Facts about our operation
- Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history -- about 18.7 million tons.
- The mine is 2¾ miles across at the top and ¾ of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.
- If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you'd have 500 miles of roadway -- enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.
Kennecott Utah Copper fact sheet
Kennecott's 2007 economic impact
Kennecott's 2009 economic impact
Kennecott Utah Copper's Operation
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Bingham Canyon Mine
This is where the mining process begins. Every day, Kennecott Utah Copper mines about 150,000 tons of copper ore and 330,000 tons of overburden. The ore containing copper, gold, silver and molybdenum is hauled and deposited in the in-pit crusher and sent to the Copperton Concentrator. |
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Copperton Concentrator
From the mine, ore is transported on a five-mile conveyor and stockpiled at the Copperton Concentrator. There the ore is ground into fine particles. The smaller pieces are then combined with air, water and chemical reagents to separate the valuable minerals from the waste rock. The mineral bearing concentrate is then transported to the smelter through a pipeline. |
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Tailings
Tailings are the leftover rock material that has had most of the valuable metals removed. Tailings are sent through a pipeline from the Copperton Concentrator to the tailings impoundment area north of the town of Magna where they are stored. |
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Smelter
At the smelter, the copper concentrate is transformed into liquid copper through a flash smelting process. The copper matte is processed in the furnace to produce 99.5 percent blister copper. From there, the 750 pound copper plates, called anodes, are sent to the refinery. |
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Refinery
At the refinery, anodes are lowered into electrolytic cells containing a stainless steel blank and acidic solution. For 10 days, an electric current is sent between the anode and the cathode, causing the copper ions to migrate to the steel sheet. Impurities, including gold and silver, fall to the bottom of the cell and are recovered in the Precious Metals plant. This process forms a plate of 99.99 percent pure copper. The copper is separated from the steel sheet and sent to market. |
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Molybdenum autoclave process (MAP)
Currently under construction, the MAP facility will enable lower-grade molybdenum concentrate to be processed, allow improved molybdenum recovery and operating flexibility and enable production of both technical and chemical grade molybdenum products. The first phase of construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2012. Phase two is expected to be completed by 2015. |
