Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Foundation last month donated $1 million to the University of Arizona Flandrau Science Center for the support of the Mineral Museum. The money will be invested in an endowment to help the Mineral Museum. [right: quartz specimen from du Monmonier collection at UA]
Last August, the Arizona Board of Regents also formally approved an agreement between the City of Tucson and the UA for a $130 million science center and state museum complex to be built as part of the Rio Nuevo downtown development project. The Mineral Museum will be part of the new science center.
The Freeport donation comes on the heels of the UA Mineral Museum receiving the $7+ million Herbert du Monmonier mineral collection.
In comparison, the Friends of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix reports receiving $7,857 for all of last year, and donated $500 of that to ADMMR, which runs the Phoenix museum. ADMMR reports donations of $5725 (including the $500 from FAMM), but did not report how much of that amount went to the museum.
