Mining, Mineral & Surface Technology

BizTUCSONOctober 21, 2025

3 minutes read

Mining Hub for Worldwide Tech

By Jay Gonzales

The long history of Tucson – and Arizona for that matter – as a mining hub has taken on an identity that no longer is just about digging holes and underground mines.

Mining is as much about developing new technology as other tech industries operating in the region such as biosciences, aerospace and defense and optics.

With worldwide mining corporations like Caterpillar, Hexagon and Komatsu located here, Southern Arizona can safely say it is a hub for getting minerals out of the ground and, as importantly, for developing new ways to do it.

“When you look around the industry in mining technology, it’s Tucson,” said Dave Goddard, president of Hexagon Mining which moved here in 2019. “There’s another hub in Perth (Australia), another hub in Brisbane (Australia) and another hub in Johannesburg, South Africa, and that’s about it.

“Denver has a handful (of mining technology companies), but the overwhelming majority of them are here in Tucson. The reason for that is the incubation that was happening here. Then talent migrated to Tucson.”

One of the primary reasons Hexagon located to Tucson, Goddard said, was that it had purchased two mining technology companies that were already here. When it found a headquarters location downtown with the help of Rio Nuevo, it made sense.

“As a result of those (company purchases), the talent was in town and was able to incubate those technologies,” Goddard said. “There is a lot of give and take. I’ve got a bunch of people that used to work for Caterpillar that work for us. There’s a bunch of people that used to work for Komatsu that work for us − and vice versa. It’s a very, very small community to begin with.”

It helps that the University of Arizona has been committed to the mining industry for most of its existence. The School of Mining Engineering & Mineral Resources continues to partner with the local mining companies, providing research and expertise and churning out talent to support their workforce needs.

Goddard said that mining companies that have had a presence in Tucson were instrumental in working with the UA to establish and support various efforts to develop new technologies for mining. He cited Phelps Dodge, which later became Freeport McMoRan, as prime examples.

“Phelps Dodge and Freeport plus the University of Arizona did an exceptional job in terms of incubating new technologies back when computers and communications and positioning systems were all in their infancy,” Goddard said, pointing out that the mining companies were providing seed money for research that took place here.

“It’s that kind of approach that I think made Tucson what Tucson is in terms of mining technology,” he said.

Kray Luxbacher, executive director and head of the UA mining school, said one of the challenges in attracting young talent to the mining industry is getting them to understand the industry is more about technology and less about digging. They don’t have to enter some of the more obvious tech sectors to be involved in a high-tech industry.

In addition to the research the mining school does alongside the mining companies, it is helping to mine for talent while also helping to continually develop that talent once they enter the industry.

“We run a professional development program for Caterpillar,” Luxbacher said. “It is a worldwide program where we train their people on mining techniques. We work with Komatsu to prove some of their hard rock equipment. We have funded research projects from Freeport McMoRan and South32 — everything from how to better leach calcium pyrite to community impact studies.

“There is this idea in the public consciousness that it’s an old-fashioned industry. I tell students, if you want to work on the largest autonomous projects on Earth, come to mining. I tell environmental sciences students that if you want to make an impact on hundreds of thousands of acres, come to mining.”