Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine - Herriman, UT [Removed]
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 40° 32.130 W 112° 08.900
12T E 402747 N 4487828
On 4/10/2013 a massive landslide totally destroyed the Mine Visitor Center. Because of advance warning everything at the Visitor Center had been removed to a safe location. A new Visitor Center will probably not be available until after 2014.
Waymark Code: WM9K8Q
Location: Utah, United States
Date Posted: 08/28/2010
Views: 13
Imagine an excavation so large that the entire population of the world could be piled inside it eight times over!!
This excavation is almost two miles wide and three miles long at the top and almost 4000 feet deep. From about 1 1/4 miles across the mine from the Visitors Center, giant ore haul trucks the size of a two-story house look like tiny Matchbox toys. Watch as these giant trucks dump over $12,000 worth of copper, molybdenun, gold, silver, and other minerals with every load that goes into the in-pit crusher.
Inside the Visitors Center are numerous exhibits showing the history of the mine, mineral specimens, everyday uses of copper, environmental recovery processes, and 3-D models of the mine at about thirty year intervals from the beginning of the open pit in 1906 up to how it will look in 2018.
And now they've discovered the largest deposit of molybdenum in the world!! This mineral is used for alloying steel, as a catalyst in refining petroleum, and as a lubricant (as in Moly Grease). When the new molybdenum processing plant comes on line in 2012 they will recover about 9000 pounds a year of a rare-earth element called rhenium. This mineral has the highest melting point of any metal and is used as an alloy for metals used in jet engine turbines and other high-temperature applications. This element is only found in conjunction with molybdenum and is so rare that only about 300 pounds are recovered for every 1,000,000 pounds of molybdenum produced. And that is why it costs $4300.00 dollars per pound in today's market!
The coordinates were taken at the National Historic Landmark marker pictured in the default picture. It is about 6 steps away from the railing at the edge of the mine overlook at the Visitors Center. Access the Visitors Center via the security gate off of Utah Highway 111 (Bacchus Highway) at about 12600 South. Cost is $5.00 per car or van; proceeds go to local charities.
Street address:
W 12600 South (as given by Mapquest)
Herriman, Utah
County / Borough / Parish: Salt Lake County
Year listed: 1966
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event
Periods of significance: 1900 to 1924, 1925 to 1949.
Historic function: Industry/Processing/Extraction
Current function: Industry/Processing/Extraction
Privately owned?: yes
Season start / Season finish: From: 04/01/2010 To: 10/31/2010
Hours of operation: From: 8:00 AM To: 8:00 PM
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 1: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.