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United States
Bingham Canyon (Kennecott) Mine

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 Location:
33 km SW from Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

  Address:
12800 S. Bacchus Hwy (U-111) Bingham Canyon
Bingham Canyon
Utah, United States
Phone801.204.2025
EmailEmail
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Financials
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Molybdenum
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Flotation
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
Mine Life2032
The Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest man-made excavation on Earth. It measures two and three-quarter miles across at the top and three-quarters of a mile deep.
Latest NewsRio Tinto to build new tellurium plant at Kennecott mine     March 8, 2021


Owners

 
CompanyInterestOwnership
Rio Tinto plc 100 % Indirect
Kennecott Utah Copper LLC 100 % Direct

Deposit Type

  • Porphyry

Source: Source

Summary:

The Bingham Canyon porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum deposit is one of the largest and highest-grade porphyry orebodies in the world.

Porphyry dikes, faults, and quartz veins are steeply dipping and have two dominant orientations; north-northeast– and northwest-striking. Dikes have a north-northeast strike but they thicken and develop northwest-trending apophyses and host high-grade copper-gold zones at intersections with northwest-faults, indicating that magmatic-hydrothermal fluids were focused by these structural intersections.

Vein truncation relationships coupled with abrupt changes in copper-gold grades, sulfide ratios, and potassic alteration intensity at porphyry intrusive contacts indicate that the mass of introduced copper and gold decreased significantly during successive porphyry intrusive-hydrothermal cycles, presumably due to depletion of metals and volatiles in the underlying magma chamber.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source: p.5

Summary:

There are 11 giant electric shovels and one hydraulic shovel operating in the mine.
• The largest electric shovel has a 56-cubic-yard dipper that scoops up approximately 98 tons of material in a single bite, a weight equivalent to about 50 automobiles.
• The newest electric shovel costs more than $20 million and weighs 3.2 million pounds.
• There are about 70 gigantic haulage trucks operating in the mine. These trucks carry from 255 to 320 tons of material in a single trip.
• The mine has eight large drills that stand between 75 and 100 feet tall and drill blast holes 55 feet deep. On average, 200 holes are drilled in a typical day and packed with 1,200 pounds of special blasting agents.
• The in-pit crusher reduces ore to less than 10 inches in diameter or about the size of a basketball. Very fine dust particles are captured in an air pollution control device called a bag house — similar to a very large vacuum cleaner.


Crushing and Grinding
Source: Source


Processing

  • Flotation
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning

Source: Source

Summary:

At the gyratory crusher, we reduce approximately 150,000 tons of ore per day to pieces about 10 inches in diameter. We then transport the crushed ore by a five-mile conveyer system: three miles through a tunnel in the mountain and two miles above ground to the Copperton Concentrator.

In the second step of the production process, we concentrate the ore, which separates valuable minerals from the ore into a concentrated liquid.

We turn the crushed ore into a slurry and transport it to flotation cells. We mix it with reagents to produce a bubbly froth. Ore particles containing most of the valuable minerals adhere to the bubbles, which float over the sides of the flotation cells. We then collect and filter this material, called concentrate.

The concentrate, which contains about 26 percent copper and by-products such as gold and silver, moves through a pipeline to Kennecott’s smelter, located about 17 miles to the north, for further processing.

The next stage, smelting, is a process of heating and melting the copper concentrates to cause a chemical reaction, which removes the copper from other elements in the ore. At the smelter, we produce large 750-pound anodes and transport them by rail to the Refinery. The copper is 99 percent pure at this stage.

The smelter at Kennecott captures 99.9 percent of the sulfur in the feed, making it one of the cleanest in the world. The smelter also recovers heat from the furnaces, which generates 60 percent of the facility’s total electricity.

At the refining stage, the copper is in anode form. We subject 750-pound copper anode plates to an electric current for ten days and turn them into two 300-pound copper cathodes. This further separates the copper from other metals – the result is copper that is 99.99 percent pure.

At the refinery, all the other impurities — including silver and gold particles — drop off into the solution and settle to the bottom. The residue from that solution goes to the precious metals plant, where we put it through a series of chemical processes to separate out the gold and silver.

The last step in the production process is to stamp each bar with Kennecott's brand, the lot number, the weight and the fineness of the metal — that is, the percentage of gold or silver in the bar.


Production:

CommodityUnits2019201820172016201520142013
Copper kt 18720414915392204211
Gold koz 235197178153131260207
Silver koz 2,8152,5202,1561,9431,4582,9352,876
Molybdenum kt 115.852.87.6125.7
All production numbers are expressed as metal in concentrate.


Reserves at December 31, 2019:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGrade
Proven & Probable 612 Mt Copper 0.43 %
Proven & Probable 612 Mt Gold 0.16 g/t
Proven & Probable 612 Mt Silver 2.04 g/t
Proven & Probable 612 Mt Molybdenum 0.034 %
Measured 14 Mt Copper 0.46 %
Measured 14 Mt Gold 0.13 g/t
Measured 14 Mt Silver 1.9 g/t
Measured 14 Mt Molybdenum 0.031 %
Indicated 18 Mt Copper 0.44 %
Indicated 18 Mt Gold 0.15 g/t
Indicated 18 Mt Silver 2.21 g/t
Indicated 18 Mt Molybdenum 0.017 %
Inferred 11 Mt Copper 0.22 %
Inferred 11 Mt Gold 0.24 g/t
Inferred 11 Mt Silver 2.18 g/t
Inferred 11 Mt Molybdenum 0.003 %

Financials:

Units20192018201720162015
Capital expenditures M USD 444  318  249   333   408  
Revenue M USD 1,879  1,862  1,352   1,243   1,403  
After-tax Income M USD 397  293  78   -228   44  
EBITDA M USD 843  785  539   126   437  


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
General Manager Technical Geraldine Lyons LinkedIn Sep 10, 2020
Loading Superintendent Braden York LinkedIn Sep 10, 2020
Maintenance Superintendent Thomas Dormenval LinkedIn Sep 24, 2020
Mine Planning Superintendent Eric Hoffmann LinkedIn Sep 24, 2020
Mobile Equipment Maintenance Superintendent Steve Woodruff LinkedIn Sep 10, 2020
Underground Operations Manager Alan Longley LinkedIn Sep 24, 2020

Staff:

EmployeesYear
2,066 2019
1,993 2018
1,734 2017
1,638 2016
1,793 2015

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Annual Report 2019
Annual Report 2018
Annual Report 2017
Annual Report 2016
Annual Report 2015
Annual Report 2014
Press Release 2012
Corporate Presentation 2009

News:

NewsDate
Rio Tinto to build new tellurium plant at Kennecott mine March 8, 2021
Rio Tinto suspends Kennecott operations following earthquake March 19, 2020

Aerial view:

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