Bingham Canyon, Utah

An open-pit copper mine. This mine in Bingham Canyon, Utah, is 4 km in diameter and 0.8 km deep. It is the largest human-created hole on Earth. 

This copper mine at Bingham Canyon, Utah, is the world s biggest open-pit mine. 

Hattori K. H. and Keith J. D. (2002) Contribution of mafic melt to porphyry copper minerahzation evidence from Mount Pinatubo, Phihppines, and Bingham Canyon, Utah, USA. Mineral. Dep. 36, 799—806. 

Magmatogenic Ores. Ores in which the isotopic composition of ore lead is the same as that in the presumably related igneous source at the time of crystallization are good candidates for a magmatogenic origin. Data for this fingerprint are available in support of this mechanism. These ores are usually isotopically uniform with Pb/ " Pb< 19.5 and Pb/ Pb < 39. Examples (Fig. 22) are the ores at Butte, Montana (Doe et al., 1968), Bingham Canyon, Utah (Stacey et al., 1968), and the Nelson batholith, British Columbia (Reynolds, 1967). It must be... 

Bingham Canyon Salt Lake, Utah Kennecott, Utah Copper Corp. j copper—molybdenum ore, concentrated and leached 245... 

Borden R. (2001) Geochemical evolution of sulphide-bearing waste rock soils at the Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah. In Evolution and Remediation of Acid—Sulphate Systems at Reclaimed Mine Sites (eds. J. J. Donovan and A. W. Rose). Geological Society of London, pp. 15-21. 

Important examples of such ores are Bingham Canyon in Utah, USA, Sierita in Arizona, USA, and most importantly Chuquicamata in Chile. This mine is situated in Northern Chile on the western slopes of the Andes. It has an open pit, 2 3 km, with a depth of 800 m. and is one of the biggest copper mines in the world. About 600 000 tonnes of ore are mined daily. 

Arrington, L. J., Hansen, G. B. (1963). The richest hole on earth A history of the Bingham Canyon copper mine. Logan, UT Utah State University Press. 

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