BINGHAM CANYON MINE

This is one of the largest copper mines in the world. After the profitable metals have been removed from the ore, the tailings are transported 14 miles as a slurry in a 60" concrete pipe from the Copperton Concentrator to the tailings impoundment located near Magna, Utah. Tailings are processed through two cyclone stations that separate the coarse grained material (underflow) from the finer grained material (overflow). The underflow is used to construct the outer embankment of the impoundment and the overflow is deposited into the interior of the impoundment where the solids drop out forming a beach and the water pools in a pond in the center of the impoundment. To accommodate the approximately 60 million tons of tailings deposited annually, the impoundment height is raised approximately 8-10 feet per year. The impoundment has been receiving tailings since 1906. Since then, more than 1.5 billion tons of tailings have been stored. Copper, like silver and gold, can be produced directly from naturally occurring minerals by heating and oxidation. Smelting began on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake in 1906 to process ore from Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine. In 1992, Kennecott Utah Copper began construction of an $880-million modernization of the Smelter and the Refinery. This project was the largest privately financed construction project in the history of Utah.