It was a lot of fun!
Amazing facts
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.
- The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle astronauts as they pass over the United States.
- By 2015, the mine will be at least 500 feet deeper than it is now.
- 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.
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.
