Bingham Canyon
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The Bingham Canyon mine is located near Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. It is owned by Rio Tinto plc through Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation which operates the mine, a concentrator and a smelter. Many locals simply call it the "Copper Pit". At over 0.75 miles deep, 2.5 miles wide, and covering 1,900 acres, the hole is the world's largest man-made excavation.
This is one of the most up-to-date integrated copper operations in the world, employing 1,400 people.
Rio Tinto committed US$170 million to the East 1 pushback project, which will extend the life of the open pit at Bingham Canyon until 2013. Various open-pit and underground alternatives will also be considered in relation to development of the mine after that. Bingham Canyon mine began producing copper in 1906.
Bingham Canyon supplies more than ten per cent of United States refined copper requirements and is the third largest copper producer in the US. Substantial amounts of gold, silver and molybdenum are produced as by-products. The smelting and refining facilities are recognised as the world's best for environmental protection practice and achievement.
The infrastructure required for an operation this size is impressive. Electric shovels can carry up to 56 cubic yards or 98 tons of ore in a single scoop. Ore is loaded into a fleet of 64 very large dump trucks which each carry 255 tons of ore at a time, at a cost of approximately $3 million per truck. There is a five mile series of conveyors that take ore to the Copperton concentrator and flotation plant. The longest conveyor is 2.5 miles long and passes through an existing railroad tunnel inside the mine.
450,000 tons of material are removed daily, and as of 2004, Bingham Canyon ore has yielded more than 17 million tons of copper, 23 million ounces of gold, 190 million ounces of silver, and 850 million pounds of molybdenum. The value of these resources is greater than the Comstock Lode, Klondike, and California gold rush mines all put together.
[edit] References
Kennecott Utah Copper Mine brochure (distributed to visitors), dated September 2004.
