One of the largest mine tailings piles in the world: 7.4 billion cubic feet, the New Cornelia Tailings is often cited as the largest dam structure in the country, by volume (the tailings, waste material from the mining process, were heaped into a pile that created a holding structure for future tailings, some of which were deposited in a pumped slurry, thus the tailings pile is an "impoundment" or dam.) The mine that produced the tailings, the 1.5 mile wide open pit New Cornelia Mine, is owned by Phelps Dodge, and is presently in limbo (shut down in 1983). A project to mine the tailings has been proposed.