Bingham Canyon Mine
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The Bingham Canyon Mine is is an open-pit copper mine 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. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles deep, 2.5 miles wide, and covering 1,900 acres -- the world's largest man-made excavation.
Over its life, Bingham Canyon has proven to be one of the world's most productive mines. As of 2004, ore from the mine has yielded more than 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 mining regions combined. Cumulatively, Bingham Canyon has produced more copper than any other mine in the world, although mines in Chile, Arizona, and New Mexico now exceed Bingham Canyon's annual production rate.
The mine is regarded as 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.
Substantial amounts of gold, silver and molybdenum are also produced. Rising molybdenum prices in 2005 made the molybdenum produced at Bingham Canyon in that year worth even more than the copper.[1] 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. 450,000 tons of material are removed from the mine daily. 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.
[edit] History
Minerals were first discovered in Bingham Canyon in 1850, but exploitation did not begin until 1863. At first, mining was difficult, but a railroad reached the canyon in 1873, prompting massive settlement and extraction of the minerals. By the 1920s, 15,000 people of widely-varying ethnicity had settled in the canyon. Large residential communities were constructed on the steep canyon walls. Natural disasters were a common occurrence in the heavily-settled canyon. The population declined rapidly as mining techniques improved, and several of the mining camps began to be swallowed up by the mine. By 1980, when Lark was dismantled, only Copperton, at the mouth of Bingham Canyon and with a population of 800, remained. Today, mining operations continue at full-swing in the mine, and it is now among the largest open-pit mines in the world. Work to expand the mine 600 feet east began in 2005, continuing to increase its size, growth, and capabilities.
[edit] References
- ^ R.L. Bon and K.A. Krahulec, Utah, Mining Engineering, May 2006, p.117.
Kennecott Utah Copper Mine brochure (distributed to visitors), dated September 2004.
