The Bingham Canyon Copper Mine is an open pit mine in the Oquirrh Mountains southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known locally as the Kennecott Copper Mine, the deposit is owned by Rio Tinto, a British-Australian multinational corporation.
Copper ore was first discovered in the area in 1848 in Bingham Canyon by two brothers, Sanford and Thomas Bingham, sons of Erastus Bingham, who were grazing their cattle there.
However, extraction had not yet started at that time, and had to wait until 1863. The current mine, which has been operating since 1906, has a maximum depth of 1,210 meters, a width of 4 kilometers and an area of 770 hectares. The mine is the largest artificial excavation and the deepest open-pit mine in the world. It is believed to have produced more copper than any other mine in history.
A huge landslide occurred in the mine in April 2013, followed by a smaller one in September 2013. It was probably the largest non-volcanic landslide ever to occur in North America. Since the steep walls of the mine posed a great risk of landslides, an interferometric radar system was previously installed to monitor the stability of the ground.
Thanks to the warnings issued by the system, the mining activity was stopped the day before in view of the slide, and there were no personal injuries.
Like other older mining activities, it has had adverse environmental effects on fish and wildlife habitat, as well as air and water pollution, posing health hazards to the surrounding population. Since the early 1990s, the mine operator has spent more than $400 million to clean up the affected areas to avoid sanctions.
Click on the image below to view our gallery of the gigantic mine!
