Kennecott Utah Copper LLC (KUC), a division of
Rio Tinto Group, is a
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
,
smelting
Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ...
, and
refining company. Its corporate headquarters are located in
South Jordan, Utah
South Jordan is a city in south central Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, south of Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, the city lies in the Salt Lake Valley along the banks of the Jordan River between the Oquirrh ...
. Kennecott operates the
Bingham Canyon Mine
The Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine among locals, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains. The mine is the largest m ...
, one of the largest
open-pit
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
This form of mining ...
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
mines in the world in
Bingham Canyon,
Salt Lake County
Salt Lake County is located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 1,185,238, making it the most populous county in Utah. Its county seat and largest city is Salt Lake City, the state capital. The cou ...
, Utah. The company was first formed in 1898 as the Boston Consolidated Mining Company. The current corporation was formed in 1989. The mine and associated
smelter produce 1% of the world's copper.
History
Utah Copper Company had its start when Enos Andrew Wall realized the potential of
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
deposits in Bingham Canyon, southwest of
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
in 1887. He acquired claims to the land and started underground mining. In the mid-1890s, metallurgist
Daniel C. Jackling and mining engineer Robert C. Gemmell inspected the property and liked the prospects.
Both men examined Wall's properties and recommended open-pit mining
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
This form of mini ...
. In 1898, Samuel Newhouse and Thomas Weir formed the Boston Consolidated Mining Company.[
Jackling and Wall formed the Utah Copper Company on 4 June 1903, with Charles L. Tutt Sr., Charles MacNeill, ]Spencer Penrose
Spencer Penrose (November 2, 1865 - December 7, 1939) was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He made his fortune from mining, ore processing, and real estate speculation in Colorado and other parts of the West. He founded the Utah Copper ...
, Boies Penrose
Boies Penrose (November 1, 1860 – December 31, 1921) was an American lawyer and Republican politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
After serving in both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature, he represented Pennsylvania in the United ...
, Tal Penrose, and Dr. R.A.F. Penrose as investors. MacNeill was named president, Spencer "Speck" Penrose was named secretary-treasurer, and Jackling was named general manager. The company immediately started a pilot mill at Copperton.
With financing from Guggenheim Exploration, the first digging began in 1906. The same year, the Kennecott Mines Company was formed in Alaska, named after explorer and naturalist Robert Kennicott
Robert Kennicott (November 13, 1835 – May 13, 1866) was an American naturalist and herpetologist. Chronic illness kept Kennicott out of school as a child. Instead, Kennicott spent most of his time outdoors, collecting plants and animals. H ...
. A smelter was also started at Garfield, Utah by the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) to refine the Bingham Canyon ore.[
In 1907, the Utah Copper mill in Magna started operation. Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated merged in 1910. Five years later in 1915, Kennecott acquired a 25% interest in the company. In 1915, to dilute the cost of railroad construction to support the mines, and to find new ventures for the capital produced by the Alaskan mine, Kennecott Copper Corporation was incorporated from the various financial interests involved. By this time, the Guggenheim Exploration was already actively working copper mines in Chile and Utah. Upon Kennecott's creation, they merged their Braden Copper Company property in Chile, as well as 25 percent of the Utah Copper Company, into Kennecott.][
These actions resulted in Kennecott taking possession of Braden's ]El Teniente
El Teniente ("The Lieutenant") is an underground copper mine located in the Chilean Andes, above mean sea level. It is in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, near the company town of ...
,[ the world's largest underground copper mine, located in the Chilean ]Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
. Founded by William Braden and E.W. Nash of New York City, the Braden Copper Company
Braden Copper Company was an American company that controlled the El Teniente copper mine in Chile until 1967 when its copper holdings were nationalized.
History
Braden Copper Company was founded on 18 June 1904 by E.W. Nash, Barton Sewell, Willi ...
had started mining there in 1906.
In Utah, the Bingham and Garfield Railway opened in 1911 to transport local ore, replacing the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...
's line. In 1936, Kennecott acquired all the assets of the Utah Copper Company.[
During ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Bingham set new world records for copper mining and produced about 30% of the copper used by the Allies. During the war, many women worked for the first time in the mines, mills, and smelters, replacing the men who had gone to war.
On September 9, 1949 three Kennecott company officers were killed in an airplane bombing in Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
. They were the retiring president E.T. Stannard; his designated successor, Arthur D. Storke; and R.J. Parker, a vice-president. They were incidental to what became known as the Albert Guay Affair
Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 108, known as the Sault-au-Cochon Tragedy was a Douglas DC-3 operated by Canadian Pacific Air Lines (registry CF-CUA S/N: 4518), that was blown up by a dynamite time bomb on 9 September 1949. The plane was ...
, innocent bystanders killed in a private revenge. Guay had shipped a timed-explosive device in the luggage of his wife on this flight. When it exploded, she and all the other passengers and crew on the plane were killed. Charles Cox, formerly head of Carnegie-Illinois Steel, was hired shortly after to fill the executive vacuum at Kennecott. Guay and his two accomplices, Marguerite Pitre and Généreux Ruest, were all convicted of murder and executed for the bombing.
By 1961, Kennecott's copper mines in the United States included four large open pits in Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
, and Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
. As the mine in Utah expanded, it subsumed the land on which the City of Bingham Canyon was built, and the city was disincorporated in 1971.[
In 1981, after a worldwide fall in copper prices, Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO) acquired Kennecott. Production was interrupted from 1985 to 1987. In 1986, ]Asarco
Asarco LLC (American Smelting and Refining Company) is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona, which mines and processes primarily copper. The company has been a subsidiary of Grupo México since 1999.
Its three la ...
purchased the Ray mine in Arizona from Kennecott. In 1987, British Petroleum acquired SOHIO, and Kennecott became part of BP Minerals America.
In 1989 Rio Tinto Zinc
Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto, ...
(RTZ) purchased mining assets from BP. Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation was formed by Rio Tinto in 1989 as a new mining company under the laws of the State of Utah.
Current Operations
Today, the second-largest copper producer in the US, Kennecott Utah Copper provides about 8% of the US annual copper consumption of 1,700,000 tonnes. Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine
The Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine among locals, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains. The mine is the largest m ...
is the largest man-made excavation in the world. It is one of the top producing copper mines in the world with cumulative production over of copper. In 2020 Bingham Canyon produced of copper, along with of gold, of silver, and of molybdenum. Since Rio Tinto purchased Kennecott Utah Copper in 1989 it has invested about $2 billion in the modernization of KUC’s operations. In 2020 Kennecott Utah Copper directly employed 2,171 people and contributed to more than 14,000 indirect Utah jobs.
Rio Tinto Group, one of the world's largest mining operations, comprises dual-listed companies
A dual-listed company or DLC is a corporate structure in which two corporations function as a single operating business through a legal equalization agreement, but retain separate legal identities and stock exchange listings. Virtually all DLCs ...
Rio Tinto Limited (based in Melbourne) and Rio Tinto PLC (based in London). Although each company trades separately, the two Rio Tintos operate as one business.
Sustainability
KUC is considering alternatives that will keep the Bingham Canyon Mine open for additional decades. A massive rock slide at the mine in 2014 did not stop Rio’s plans to extend the mine’s life by another decade to 2029. The company says there’s still as much ore in the ground as miners have taken out of Bingham Canyon since it began production in 1906. The company proposes to expand the mine and reach an additional 700 million tons of ore resource by pushing back the south wall of the Bingham Canyon Mine 1,000 feet and deepening it 300 feet.
Environmental relations
Significant groundwater contamination exists in the aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...
downgradient of the Bingham Canyon mining operations. Starting in the late 1980s, the State of Utah Natural Resource Damage Trustee has overseen the investigation of mining-influenced groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
and the implementation of cleanup actions performed by Kennecott and the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District to address two groundwater plumes located in southwest Salt Lake County. The plumes were caused by historical mining practices in the Kennecott South Zone. Approximately are impacted in the southwest portion of Salt Lake County. Because of the remediation efforts, which include more than a $100 million investment in a reverse osmosis facility, Kennecott's South End, (location of the contaminated aquifer) was removed from the United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...
(EPA) National Priorities List (NPL). This investment represents one of many remediation projects along the Oquirrh Mountains to clean up historic mining sites. To date, Kennecott Utah Copper has remediated more than of the total impacted by mining at a cost of more than $450 million. KUC has spent more than $350 million on the cleanup of historic mining waste and $100 million on groundwater cleanup.
Kennecott's copper mine concentrators, power plant and smelter is the leading facility for toxic releases in the state of Utah, according to a 2017 report by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The company's combined operations are believed to account for 3.5 percent of Salt Lake Valley's air pollution, according to Utah Department of Air Quality statistics. Editorialists continue to criticize Kennecott for the amount of lead the smelter puts into the air each year: .
Environmental groups have lauded Rio Tinto’s decision to drop its requested permit for a new rock crushing plant at the copper mine. Kennecott originally wanted the crusher to shore up a mine-waste pond. Kennecott now says it can keep mining without expanding its tailings impoundment.
Land development
Another Rio Tinto-owned company manages the non-mining land and water assets previously owned by KUC, Kennecott Land Company. Kennecott Land was established by Rio Tinto in April 2001 to develop surplus mining land. Daybreak Community
Daybreak is a master-planned community over 4,000 acres (16 km²) in size that began construction in 2004 under the direction of land development company Kennecott Land (a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group) in South Jordan, Utah. In 2016, the b ...
, the first part of the process, is situated on in the city of South Jordan where 20,000 homes and up to of commercial space are planned. Opened in 2009, Daybreak's first commercial center
SoDa Row
contains a boutique, restaurants, hair salon and more.
Labor relations
During the copper strike of 1912 Utah Copper Company brought many Mexican and Mexican American strikebreakers to the Bingham mine. Most of them did not remain after the settlement of the strike. Company records reveal that by 1918-19 large numbers of Spanish-surnamed individuals began to be employed at the mine, and additional Latinos were recruited during the labor shortages of WWII. For many of these men it marked the beginning of long careers as copper workers. Issues of the company magazine 'Kennescope' in the 1950s emphasized the diversity of the work force. In 1953 there were 20 ethnic backgrounds, from Native American to Japanese.
Kennecott laid off 200 workers in March 2016 due to a fall in global commodity prices.
See also
* Bingham Canyon Mine
The Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine among locals, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains. The mine is the largest m ...
* Harkers Canyon
References
External links
Kennecott website
Kennecott Corporation Papers
a
University of Utah Digital Library
Marriott Library Special Collections
Kennecott Miner Records
a
University of Utah Digital Library
Marriott Library Special Collections
*
{{Authority control
Copper mining in the United States
Historic American Engineering Record in Utah
Mining companies of the United States
Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries
Companies based in Utah
1898 establishments in Utah
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1898
Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average