Bingham Canyon Mine
Encyclopedia
The Bingham Canyon Mine, also known as the Kennecott Copper Mine, is an open-pit mining
operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit
southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah
, USA, in the Oquirrh Mountains
. It is the deepest open-pit mine in the world. 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 Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation which operates the mine, a concentrator plant, a smelter, and a refinery
. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles (1.2 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres (7.7 km²). According to Kennecott, it is the world's largest man-made excavation. It was designated a National Historic Landmark
in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine.
, who advised against pursuing mining operations because the survival and establishment of settlements was of paramount importance at that time. The brothers applied themselves 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.
It was not until 1863 that extraction of ore began and the potential of the canyon's mineral resources began to be widely recognized. At first, mining was difficult due to the area's rugged terrain, but a railroad reached the canyon in 1873, prompting greatly increased mining activity and accompanying settlement. The canyon's nineteenth-century mines were relatively small, however, and it was not until 1898 that plans for very large-scale exploitation of the canyon's ore bodies began to develop. That year, Samuel Newhouse
and Thomas Weir formed the Boston Consolidated Mining Company, intending to increase mine development in the canyon.
A more 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 type orebody at Bingham Canyon revolutionized the copper industry, and set the pattern for the large open-pit porphyry copper mines that today dominate the copper industry worldwide. Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated merged in 1910. The Kennecott Copper Corporation, established in 1903 to operate mines in Kennecott, Alaska, purchased a financial interest in Utah Copper in 1915 and fully acquired the company in 1936.
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, however, and several of the mining camps began to be swallowed up by the ever-expanding 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. For years, the largest open-pit mine in the world, it is still the largest copper mine and among the world's largest open-pit mines. Work to expand the mine 600 feet (180 m) east began in 2005, continuing to increase its size, growth, and capabilities.
porphyry intruded into sedimentary rocks. It has the concentric alteration pattern and mineralogic zonation typical of porphyry copper deposits.
The oldest rocks at Bingham Canyon--sandstone
s, quartzite
s and limestone
s--were originally deposited as sediment by the shallow seas that covered the region 300 million years ago (in the late Paleozoic Era). Much later, between 60 and 135 million years ago, extensive folding and faulting of the sediments created the Oquirrh Mountains
.
Thirty to 40 million years ago, massive igneous intrusions initiated the process of mineralization. Extreme pressure forced superheated, mineral-rich solutions into fractured intrusive and adjacent sedimentary rock. Upon cooling, the mineralized solutions deposited enormous quantities of metals throughout a broad section of igneous and sedimentary rock that is now known as the Bingham Stock.
Bingham Canyon is not presently a source of notable mineral specimens. The Bingham Stock is a porphyry deposit, meaning that copper minerals—primarily chalcopyrite
--are present in very low grades and disseminated throughout the granite
-like host rock as tiny grains, seams and fracture coatings.
then separates the gangue
from the metalliferous particles, which float off as a 28-percent concentrate of copper
along with lesser amounts of silver
, gold
, lead
, molybdenum
, platinum
and palladium
. A selective flotation step separates the molybdenite
(molybdenum disulfide
) from the chalcopyrite
.
The filtered concentrate slurry is piped 17 miles (27.4 km) 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
called matte. The 70-percent-copper matte is water-quenched to form a sand-like solid, then injected, with oxygen
, into a flash-converting furnace that produces molten, 98.6-percent-pure copper. This copper is then cast into 700 pounds (317.5 kg) anode plates and shipped by rail to the refinery.
At the refinery, the anode
plates are pressed flat and interleaved with stainless steel cathode
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 99.9-percent-pure copper.
Impurities and precious metals settle to the bottom of the electrolytic cells as "slimes." A chlorination
leaching process recovers the gold and silver, which is melted in induction furnaces.
, 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
, Klondike
, and California gold rush
mining regions combined. Cumulatively, Bingham Canyon has produced more copper than any other mine in the USA, and is the second in the world after Chuquicamata
in Chile
. Mines in Chile, Indonesia
, Arizona
, and New Mexico
now exceed Bingham Canyon's annual production rate. High molybdenum
prices in 2005 made the molybdenum produced at Bingham Canyon in that year worth even more than the copper. The value of metals produced in 2006 at Bingham Canyon was US$1.8 billion dollars.
concentrator and flotation
plant. The longest conveyor is 3 miles (4.8 km) long.
As of 2010, Kennecott Utah Copper is the second largest copper producer in the United States and provides about 13-18% percent of the U.S.'s copper needs. Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest man-made excavation in the world, and is visible with the naked eye from space. It is one of the top producing copper mines in the world with production at more than 18.7 million tons. Every year, Kennecott produces approximately 300,000 tons of copper, along with 400,000 ounces of gold, 4 million ounces of silver, about 20 million pounds of molybdenum, and about 1 million tons of sulfuric acid, a by-product of the smelting process. Rio Tinto purchased Kennecott Utah Copper in 1989 and has invested about $2 billion in the modernization of KUC’s operations. KUCC has also spent more than $350 million on the cleanup of historic mining waste and $100 million on groundwater cleanup.
The current mine plan will expire in 2019. Rio Tinto is currently studying a plan to extend the open pit 1,000 feet southward, which would extend the life of the mine into the mid-2030s. The plan is contingent on approval by the Rio Tinto board of directors and approximately 25 required environmental permits.
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit
Porphyry copper deposit
Porphyry copper deposits are copper orebodies which are associated with porphyritic intrusive rocks and the fluids that accompany them during the transition and cooling from magma to rock. Circulating surface water or underground fluids may interact with the plutonic fluids...
southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, USA, in the Oquirrh Mountains
Oquirrh Mountains
The Oquirrh Mountains is a mountain range that run north-south for approximately 30 miles to form the west side of Utah's Salt Lake Valley, separating it from Tooele Valley. The range begins in northwest Utah County and stops at the south shore of the Great Salt Lake. The highest elevation is...
. It is the deepest open-pit mine in the world. The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
, an international mining and exploration company headquartered in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. 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
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 are as follows:...
. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles (1.2 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres (7.7 km²). According to Kennecott, it is the world's largest man-made excavation. It was designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine.
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, Mormon pioneers of September 1847, who grazed their family's and other's cattle and horses there. They reported their find to their leader, Brigham YoungBrigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, who advised against pursuing mining operations because the survival and establishment of settlements was of paramount importance at that time. The brothers applied themselves 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.
Samuel Newhouse
Samuel Newhouse was a Utah entrepreneur and mining magnate.He was born in New York City of European Jewish immigrant parents and grew up in Pennsylvania. He studied law there before going to Colorado in 1879...
and Thomas Weir formed the Boston Consolidated Mining Company, intending to increase mine development in the canyon.
A more significant development took place in 1903, when Daniel C. Jackling
Daniel C. Jackling
-Career:Daniel Jackling was educated in mining and metallurgy disciplines at the Missouri School of Mines in Rolla, Missouri, now known as Missouri University of Science and Technology. In 1898, Jackling and Robert C. Gemmell made a detailed examination of the Bingham Canyon copper property. They...
and Enos A. Wall organized the Utah Copper Company. Utah Copper immediately began construction of a pilot mill at Copperton
Copperton, Utah
Copperton is a CDP and township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, located at the mouth of Bingham Canyon, about 17 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The township boundaries include a greater area than that of the CDP Copperton is a CDP and township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United...
, 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 type orebody at Bingham Canyon revolutionized the copper industry, and set the pattern for the large open-pit porphyry copper mines that today dominate the copper industry worldwide. Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated merged in 1910. The Kennecott Copper Corporation, established in 1903 to operate mines in Kennecott, Alaska, purchased a financial interest in Utah Copper in 1915 and fully acquired the company in 1936.
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, however, and several of the mining camps began to be swallowed up by the ever-expanding mine. By 1980, when Lark
Lark, Utah
Lark is a ghost town located west of Herriman in the Oquirrh Mountains of southwest Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. Lark was the location of several copper mines.-History:...
was dismantled, only Copperton
Copperton, Utah
Copperton is a CDP and township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, located at the mouth of Bingham Canyon, about 17 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The township boundaries include a greater area than that of the CDP Copperton is a CDP and township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United...
, at the mouth of Bingham Canyon and with a population of 800, remained. Today, mining operations continue at full-swing in the mine. For years, the largest open-pit mine in the world, it is still the largest copper mine and among the world's largest open-pit mines. Work to expand the mine 600 feet (180 m) east began in 2005, continuing to increase its size, growth, and capabilities.
Geology
The Bingham Canyon orebody is a porphyry copper deposit, formed by a quartz monzoniteQuartz monzonite
Quartz monzonite is an intrusive igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. The plagioclase is typically intermediate to sodic in composition, andesine to oligoclase. Quartz is present in significant amounts. Biotite and/or hornblende...
porphyry intruded into sedimentary rocks. It has the concentric alteration pattern and mineralogic zonation typical of porphyry copper deposits.
The oldest rocks at Bingham Canyon--sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
s, quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
s and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
s--were originally deposited as sediment by the shallow seas that covered the region 300 million years ago (in the late Paleozoic Era). Much later, between 60 and 135 million years ago, extensive folding and faulting of the sediments created the Oquirrh Mountains
Oquirrh Mountains
The Oquirrh Mountains is a mountain range that run north-south for approximately 30 miles to form the west side of Utah's Salt Lake Valley, separating it from Tooele Valley. The range begins in northwest Utah County and stops at the south shore of the Great Salt Lake. The highest elevation is...
.
Thirty to 40 million years ago, massive igneous intrusions initiated the process of mineralization. Extreme pressure forced superheated, mineral-rich solutions into fractured intrusive and adjacent sedimentary rock. Upon cooling, the mineralized solutions deposited enormous quantities of metals throughout a broad section of igneous and sedimentary rock that is now known as the Bingham Stock.
Bingham Canyon is not presently a source of notable mineral specimens. The Bingham Stock is a porphyry deposit, meaning that copper minerals—primarily chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green tinged black.On exposure to air, chalcopyrite...
--are present in very low grades and disseminated throughout the granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
-like host rock as tiny grains, seams and fracture coatings.
Recovery process
The extracted ore is run through a concentrator, where huge grinding mills reduce it to the consistency of face powder. FlotationFlotation process
Flotation process is a method of separation widely used in the wastewater treatment and mineral processing industries.Various flotation processes include the following:* Dissolved air flotation...
then separates the gangue
Gangue
In mining, gangue is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. The separation of mineral from gangue is known as mineral processing, mineral dressing or ore dressing and it is a necessary and often significant aspect of mining...
from the metalliferous particles, which float off as a 28-percent concentrate of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
along with lesser amounts of silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, molybdenum
Molybdenum
Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...
, platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
and palladium
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired...
. A selective flotation step separates the molybdenite
Molybdenite
Molybdenite is a mineral of molybdenum disulfide, MoS2. 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 atoms sandwiched between sheets of sulfur atoms...
(molybdenum disulfide
Molybdenum disulfide
Molybdenum disulfide is the inorganic compound with the formula MoS2. This black crystalline sulfide of molybdenum occurs as the mineral molybdenite. It is the principal ore from which molybdenum metal is extracted. The natural amorphous form is known as the rarer mineral jordisite. MoS2 is less...
) from the chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green tinged black.On exposure to air, chalcopyrite...
.
The filtered concentrate slurry is piped 17 miles (27.4 km) 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
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
- a million tons of it each year.
Left behind is a molten copper sulfide
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....
called matte. The 70-percent-copper matte is water-quenched to form a sand-like solid, then injected, with oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
, into a flash-converting furnace that produces molten, 98.6-percent-pure copper. This copper is then cast into 700 pounds (317.5 kg) anode plates and shipped by rail to the refinery.
At the refinery, the anode
Anode
An anode is an electrode through which electric current flows into a polarized electrical device. Mnemonic: ACID ....
plates are pressed flat and interleaved with stainless steel cathode
Cathode
A cathode is an electrode through which electric current flows out of a polarized electrical device. Mnemonic: CCD .Cathode polarity is not always negative...
blanks. Automated robotic vehicles place the prepared anodes in cells containing an acidic electrolyte
Electrolyte
In chemistry, an electrolyte is any substance containing free ions that make the substance electrically conductive. The most typical electrolyte is an ionic solution, but molten electrolytes and solid electrolytes are also possible....
. When the cells are electrified, the anodes slowly dissolve, freeing copper ions that are deposited on the cathode as 99.9-percent-pure copper.
Impurities and precious metals settle to the bottom of the electrolytic cells as "slimes." A chlorination
Chlorination
Chlorination is the process of adding the element chlorine to water as a method of water purification to make it fit for human consumption as drinking water...
leaching process recovers the gold and silver, which is melted in induction furnaces.
Production
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 17 million tons (15.4 Mt) of copper, 23 million ounces (715 t) of gold, 190 million ounces (5,900 t) of silverSilver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, and 850 million pounds (386 kt) of molybdenum
Molybdenum
Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...
. The value of the resources extracted from the Bingham Canyon Mine is greater than the Comstock Lode
Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...
, Klondike
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
, and California gold rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
mining regions combined. Cumulatively, Bingham Canyon has produced more copper than any other mine in the USA, and is the second in the world after Chuquicamata
Chuquicamata
Chuquicamata, or "Chuqui" as it is more familiarly known, is by digged volume the biggest open pit copper mine in the world, located in the north of Chile, 215 km northeast of Antofagasta and 1,240 km north of the capital, Santiago...
in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. Mines in Chile, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
now exceed Bingham Canyon's annual production rate. High molybdenum
Molybdenum
Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...
prices in 2005 made the molybdenum produced at Bingham Canyon in that year worth even more than the copper. The value of metals produced in 2006 at Bingham Canyon was US$1.8 billion dollars.
Operations
Employing 1,800 employees and hundreds of contractors, 450,000 tons (408 kt) of material are removed from the mine daily. Electric shovels can carry up to 56 cubic yards (43 m³) or 98 tons (89 t) of ore in a single scoop. Ore is loaded into a fleet of 64 large dump trucks which each carry 255 tons (231 t) of ore at a time; the trucks themselves cost about $3 million US each. There is a five mile (8 km) series of conveyors that take ore to the CoppertonCopperton, Utah
Copperton is a CDP and township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, located at the mouth of Bingham Canyon, about 17 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The township boundaries include a greater area than that of the CDP Copperton is a CDP and township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United...
concentrator and flotation
Froth flotation
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in several processing industries...
plant. The longest conveyor is 3 miles (4.8 km) long.
As of 2010, Kennecott Utah Copper is the second largest copper producer in the United States and provides about 13-18% percent of the U.S.'s copper needs. Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest man-made excavation in the world, and is visible with the naked eye from space. It is one of the top producing copper mines in the world with production at more than 18.7 million tons. Every year, Kennecott produces approximately 300,000 tons of copper, along with 400,000 ounces of gold, 4 million ounces of silver, about 20 million pounds of molybdenum, and about 1 million tons of sulfuric acid, a by-product of the smelting process. Rio Tinto purchased Kennecott Utah Copper in 1989 and has invested about $2 billion in the modernization of KUC’s operations. KUCC has also spent more than $350 million on the cleanup of historic mining waste and $100 million on groundwater cleanup.
The current mine plan will expire in 2019. Rio Tinto is currently studying a plan to extend the open pit 1,000 feet southward, which would extend the life of the mine into the mid-2030s. The plan is contingent on approval by the Rio Tinto board of directors and approximately 25 required environmental permits.