A United Steelworkers official says Asarco told the union last week at a meeting in Tucson that the company plans on expanding the Ray [right, credit USGS] and Mission copper mines, according a report by Platts, that has been picked up widely by the mining and financial news media. There are no responses from Asarco so far, except the company has posted the Platts release on their website, under the headline, "Asarco tells USW of plans to expand two copper mines in Arizona."
That sounds like confirmation to me.