Edged
Detail of one small section of the gigantic Rio Tinto -- Kennecott open pit copper mine. To see more of this huge mine check out the album here: www.flickr.com/photos/19779889@N00/albums/72157627780868214
About the Mine
• Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - about 18.7 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.
(Text Courtesy Kennecott Utah Copper)
Edged
Detail of one small section of the gigantic Rio Tinto -- Kennecott open pit copper mine. To see more of this huge mine check out the album here: www.flickr.com/photos/19779889@N00/albums/72157627780868214
About the Mine
• Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - about 18.7 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.
(Text Courtesy Kennecott Utah Copper)