Operations
Employing 1,800 employees and hundreds of contractors, 450,000 short tons (400,000 long tons; 410,000 t) of material are removed from the mine daily. Electric shovels can carry up to 56 cubic yards (43 m3) or 98 short tons (88 long tons; 89 t) of ore in a single scoop. Ore is loaded into a fleet of 64 large dump trucks which each carry 255 short tons (228 long 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 Copperton 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 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 ounces (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 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 mining waste cleanup.
The current mine plan will expire in 2019. Rio Tinto is currently studying a plan to extend the open pit 1,000 feet (305 m) 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.
Read more about this topic: Bingham Canyon Mine
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)