JUSTIN GAETHJE WAS 18 years old when he spent a summer working at the Morenci copper mine, located about an hour's drive from his hometown of Safford, Arizona.
Safford is a small town of approximately 10,000 in the southeast portion of the state. One of its largest employers is FreePort-McMoRan, a Phoenix-based company that owns Morenci, one of the largest copper reserves in the U.S.
Gaethje's father, Ray, retired from the mining business in September after working at Morenci for 36 years. His mother, Carolina, worked there briefly after high school. Both of Gaethje's grandfathers were miners, as was his twin brother, Marcus, for nearly 10 years.