Bingham Canyon Copper Mine

// August 11th, 2005 // My Stuff

Our first destination for Monday morning was Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. This open faced mine is the largest man-made excavation on earth, stretching two-and-a-half miles wide and 3,960 feet deep. What was a mountain has been mined away to form this huge pit. The pit continues to grow with 500,000 tons of material being hauled out each day. Engineers estimate the hole will continue to grow another 650 feet deeper, at which point it will not be financially viable to continue mining. The estimated year this will occur is 2015. After great modernization in the early 1990′s they employed 2,400 people, produced 300,000 tons of copper annually, and claimed to run the most modern and clean copper mine and smelting facility in the world. One of their claims to fame is that they are one of two man made structures easily visible from space (The Great Wall being the other). Not a claim I would necessarily be proud of, but… this is basically like saying hey look we made the biggest scar. I will say that Kennecott seems to be trying very hard to be an ecologically sound company, and they seem to be working to clean up old mines all over the state.

Check out the full gallery of our trip to the mine.

copper, copper mine, excavation, Kennecott, mine, pit, mining, Utah

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6 Responses to “Bingham Canyon Copper Mine”

bstillson says:

August 12, 2005 at 7:32 pm

The idea that the Great Wall of China is visable from outer space was shown to be false about a year and a half ago. Its is still being taught in China as true but you can’t even find it with google earth…..
zbtirrell says:

August 12, 2005 at 9:52 pm

That is interesting. I found the Great Wall on Google Sightseeing. They also have some interesting discussion about that myth.

I assume the Bingham Mine deal is also a myth. Although, I think it is even easier to find on Google Maps.
Dr. Gold says:

November 17, 2005 at 9:38 pm

I’m sorry bstillson, but you can see the Bingham Canyon Mine on Google Earth very clearly. Even at an Eye altitude of 300 miles above earth a small depression is visible south of Salt Lake.
No Sheep » North American Museum of Ancient Life and Aliens of the Deep says:

March 11, 2006 at 10:25 am

[...] After Bingham Copper Mine, we headed south down to the North American Museum of Ancient Life at Thangsgiving Point. This museum has one of the largest collections of ancient life specimens. My favorites included: the archelon turtle, battling t-rexes, a supersaurus, a stegasaurus, a pair of pachycephalosaurus, a giant ground sloth, a wooly mammoth, and a utahraptor. [...]
No Sheep » First Impressions of Salt Lake City says:

March 11, 2006 at 11:08 am

[...] As we flew into Utah the first things we could see from the plane were Bingham Copper Mine and Utah Lake. Next we made out Salt Lake City, and then specifically our hotel. Clearly I’ve been spending too much time in satellite view in Google Maps… Soon the Great Salt Lake became overbearingly apparent. The plane also passed over Farmington Bay as we came in for a landing. From the air the “bay” appears more to be salt marshes and flats than an actually useful body of water. [...]
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March 23, 2007 at 9:41 am

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No Sheep