Visit Kennecott Copper, the World's Largest Open-Pit Copper Mine

 

Every person in America uses about 30 pounds of copper each year. More than 50 pounds of copper is used in the average automobile and an average single-family home uses about 440 pounds of copper. And, who knew that about 9,000 pounds of copper goes into every Boeing 747 jet?

With such huge demand, it’s easy to understand why a mammoth mining project like Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation’s Bingham Canyon Mine is so successful. This open-pit copper mine — the world’s largest excavation project — is a National Historic Landmark. It’s so immense, that astronauts see it from space. From the visitor center’s outdoor viewing area, you can watch the action down in the three-quarter mile deep pit that is two-and-three-quarter miles across.

From the moment you drive up the wide, paved road to reach the Visitor Center, everything you see is gigantic— from the pit to the equipment to the surrounding snowcapped mountain scenery. Although the interesting exhibits and informative video shown inside the visitor center boggles your mind with the enormity of the demand for copper, the large-scale action is happening outdoors. Watch as a fleet of 80 monster haul trucks (each can carry 320 tons of material) go up and down the steep slopes of the pit. The trucks are filled by huge electric shovels that hold up to 98 tons of rock in a single scoop. A massive haul truck tire is on display. Each truck has six tires and each tire is 12.5-feet tall, 153 inches in diameter and weighs over 10,000 pounds. It’s a good thing a tire lasts almost a year because they cost about $25,000 to replace. And, you thought tires for your SUV were expensive!

Blasting occurs two to four times a day, so you might get lucky and see one. But, since the blasts occur deep in the pit, it’s hard to get the full effect of 200 holes blowing up simultaneously, even though each is loaded with 1,000 pounds of explosives. Since 1906, when the first steam shovels began removing waste rock from the sides of the mountain to reach the low-grade copper ore deposits, Bingham Canyon Mine has yielded more than 19 million tons of copper, 23 million ounces of gold and 190 million ounces of silver, plus other minerals. The value of the resources extracted from here is greater than the Comstock Lode, Klondike, and California Gold Rush combined!

Copper ore was actually first discovered in Bingham Canyon in 1848 by two brothers, Sanford and Thomas Bingham. Although they reported the find to their leader, Brigham Young advised against pursuing mining operations because the survival and establishment of Mormon settlements was of greater importance at that time. It was not until 1863 that the extraction of low-grade porphyry copper ore began. These nineteenth-century mines, though, were relatively small.

In 1903, Daniel Jackling and Enos Wall organized the Utah Copper Company and began construction of a pilot mill at Copperton, just beyond the mouth of the canyon. Serious mining efforts got underway in 1906. Kennecott Copper Corporation, which operated mines in Kennecott, Alaska, acquired the company in 1936. Today, the mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group, an international mining and exploration company headquartered in the United Kingdom. The copper operations at Bingham Canyon Mine are managed through KUCC, which operates the mine, a concentrator plant, a smelter and a refinery. As of 2010, KUCC was the second largest copper producer in the United States and meets about 13 to 18 percent of the country’s copper needs.

Open-pit mining has come a long way, especially in the last 25 years. Large mining corporations today operate state-of-the-art air and ground water monitoring systems and re-contour and reseed the land to post-mining use. KUCC seems to take its environmental stewardship seriously and reports spending $100 million on groundwater cleanup and more than $350 million on the cleanup of historical mining waste, much of which pre-dates Kennecott’s use of the area. Dozens of scientists and engineers are on staff for the sole purpose of working on environmental projects aimed at improving air and water quality. Six years ago, KUCC completed construction of a reverse osmosis water treatment plant that now provides safe drinking water to local communities. Kennecott also captures waste heat from the smelting process, which co-generates 60 percent of the company’s electric power needs, reducing energy consumption and further improving air quality. The company pledges to continue to restore land that has been disturbed by mining activities.

On an annual basis, KUCC produces approximately 300,000 tons of copper, along with 400,000 ounces of gold, four million ounces of silver, plus other minerals. Since excavations of this magnitude aren’t commonly open to the public, it’s worth a stop to see the world’s largest open-pit copper mine located 25 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

Although there are no GPAA claims in Utah at this time, there are a number of streams that allow smallscale dredging and sluicing as long as you get a free Utah Recreational Dredging and Sluicing permit. See your GPAA Mining Guide for more details.


This article was written by Denise Seith and appears in the August/September 2012 issue of the Pick & Shovel Gazette, published by the Gold Prospectors Association of America.