San Tiburcio Airport

Economic and operational redundancy. The primary reason for the closure was the airstrip becoming obsolete. It was a small, unpaved facility supporting a specific mining operation. With the massive expansion of mining in the region, particularly the development of the Peñasquito Mine, a larger, paved, and more modern airport (Peñasquito Airport - MMPE) was constructed approximately 65 km to the northwest. This new airport could handle larger aircraft and greater traffic, making the small San Tiburcio airstrip redundant and economically unviable to maintain.

The airport is completely abandoned and derelict. An analysis of current satellite imagery shows the dirt/gravel runway is severely eroded, bisected by washouts, and overgrown with desert vegetation, rendering it unusable for any type of aircraft. There is no visible infrastructure, such as buildings or hangars, remaining at the site. It exists today only as a faint scar on the landscape, a relic of earlier mining operations.

San Tiburcio Airport was a private airstrip owned and operated by the mining company 'Minera San Tiburcio S.A. de C.V.', a subsidiary of the major Mexican mining conglomerate Industrias Peñoles. Its sole purpose was to provide logistical support for the company's local mining activities in a very remote part of the Zacatecas desert. Operations consisted of general aviation aircraft (light planes and potentially helicopters) used for transporting key personnel, high-value cargo, urgent supplies, and for critical services like medical evacuations.

There are zero known plans or prospects for reopening San Tiburcio Airport. Its function has been entirely and permanently superseded by the modern Peñasquito Airport (MMPE), which now serves as the primary aviation hub for the extensive mining operations in the Mazapil region. Given the existence of a superior facility nearby and the high cost of rehabilitating the abandoned site, there is no economic or logistical justification for its revival.