The Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine among locals, is an

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 ...

operation extracting a large

porphyry copper deposit Porphyry copper deposits are copper ore bodies that are formed from hydrothermal fluids that originate from a voluminous magma chamber several kilometers below the deposit itself. Predating or associated with those fluids are vertical dikes of ...

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 the Oquirrh Mountains. The mine is the largest man-made excavation, and deepest open-pit mine in the world, which is considered to have produced more copper than any other mine in history – more than . The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group, a British-Australian multinational corporation. The copper operations at Bingham Canyon Mine are managed through Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation which operates the mine, a concentrator plant, a smelter, and a

refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...

. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over deep, wide, and covering . It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine. The mine experienced a massive landslide in April 2013 and a smaller slide in September 2013.Second landslide hits Rio's Bingham Canyon mine, 100 workers evacuated
September 16, 2013

History

Minerals, in the form of copper ore, were first discovered in Bingham Canyon in 1848 by two brothers, Sanford and Thomas Bingham, sons of Erastus Bingham, Latter-Day Saint pioneers of September 1847, who grazed their cattle there. They reported their find to their leader,

Brigham Young Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as ch ...

, who advised against pursuing mining operations because the survival and establishment of settlements were of paramount importance at that time. The brothers applied to that purpose as directed and did not stake a claim. In 1850, the Bingham family went to settle what is now Weber County, leaving the canyon still today known by their name. Bingham Canyon Mine 1942c

It was not until September 17, 1863, that extraction of ore began, and the potential of the canyon's mineral resources began to be widely recognized. That was when George B. Ogilvie and 23 others "located the West Jordan claim", soon followed by the Vidette claim. At first, mining was confined to placer gold, lead-silver, and copper-gold.

Porphyry copper Porphyry copper deposits are copper ore bodies that are formed from hydrothermal fluids that originate from a voluminous magma chamber several kilometers below the deposit itself. Predating or associated with those fluids are vertical dikes of ...

required processing and a railroad, which reached the canyon in 1873. Enos Andrew Wall started working claims in 1887. His extensive tunnels and test pits, on his , indicated ore containing 2% copper. The canyon's 19th Century mines were relatively small, and it wasn't until the end of the century that very large-scale exploitation of the canyon's ore bodies began to develop with

. In 1896, Samuel Newhouse and Thomas Weir acquired the Highland Boy Mine, which was rich in copper, silver, and gold. Together they formed the Utah Consolidated Gold Mines, Ltd. with English investors. They then formed the Boston Consolidated Gold and Copper Co., Ltd., for the development of low-grade copper ore adjacent to the Utah Copper Company site. Another significant development took place in 1903, when Daniel C. Jackling and Enos A. Wall organized the Utah Copper Company. Utah Copper immediately began construction of a pilot mill at Copperton, just beyond the mouth of the canyon, and the company actually started mining in 1906. The success of Utah Copper in mining the huge but low-grade

porphyry copper Porphyry copper deposits are copper ore bodies that are formed from hydrothermal fluids that originate from a voluminous magma chamber several kilometers below the deposit itself. Predating or associated with those fluids are vertical dikes of ...

type ore body at Bingham Canyon was based on Jacklin's 1904 decision to use open-pit mining, steam shovels, and the railroad. The mine became a showplace for "railroad-pit operations," and the industrial complex defined by the mine and the

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 ...

smelting operation made it the "largest industrial mining complex in the world" by 1912. Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated merged after their separate surface operations approached each other in 1906. The

Kennecott Copper Corporation Kennicott or Kennecott may refer to: * Kennecott, Alaska, an abandoned mining camp, United States * Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783), English churchman and Hebrew scholar * Robert Kennicott (1835-1866), American naturalist and pioneer Alaska explorer ...

, established to operate mines in

Kennecott, Alaska Kennecott, also known as Kennicott and Kennecott Mines, is an abandoned mining camp in the Copper River Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska that was the center of activity for several copper mines. It is located beside the Kennicott Glaci ...

, purchased a 25 percent financial interest in Utah Copper in 1915, which increased to 75 percent in 1923. Bingham's Canyon mine expanded rapidly, and by the 1920s, the region was a beehive of activity. Some 15,000 people of widely varying ethnicity lived in the canyon in large residential communities constructed on the steep canyon walls. The population declined rapidly as mining techniques improved, and several of the mining camps were swallowed up by the ever-expanding mine. By 1980, when

Lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...

was dismantled, only Copperton, at the mouth of Bingham Canyon and with a population of 800, remained. The 21 separate mining operations in existence by 1911 were consolidated into two in 1970: Kennecott and The Anaconda Minerals Company. In 1985 open-pit mining operations were halted by Kennecott's Utah Copper. In 1986, Kennecott discovered gold in nearby Barney's Canyon. Bingham Canyon Mine, 2018

KCC was purchased by Sohio in 1981, and the mine reopened in 1987 after BP Minerals purchased the assets. In 1989 the Rio Tinto Group acquired the asset, which modernized the mine, mill, and smelter. The open-pit owners replaced an antiquated 1000-car railroad with conveyor belts and pipelines for transporting the ore and waste, which reduced costs by nearly 30% and returned the operation to profitability.

Landslides

At 9:30 pm on April 10, 2013, a landslide occurred at the mine. Around of dirt and rock thundered down the side of the pit. It is possibly the largest historic, non-volcanic landslide in North America. On the basis that the mine's steep walls made it a high risk for landslides, an interferometric radar system had been previously installed to monitor the ground's stability. As a result of warnings produced by this system, mining operations had been shut down the previous day in anticipation of the slide and there were no injuries. The massive slide was expected to cut production of mined copper by . A second slide caused an evacuation of 100 workers on September 11, 2013. Another, less severe slide occurred on May 31, 2021.

Environmental history

Similar to other industrial age mining operations, the mine historically had adverse environmental effects on the habitats of fish and wild animals as well as air and water pollution, creating health hazards to the surrounding public. Different federal agencies concerned with environmental conservation have used strict legal rules to pressure the subsidiary of Kennecott copper mine to comply with environmental regulations. Since the early 1990s, Kennecott has spent more than $400 million on clean-up efforts on the affected areas to avoid regulatory laws that would have placed them on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). The figure below shows a comparison of two satellite images used to identify the changes in the Bingham Canyon Mine between 1985 and 201
JuxtaposeJS Embed

Geology

The Bingham Canyon ore deposits occur in the Bingham

nappe In geology, a nappe or thrust sheet is a large sheetlike body of rock that has been moved more than or above a thrust fault from its original position. Nappes form in compressional tectonic settings like continental collision zones or on the o ...

. They are a

, formed by a

quartz monzonite Quartz monzonite is an intrusive, felsic, igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. It is typically a light colored phaneritic (coarse-grained) to porphyritic granitic rock. The plagiocl ...

porphyry intruded into sedimentary rocks. They exhibit a concentric alteration pattern and mineralogic zonation around the Bingham stock. These zones include a central core containing

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With th ...

, followed by "a

molybdenite Molybdenite is a mineral of molybdenum disulfide, Mo S2. Similar in appearance and feel to graphite, molybdenite has a lubricating effect that is a consequence of its layered structure. The atomic structure consists of a sheet of molybdenum ato ...

zone low in copper, a

bornite Bornite, also known as peacock ore, is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition Cu5 Fe S4 that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system (pseudo-cubic). Appearance Bornite has a brown to copper-red color on fresh surfaces that tarnishes to v ...

chalcopyrite Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mo ...

-gold higher grade copper zone, a

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...

-chalcopyrite zone, a pyrite zone, and an outermost lead-zinc zone."

Structurally A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

, Late

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

rocks were

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

ed over the Precambrian

craton A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging an ...

during the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

Sevier orogeny The Sevier orogeny was a mountain-building event that affected western North America from northern Canada to the north to Mexico to the south. The Sevier orogeny was the result of convergent boundary tectonic activity, and deformation occurred f ...

. These rocks were later

intruded Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form '' intrusions'', such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.Intrusive RocksIntrusive rocks accessdate: March 2 ...

and altered in the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

granitoid A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quartz- ...

rocks. This

igneous Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

event was the source of deposition of gold, silver and other

base metal A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver. In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have also been used in coins in the past ...

s. Copper and molybdenum sulfide minerals are dispersed in the intruded stock and in the adjoining carbonate sedimentary

skarn Skarns or tactites are hard, coarse-grained metamorphic rocks that form by a process called metasomatism. Skarns tend to be rich in calcium-magnesium-iron-manganese-aluminium silicate minerals, which are also referred to as calc-silicate mineral ...

s. The main

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostra ...

rocks in Bingham Canyon are Upper Pennsylvanian

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

s, and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

s known as the Bingham Mine

Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

in the Oquirrh Group. The central porphyry ores formed from mantle

hydrothermal circulation Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

while the outer

vein Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenat ...

and deposits in the

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

rocks formed at lower temperature when magmatic and

meteoric water Meteoric water is the water derived from precipitation (snow and rain). This includes water from lakes, rivers, and icemelts, which all originate from precipitation indirectly. While the bulk of rainwater or meltwater from snow and ice reaches the ...

s mixed.

Recovery process

The extracted ore is treated at the Kennecott smelter at nearby

Magna, Utah Magna ( ) is a metro township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The current population of the township stands at 29,251 according to the 2020 census, a 10.4% increase over 26,505 in 2010. History Settlement Settlement of the area began ...

. The ore is run through a concentrator, where grinding mills reduce it to the consistency of face powder. Flotation then separates the

gangue In mining, gangue () is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body ...

from the metalliferous particles, which float off as a 28-percent concentrate 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 ...

along with lesser amounts of

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

, molybdenum,

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

and

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

. A selective flotation step separates the

( molybdenum disulfide) from the

. The filtered concentrate slurry is piped to the smelter, where it is dried, and then injected along with oxygen into a flash smelting furnace to oxidize the iron and sulfur. The oxidized iron is skimmed off, while the sulfur dioxide gas is captured and sent to an on-site acid plant for conversion to valuable sulfuric acid – a million tons of it each year. Left behind is a molten

copper sulfide Copper sulfides describe a family of chemical compounds and minerals with the formula CuxSy. Both minerals and synthetic materials comprise these compounds. Some copper sulfides are economically important ores. Prominent copper sulfide mineral ...

called matte. The 70-percent-copper matte is water-quenched to form a sand-like solid, then injected, with

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...

, into a flash-converting furnace that produces molten, 98.6-percent-pure copper. This copper is then cast into anode plates and shipped by rail to the refinery. At the refinery, the

anode An anode is an electrode of a polarized electrical device through which conventional current enters the device. This contrasts with a cathode, an electrode of the device through which conventional current leaves the device. A common mnemonic ...

plates are pressed flat and interleaved with stainless steel

cathode A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device. This definition can be recalled by using the mnemonic ''CCD'' for ''Cathode Current Departs''. A conventional current describes the direction in wh ...

blanks. Automated robotic vehicles place the prepared anodes in cells containing an acidic electrolyte. When the cells are electrified, the anodes slowly dissolve, freeing copper ions that are deposited on the cathode as 99.99-percent-pure copper. Impurities and precious metals settle to the bottom of the electrolytic cells as

anode slime Electrowinning, also called electroextraction, is the electrodeposition of metals from their ores that have been put in solution via a process commonly referred to as leaching. Electrorefining uses a similar process to remove impurities from a ...

s. A

chlorination Chlorination may refer to: * Chlorination reaction In chemistry, halogenation is a chemical reaction that entails the introduction of one or more halogens into a compound. Halide-containing compounds are pervasive, making this type of transform ...

leaching process recovers the gold and silver, which is melted in induction furnaces.

Operations

Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest artificially made excavation in the world, and is visible to the naked eye from an orbiting space shuttle. Employing some 2,000 workers, of material are removed from the mine daily. Electric shovels can carry up to or of ore in a single scoop. Ore is loaded into a fleet of 64 large

dump trucks A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump trailer, dumper trailer, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials (such as dirt, gravel, or demolition waste) for construction as well as coal. A typ ...

which each carry of ore at a time; the trucks themselves cost about $3 million each. There is a series of conveyors that take ore to the Copperton

concentrator In the evolution of modern telecommunications systems there was a requirement to connect large numbers of low-speed access devices with large telephone company 'central office' switches over common paths. During the first generations of digital netw ...

and flotation plant. The longest

conveyor A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transport of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow ...

is long. As of 2010, Kennecott Utah Copper was the second largest copper producer in the US, and provided about 13-18% percent of the U.S.'s copper needs. It is one of the top producing copper mines in the world with production at more than 18.7 million short tons (16.7 million long tons; 17.0 Mt). Every year, Kennecott produces approximately 300 thousand short tons (272 kt or 268 thousand long tons) of copper, along with 400 thousand

troy ounce Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in 15th-century England, and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and th ...

s (13.7 short tons 12.4 tonnes, or 12.2 long tons) of gold, 4 million troy ounces (124 tonnes, 137 short tons or 122 long tons) of silver, about 10 thousand short tons (9,100 tonnes or 8,900 long tons) of molybdenum, and about a million short tons (910 kt or 890 thousand long tons) of sulfuric acid, a by-product of the smelting process.

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...

purchased Kennecott Utah Copper in 1989 and has invested about $2 billion in the modernization of KUC's operations. The current mine plan will expire in 2019. Rio Tinto has been studying a plan to extend the open pit {{convert, 1,000, ft, 0 southward, which would extend the life of the mine into the mid-2030s. The plan has been contingent on approval by the Rio Tinto board of directors and approximately 25 required environmental permits.

Production

Bingham Canyon has proven to be one of the world's most productive mines. As of 2004, its ore yielded more than 17 million tons (15.4 Mt) of copper, 23 million ounces (715 t) of gold, 190 million ounces (5,900 t) of

, and 850 million pounds (386 kt) of molybdenum. The value of the resources extracted from the Bingham Canyon Mine is greater than the

Comstock Lode The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the Unit ...

, Klondike, and California gold rush mining regions combined. Mines in Chile,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

now{{when, date=May 2014 exceed Bingham Canyon's annual production rate. High molybdenum prices in 2005 made the molybdenum produced at Bingham Canyon in that year worth more than the copper. The value of metals produced in 2006 at Bingham Canyon was US$1.8 billion.

Environmental impact

In 1990, homes that had been built on former flood plains were discovered to be contaminated with high levels of lead and arsenic.{{cite web, title=Kennecott South Zone / Bingham, url=http://www2.epa.gov/region8/kennecott-south-zone-bingham, publisher=EPA, access-date=May 8, 2014, archive-date=May 8, 2014, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508065301/http://www2.epa.gov/region8/kennecott-south-zone-bingham, url-status=dead Activities to clean up 100 years of accumulated impacts began in the 1990s, under state

Utah Department of Environmental Quality The Utah Department of Environmental Quality is a state governmental organization located in Salt Lake City, Utah. DEQ's mission is to safeguard public health and our quality of life by protecting and enhancing the environment. DEQ implements State ...

and federal oversight and are ongoing.{{cite news, last=Butler, first=Kaitlin, title=When the copper is gone, our children will get the pit, url=http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/57803204-82/copper-mine-future-pit.html.csp, access-date=May 8, 2014, newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune, date=April 11, 2014 The EPA lists "Kennecott South Zone/Bingham" on its superfund webpage, after it was proposed to be listed as a superfund site in 1994. The South Zone includes the Bingham Mining District in the Oquirrh Mountains, about {{cvt, 25, mi, } southwest of Salt Lake City, the open pit, waste rock dumps, Copperton Mill and other historic sites. The company avoided regulatory issues of being on the NPL by voluntarily cleaning up the contaminated lands, the Superfund Alternative Approach. The listing proposal was withdrawn in 2008.{{cite web, title=EPA withdraws proposal to list Kennecott South Zone as Superfund site, url=https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/20ed1dfa1751192c8525735900400c30/223c73bd87a1d380852574b90055738d!opendocument, work=Region 8 superfund, publisher=EPA, date=September 3, 2008, access-date=May 8, 2014, archive-date=September 22, 2017, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922101748/https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/20ed1dfa1751192c8525735900400c30/223c73bd87a1d380852574b90055738d!opendocument, url-status=dead More than 25 million tons of mining wastes have been removed; sludge with elevated sulfate concentrations was consolidated and capped on site.{{citation needed, date=May 2014

1900–1909

By 1904, there were three large copper smelters and one lead smelter in the Salt Lake valley. The sulfur dioxide gas emissions from the smokestacks caused significant crop damage to neighboring crops. During the 1904–1905 winter, the farmers gathered together and decided to file suit against the smelters in the United States District Court of Utah. In 1906, Federal Court Judge Marshall ruled that the smelters could not smelt ores containing more than 10% sulfur, effectively closing all of the aforementioned smelters. Panorama of Bingham Canyon Mine in 1907

1910–1979

Kennecott Copper Mines was formed in 1910 after a merger of Utah Copper and Kennecott copper mining companies.{{cite book, last1=Richards, first1=Deanna J., title=The Industrial Green Game:: Implications for Environmental Design and Management., date=1997, publisher=National Academies Press By 1912, environmental protection organizations were complaining about high levels of asbestos being used in the organization. Kennecott Corporation was using asbestos for preventing fires since copper processing requires very high temperatures.{{cite book, last1=Miller and Scott Spoolman, first1=George, title=Living in the environment: principles, connections, and solutions., date=2011, publisher=Cengage Learning Copper has a very high boiling point and also requires use of other chemicals to separate it from other metals and impurities present in the ore. Asbestos has microscopic particles that dispersed into the atmosphere and contributed to illnesses among workers and individuals living near the mines. Asbestos is responsible for illnesses such as pleural fibrosis, skin warts and

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

. Kennecott Corporation was also cited as contributing to emissions of heavy metals such as

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

and mercury. By 1940,

and mercury were also some of the concerns that were raised by environmental protection agencies against Kennecott Corporation. Both mercury and

are dangerous to health in even small quantities.

1980–1989

{, class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;" , + Chemical spills, 1980-1989 ! scope="col" , Year ! scope="col" , Amount ! scope="col" , Substance Released ! scope="col" , Cause , - , 1989 , , 100,000,000 gal (est) , , Process water containing

, , Unknown{{cite web, title=EPA Superfund Record of Decision, url=http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods/fulltext/r0802610.pdf, website=EPA.gov, publisher=EPA, access-date=June 23, 2014 Investigations in the 1980s revealed contamination in the

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 ...

caused by mining operations the release of hazardous materials. The

State of 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 its we ...

proceeded with legal action against Kennecott and filed a damage claim against the mine in October 1986, for the loss and destruction of the natural resources, specifically the groundwater.{{cite web, title=Problems with Bingham Canyon Mine, url=http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/FS_Problems_BinghamCanyon_2011_low.pdf, website=Earthworksaction.org, publisher=EARTHWORKS, access-date=June 23, 2014, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140926172510/http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/FS_Problems_BinghamCanyon_2011_low.pdf, archive-date=September 26, 2014, url-status=dead There was also a threat due to the

tailings dam A tailings dam is typically an earth-fill embankment dam used to store byproducts of mining operations after separating the ore from the gangue. Tailings can be liquid, solid, or a slurry of fine particles, and are usually highly toxic and po ...

. An engineering report in March 1988, gave information that the

overshadowing the town of Magna had threat of collapse due to an earthquake and that the billion-ton tailings pond would bury the homes nearby if the tailing pond's embankment failed. The mine responded by proposing various potential strategies including buying up entire subdivisions near the tailings pond, calculating the company's liability if the embankment failed, investing $500 million (or ${{inflation, US, .5, 1988, r=1 billion today) to reinforce the embankment, and colluding with state regulators to keep the engineering report out of the public eye.{{cite news, last1=Fahys, first1=Judy, title=Special Report: How Kennecott concealed warnings of a possible disaster from the people of Magna, url=http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8667373, access-date=June 23, 2014, agency=Salt Lake Tribune, publisher=Salt Lake Tribune, date=March 24, 2008, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222539/http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8667373, archive-date=March 3, 2016, url-status=dead

1990–1999

{, class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;" , + Chemical spills, 1990-1999 ! scope="col" , Year ! scope="col" , Amount ! scope="col" , Substance Released ! scope="col" , Cause , - , 1999 , , 100,000,000 gal (est) , , Process water containing

, , Unknown , - , 1998 , , unknown , , Acid rock drainage , , Clogged pipe , - , 1997 , , unknown , , Copper sulphate , , Clogged outlet valve , - , 1997 , , unknown , , Process water with pH 2.5-4.0 , , Ruptured pipeline , - , 1993 , , 45,000 gal , , Wastewater , , Transfer line rupture , - , 1991 , , 30,000 gal , , Industrial wastewater , , Line break Starting in the beginning of 1990s, dust emissions from mining began polluting surrounding areas, caused by an area near the mine where

PM10 Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The te ...

levels (particulate matter 10 μm or smaller) began to rise from 28μg/ m³ to 50 μg/m³, posing severe health concerns for residents. The first report of PM10 rising was proposed by Schwartz and Dockery in 1992. Then, in 1997, Carter (a professor at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

) put forward that the mine discharge of PM10 has caused lung damage to neighboring residents. In 1995, due to scientific research showing that mining had caused the pollution of

, Utah passed laws to make Kennecott companies pay $37 million (or ${{inflation, US, 37, 1995, r=0 million today) to control

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. ...

. As a result of mine discharge sewage containing large amounts of

and

selenium Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...

– selenium being particularly toxic to birds, fish and amphibians – about 30% of the fish population were killed in the early 1990s. In 1995 Kennecott,

EPA 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 be ...

and the

signed an agreement saying that Kennecott will continue to clean up the discharge sewage.

2000–2014

From 2000 through 2011 the Bingham Canyon copper mine has had numerous chemical spills.{{cite web, title=THE TRACK RECORD OF WATER QUALITY IMPACTS RESULTING FROM PIPELINE SPILLS, TAILINGS FAILURES AND WATER COLLECTION AND TREATMENT FAILURES, url=http://www.patagoniaalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Porphyry_Copper_Mines_Track_Record_-_8-2012-1.pdf, website=www.patagoniaalliance.org/, publisher=EARTHWORKS, access-date=June 23, 2014 {, class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;" , + Chemical spills, 2000-2014 ! scope="col" , Year ! scope="col" , Amount ! scope="col" , Substance Released ! scope="col" , Cause , - , 2011 , , 145,424 gal , , Copper

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overli ...

, , Equipment malfunction , - , 2011 , , 100,000-290,000 gal, , Copper

, , Unknown , - , 2011 , , 160,000 gal , ,

Tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overli ...

, , Unknown , - , 2010 , , 4,000-5,000 gal , , Sulfuric acid , , Unknown , - , 2007 , , 1,240,000 gal , , Process water containing

, , Cold temperatures , - , 2006 , , 270,000 gal , , Process water , , Pump failure , - , 2006 , , 660,000 gal , , Process water containing

, , Cracked pipe , - , 2006 , , 1,000,000 gal , , Process water , , Failed indicator , - , 2004 , , 4,000,000 gal , , Process water containing

, , Cracked pipe , - , 2004 , , 2,000,000 gal , , Process water containing

, , Ruptured process water line , - , 2004 , , 202,000 gal , , Process water , , Pipeline failure , - , 2003 , , 70 tons , , Copper concentrate , , Unknown , - , 2003 , , 10.27 tons , , Copper concentrate containing

and

, , Pipeline rupture , - , 2003 , , 240,681 tons , ,

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 ...

and

, , Copper concentrate pipeline rupture , - , 2002 , , 5,800 gal , , Process water from slag pot, , Plugged drain line , - , 2001 , , 19 lbs , ,

Arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

, chromium and

, , Tailings pipeline failure , - , 2000 , , 110 tons , , Ore slurry , , Leak in ore line , - , 2000 , , 18,000 tons , , Sulfuric acid, , Flange failure , - The

has estimated a {{convert, 72, sqmi, adj=on, } plume of contaminated

has been created over the course of the mine due to multiple spills and runoff. Long-term effects of the underground water supply contamination may include an increased demand for surface water solutions as the population of the Salt Lake valley grows since the county will not be able to tap into the

supply. In 2007, Kennecott Utah Copper LLC was considering expanding its land holdings to Rose Canyon Ranch in the southern Oquirrh mountains and Yellow Fork Canyon land in

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 ...

. Kennecott claims rights to file a mining claim in accordance with the

Stock-Raising Homestead Act The Stock-Raising Homestead Act of 1916 provided settlers of public land—a full section or its equivalent—for ranching purposes. Unlike the Homestead Act of 1862 or the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909, land homesteaded under the 191 ...

of 1916. In 2008, the United States Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service sued Kennecott after the release of hazardous substances including

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

, and

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

. A federal biologist claimed that these chemicals have caused great damage to the ecosystems and resources that support the migrant bird populations, as well as other fish and wildlife habitats. In the northern zone near

, the extensive southern

pond has been collecting the

since the mine first started mining production. Kennecott Utah Copper LLC has requested permission for a Tailings Expansion Project (TEP) to expand the tailings pond impoundment in Magna, which is already at 1.8 billion ton capacity, and to expand on {{cvt, 721, acre, sqmi km2, 1} of wetlands south of the Great Salt Lake. The company has come under scrutiny for the instability of the structure. The

Salt Lake Tribune ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History A ...

published a report in 2007 revealing that the company failed to disclose information on possible damages that could occur if the

pond collapsed in the event of a major

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

. From 2001 through 2009 there have been six earthquakes ranging from 2.3 to 3.4 in magnitude with an average

epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

only {{convert, 3, mi, spell=in, } away from Magna.{{cite news, title=Scoping Summary Report: Kennecott Utah Copper LLC Tailings Expansion Project, url=http://www.spk.usace.army.mil/Portals/12/documents/regulatory/eis/KUC-TEP_final-scoping-rpt.pdf, access-date=June 23, 2014, agency=United States Department of the Army Corps of Engineers, date=August 2011

In popular culture

Bingham Canyon Mine was featured in the 1973 made-for-TV movie ''

Birds of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...

'', with protagonist helicopter pilot Harry Walker (played by

David Janssen David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer) (March 27, 1931February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Richard Kimble in the television series '' The Fugitive'' (1963–1967). Janssen also ...

) piloting his Hughes 500 into the crater to track down three bank robbers and their female hostage in an

Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama The Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama is a French single-engined helicopter developed to meet hot and high operational requirements of the Indian Armed Forces. It combines the lighter Aérospatiale Alouette II airframe with Alouette III components and ...

, which was hiding behind heavy mining machinery. It was also featured prominently in ''

The Fundamentals of Caring ''The Fundamentals of Caring'' is a 2016 American road comedy-drama film written and directed by Rob Burnett, based on the 2012 novel '' The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving'' by Jonathan Evison. Starring Paul Rudd, Craig Roberts, and Sele ...

''. In the PC video game ''

American Truck Simulator ''American Truck Simulator'' is a Vehicle simulation game#Trucking simulator, truck simulator game developed and published by SCS Software. It was announced as being in development in September 2013 and unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Exp ...

'', players can simulate hauling cargo at the mine.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

{{Commons category, Bingham Canyon Mine
Kennecott's Home PageKennecott Copper Mine. Utah Teacher Guide
*John Hollenhors
Kennecott Begins Major Expansion Project
November 17, 2005, ksl.com
To Move A Mountain: A History of Mining and Railroads in Bingham CanyonPhoto gallery
{{youTube, TzIat5zhb_k, Video

utahoutdooractivities.com

3d-exposure.com
Photos of the 2013 landslide
ksl.com *{{HAER , survey=UT-21 , id=ut0029 , title=Utah Copper Company, Bingham Canyon Mine, State Route 48, Copperton, Salt Lake County, UT , photos=26 , color=, dwgs=4, data= , cap=2 {{Registered Historic Places {{Authority control 1906 establishments in Utah Buildings and structures in Salt Lake County, Utah Copper mines in the United States Geography of Salt Lake County, Utah Historic American Engineering Record in Utah Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah Landslides in 2013 Landslides in the United States Mines in Utah National Historic Landmarks in Utah National Register of Historic Places in Salt Lake County, Utah Open-pit mines Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries Surface mines in the United States Tailings dams Tourist attractions in Utah