On a windy Monday afternoon, a copper mine in southeastern Utah resumed production after resting dormant since 2024. Its reboot marks a significant step toward using artificial intelligence in physically demanding work.
Mariana Minerals, under the leadership of Tesla veteran Turner Caldwell, has revitalized the operation into the world’s first autonomous mine, located about 40 miles southeast of Moab.
The company is reducing refining costs by 30% and mining costs by 50% by using autonomous drills and robotic haul trucks.
Overlooking the site’s open pit on Monday, Caldwell told a group of lawmakers, engineers and businessmen, “Mariana’s mission is to fundamentally reinvent how infrastructure is built, how mines are operated and how refineries are operated.”
Then, clutching “I *heart* explosives” stickers handed out by a Salt Lake City-based explosives company, Caldwell’s audience shuffled to the rim of the open-pit mine. Investors, engineers and government workers peered across the expansive dirt bowl, as they counted down from 10. At zero, a large section of the mine’s floor rippled. Beneath the expanding cloud of dust, the explosion broke up rocks holding troves of copper.
Mariana Minerals’ site itself, from the control room to its security, showcases futuristic tech.
While waiting for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to reemerge from one of the facilities, some of the group watched a yellow, four-legged mobile robot trot by. Bearing its maker’s name (Boston Dynamics), the robo-dog — Spot — seemed to survey the area, then returned to its little concrete bed.
The new ownership has pulled many of the site’s previous workers into the revamped project, and on Monday, they seemed hopeful about Mariana Minerals’ upgrades.
James Gill, the project’s process operations manager, told the Deseret News that the technological advances will allow the company to double its copper output. Gill has worked at the mine since the early 2000s.
The company hopes to produce 50,000 tons of refined copper a year by 2030. In addition to mining, they plan on recycling pre-used copper and refining the material.
In 2026, the price of copper is the highest it’s been in a decade, sitting at about $13,000 a ton.
Mariana Minerals has already raised $100 million from venture capitalists.
Gov. Cox: ‘We wanted to make Utah the most attractive place’ to build
Joining local and federal leaders, Cox described Mariana Minerals’ groundbreaking as “one of the most important in our state’s history and in our country’s history — and maybe in the history of the world."
“I truly believe that what is happening on this spot is exactly what we need to change the world, save our country and promote freedom across the globe,” Cox said.
He described the country’s outsourcing of manufacturing and mineral production as “profoundly stupid.”
“We used to be the No. 1 industrial country in the world,” he said.
To return that status to the U.S., Cox and his administration have led an effort to bring hard-tech producers to the state. Valar Atomics, a nuclear energy producer, has set up shop in Orangeville in nearby Emery County, and is on schedule to begin generating energy by July 4. Now the San Francisco-based Mariana Minerals is beginning copper extraction just two hours to the east.
To lead the country in manufacturing and production, Cox said the state is cutting down on permitting times for critical minerals.
“We wanted to make Utah the most attractive place for people anywhere in the country to come and build energy,” he said. “Then we started cutting down permits for critical minerals as well.”
He referenced a concurrent resolution sponsored by Rep. David Shallenberger, R-Orem, and Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, during Utah’s 2026 legislative session, which aimed to establish Utah as a critical minerals hub.
Cox concluded by thanking President Donald Trump and the Department of Energy for supporting states that want to produce minerals and generate energy.
How do locals feel about the mine’s resurgence?
Lori Maughan, a San Juan County commissioner, told the Deseret News that residents have been hoping for a company to come and bring more jobs to the area.
“We’ve been hoping it would come to fruition, which it has. It’s pretty exciting,” she said.
The mine was previously owned by Lisbon Valley Mining Company. It shut down in 2024 due to rising operating costs and a struggle to find human workers.
Maughan said she believes the new ownership will “absolutely” be an economic booster to her county. “We’re one of the poorest counties in Utah,” she said. “To have someone come that could generate tax base, revenue and jobs is absolutely a great asset to our county.”
She said she hopes the project will attract talent to San Juan from other counties and states.
“We’re thrilled with it. We’ve made some really good relationships with this company, and I feel like they’ve really kept us in the loop and let us know what’s going on. So I feel like it’s a promising partnership,” she said.
What has spurred this tech resurgence?
In a conversation with the Deseret News, Caldwell said global political instability has made Americans want to produce critical minerals within their borders.
“I think it’s a global realization that supply chains have generally been less stable globally over the last decade,” he said. “And globally, we’re waking up to the fact that unless we start to build our capacity back, it’s very hard to turn the U.S. into a net exporter of critical minerals. If you don’t do it for long enough, you just start to lose the muscle memory of how to actually handle these really complicated industrial ecosystems.”
In the last five years, there has been an explosion of young entrepreneurs making ground in advanced, physical infrastructure.
When asked what he believes caused the hard-tech explosion, Caldwell said, “As new generations come in, they’re going to do new things and challenge the status quo.”
“The U.S. has gotten really comfortable with operating in a way where we do some things here, but we do a lot of things elsewhere. And sometimes it takes like a generational shift to ask the hard question of: ‘Why can’t we do that here? Why can’t we do more here?’”
