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Bingham Copper Mine by Harry W. Short Engineering Geologist The Kennecott Mining Company has a large copper smelter 26 miles south- west of Salt Lake City, Utah, at the south end of the Great Salt Lake in the Oquirrh Mountains. The Bingham Canyon Mine was discovered by Sanford and Thomas Bingham in1848, who found copper ore on the ground while grazing cattle. Mining activity in BinghamCanyon boomed when a railroad line reached the canyon in 1873. By the mid-20th century, the huge open-pit mine began encroaching on the community; and by the late 20th centu- ry, the Bingham town site had been devoured by the mine. The open pit is 2.75 miles across at the top and 0.75 of a mile deep. The mine has been operational since 1906, and the large open pit developed over the years covers an area of almost 2000 acres. The Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation operates the mine, a concen- trator plant, smelter, and a refinery at the site which extracts copper from the mine’s host rock. The mine was desig- nated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine. A landslide occurred April 10, 2013, at the Bingham Canyon Mine around 9:30 p.m. in the northeast section of the mine. Kennecott engineers had been monitoring ground movement since Alaska Miners Association Phone: 907-563-9229 Fax: 907-563-9225 ama@alaskaminers.org www.alaskaminers.org American Exploration and Mining Assn. Phone: 509-624-1158 Fax: 509-623-1241 info@miningamerica.org www.miningamerica.org WorldWide Drilling Resource ® is proud to be a member of these mining associations. Women in Mining 866-537-9694 wim@womeninmining.org www.womeninmining.org 47 JUNE 2015 February. The company warned resi- dents near the open pit when the slide became active and fortunately there were no injuries. The Bingham Canyon ore body is a porphyry copper deposit formed in quartz monzonite which intruded the preexisting sedimentary rocks. It has the concentric alteration pattern and min- eral zones typical of porphyry copper deposits. This classic copper ore body is not only huge, it also enjoys a fairly uniform distribution of sulphide miner- alization, mainly chalcopyrite. (Porphyry means copper deposits in which the minerals occur as finely disseminated grains or in thin veinlets.) It’s anticipated the mine will be productive until 2032. Harry michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com WWDR photo of the Bingham Canyon Mine in 2009. WorldWide Drilling Resource ®