The most famous mining location in the Salt Lake Valley is unquestionably the gigantic Rio Tinto/Kennecott Bingham Canyon Mine.  Minerals were discovered by Mormon pioneers as early as 1850 but mining was discouraged by Bringham Young who wanted to develop a self-sufficient agricultural base for the pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley.  In 1862, Col. Patrick Connor and the 3^rd California Infantry and the 2^nd California Cavalry came to Utah and established Fort Douglas to protect the Overland Mail and telegraph, and keep an eye on the pioneer settlements.  Connor encouraged his troops, some of whom had mining experience in California, to prospect.  By 1863, deposits of copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc had been discovered in the Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountains.

Like many of our fellow MHAers, we had visited the Bingham Canyon Mine before but it had been a while. We expected to see a lot of changes.  Some of us recalled driving family cars up Bingham Canyon to an earlier overlook.  Over the years, mining operations have filled-in the Canyon and buried earlier small mining towns. This time we used Jack Crawford’s “Orientation Guide” to the Bingham Canyon Mine from the MHA Park City Conference webpage to navigate past several Kennecott facilities and arrive at the Rio Tinto/Kennecott Visitors Center.  CLICK HERE to download a copy.  At the Visitors Center, we boarded a shuttle bus for the ride to the new mine overlook and exhibit area located in the open pit.  This is the only way to see the mine which has grown from a small mountain to the massive open pit copper mine that is surrounded by towering mine dumps.

The view of the Wasatch Mountains from the parking lot at the Rio Tinto Kennecott Visitor Experience is breathtaking. The peaks are over 11,000 feet in elevation.  The Visitor Center is located near the site of the historic U.S. Smelting Refining and Mining Company Lark Mine and the company town of the same name. Click on the link for an historic view courtesy of Groundbreakers.com.

There is light at the end of the tunnel in an outside exhibit that tells the story of the 3.5-mile-long Bingham Tunnel.  It was developed in 1951 to provide access to the Lark and Niagara ore bodies and the underground mines.  CLICK HERE for a photo of the tunnel portal courtesy of Groundbreakers.com.  Today the tunnel is used to manage water from the upper reaches of the Bingham Canyon Mine and to improve slope stability.

As soon as you arrive at the pit overlook, the sheer scale of everything sinks in.  The mine is over 2.5 miles across and 0.75 miles deep (3 Empire State Buildings could be stacked inside).  The benches are 50 feet high.  Not everything is ore.  For every ton of ore removed, 3 tons of waste rock are hauled to the mine dumps.  Currently mining is pushing the south side of the pit (left above) back to expose more ore at depth.

Scattered throughout the mine are shop areas that maintain the trucks and other pieces of equipment. (Above) This photo shows the Copperfield Truck Shop, North Ore Shoot Extension shaft headframe, and the Primary Ore Crusher. (Below) The facilities being used for the development of the future underground mine can also be seen.

The upper level of the overlook reinforces the theme that this is modern mining on a massive scale.  The Kaases and the Cantys were dwarfed by a single truck tire. (Right)

In a similar manner, a large haul truck box for  Komatsu 930E (Below) is used to present the timeline of the mine’s history. Pat Kaas provides a sense of scale.