Amazing facts
About the Mine
- Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - more than 19 million tons.
- The mine is 2-3/4 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers (now known as the Willis Building) 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.
- You could lay the soccer field at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah end to end more than 38 times across the top of the Bingham Canyon Mine before it would reach both sides.
- The elevation of the Bingham Canyon Mine drops from 8,040 feet above sea level to 4,390 feet above sea level. The Visitors Center is located at 6,440 feet above sea level.
About the Equipment
- The giant electric shovels in the mine can scoop up as much as 98 tons in a single bite -- about the weight of 50 cars.
- The newest electric shovels each cost more than $20 million and weigh 3.2 million pounds.
- The trucks that haul the ore are larger than many houses and weigh more than a jumbo jet. They stand over 23 feet tall and can carry from 255 to 360 tons of rock.
- The truck driver rides about 18 feet above the ground -- nearly two stories high.
- Each tire on these big trucks costs from $18,000 to $26,000 and lasts just 9 months.
- The crusher in the pit takes in about 140,000 tons of ore every day and grinds it into chunks smaller than the size of a basketball.
- At 1,215 feet tall, the Kennecott smokestack is the highest structure in Utah.
About Mining in General
- Every deposit of ore in the world is unique. No two ore bodies are alike.
- More than 320,000 people work directly in mining throughout the United States.
- Only about one tenth of one percent of the land in Utah has been touched by mining.
About the Minerals We Use
- The first known use of copper dates back 10,000 years.
- To make all the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters in 1999, the U.S. Mint used about 36,000 tons of copper. That's about as much refined copper as Kennecott produces every 41 days.
- Each American uses more than 40,000 pounds of new minerals every year.
- It takes about 15 different minerals to make a car ... 35 different minerals to make a television ... 30 minerals to make a computer ... and as many as 42 different minerals to make a telephone.
