SAFFORD — Freeport-McMoRan will receive up to $80 million from President Biden’s Investing in America initiative that will directly benefit Graham and Greenlee counties.
The funds will be used to accelerate the use of clean energy in mining communities. Freeport plans to use the funding to develop direct-use, geothermal, clean heat combined with a battery storage system at the Safford and Morenci mines.
The project will create 121 construction and 12 operation jobs.
In addition, Freeport said it continue to partner with technical colleges and high schools to train those workers, as well as provide scholarships for up to 300 Native American students from 14 tribes.
The funds are part of $475 million made available to five projects across the country. In addition to Graham and Greenlee, other beneficiaries include:
● Converting coal mine land into a closed-loop, pumped-storage hydroelectric facility in Kentucky
● Development of a solar photovoltaic facility and battery storage at three gold mines in Nevada
● Convert coal mine land to a 402MW solar farm in Pennsylvania
● Convert coal mine land to a 250MW solar farm in West Virginia
The five projects are expected to create more than 3,000 construction jobs and more than 50 operational jobs.
“President Biden believes that the communities that have powered our nation for the past 100 years should power our nation for the next 100 years,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a press release. “Thanks to the President’s Investing in America agenda, DOE is helping deploy clean energy solutions on current and former mine land across the country — supporting jobs and economic development in the areas hit hardest by our evolving energy landscape.”
