental impact as it promises hundreds of jobs in Santa Cruz County.

The groundbreaking began with a prayer by Alex Seowtewa, a member of the Zuni Cultural Resource Advisory Team, to keep everyone safe.

“Some important context: most of the time, the industry puts these facilities in big cities. You can put them anywhere,” Pat Risner, president of South32 Hermosa, explained to the crowd that included Hobbs.

Risner said the remote operating facility is being built in Nogales so that local residents can benefit from the 200 jobs directing remote operations at South32 Hermosa’s underground zinc and manganese mine in the Patagonia Mountains that will offer hundreds more employment opportunities.

“These are high-quality, good-paying jobs, stable jobs, family-sustaining jobs,” Hobbs told the audience.

And part of the deal for Normet and Sandvic, the companies building electric battery-powered equipment for inside the mine, is that they must also have facilities here.

“We will have equipment that’s fully autonomous, that operates on its own, that will be monitored from this facility, we will have equipment that is remotely operated from this facility, so someone sitting here in an office building in Nogales operating a piece of equipment with a screen that’s 25 miles away and 3,000 feet underground,” Risner said.

“You can be the change agent for your industry if you’re doing the monitoring now with the technology that we have available and we have great technology available,” said Robin Lucky, president of the Calabasas Alliance, which is watching the mine’s impact on the area.

Lucky said that a partnership with the University of Arizona will monitor air quality in the mine’s vicinity and is already establishing a baseline for future comparison. She also has concerns about water use.

“We’ve got a very mineral-rich state, but what I’m saying is we can have both,” Lucky said.

“So our surface disturbance in an area that’s rich in diversity will be 95 percent less than a typical mine, around 750 acres compared to 10,000-plus. We’ve designed a mine that will use 90% less water for the mining process,” Risner said.

A community protection and benefits agreement is in the works.

“These opportunities are going to be for our local kids, which is very exciting,” Rudy Molera, chair of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, told the audience.

Santa Cruz County, the town of Patagonia, and the city of Nogales are part of the agreement with South32.

“We need to work together,” Nogales Mayor Jorge Maldonado said.

The agreement aims to provide additional requirements from the community as South32 Hermosa works above and below the surface.

“We believe that it has a lot of potential to really provide that peace of mind for the community that we can deliver the socio-economic benefits and be safe,” Risner said.

South32 Hermosa, the mine, and Centro should be operating in the first half of 2027.

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