Visiting The World’s Deepest Open Pit Mine - Kennecott Copper Mine
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Published 2024-03-22
Only a stone's throw from Salt Lake City lies the world's deepest mine — Rio Tinto Kennecott. Hardworking miners have extracted copper, silver, gold, and other critical resources here for over a century.
Not only do they mine incredible amounts of ore here using shovels and trucks, but it's also America's only integrated copper mining operation. This means they start with rock and end with 99.9% pure copper, all in the same place!
If you use electricity, you use copper. It doesn't get more essential!
To learn more about the operation, check out the website linked below:
www.riotinto.com/en/operations/us/kennecott
All Comments (21)
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Fun fact, they actually bought the town of Bingham right next to it, and completely covered the houses in waste ore. Another fun fact, they actually have no idea where a lot of the underground sections are from back in the day, so sometimes when they drill or blast they blow straight into an old shaft and send an rc car with a gps and camera into it to map the surrounding area. I’d say it’s definitely the coolest place I’ve ever worked haha
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I've been on that mine a number of times as a contractor working on their power grid. Awesome site to be on. Keep up the good work Aaron
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I could have watched 3 hours on this mine. The thing most people dont know about copper is that most deposits are like less than 5% copper. So when you say copper ore, it makes you think its 30---70% copper, but no, its nowhere close to that.
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I work in the truck shop as a mechanic. You would be amazed at how this pit creates its own weather. This is the largest man made hole on earth. Its an amazing operation.
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Thank you RIO TINTO ! Great Tour !
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Hey I work there!! so glad you made this video!
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Another very educational video, Aaron. Keep up the great work. I could watch videos like this for hours. Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend!!
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Love the videos where you are visiting mines! Super fascinating and happy you’re showing the American mining machine!
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Great video as always. Love your enthusiasm for large scale operations and machinery. It helps you're easy on the eyes. Thank you!
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Living in the Salt Lake Valley for 50+ years, I've seen a mountain being turned inside out over that time. The mine dominates the south end of the valley. The processing facilities dominate the west edge . The smoke stack there is the tallest structure in the state.
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I worked on the ball mills at that mine. Incredible operation 😊
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Awesome video man! Nice work and glad you’re out there enlightening the world about the importance of mining 👍🏼
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Dont forget the Mount Lyell mine in Queenstown Tasmania, what a history that place has in copper mining!
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This was AWESOME! You have a great film presence and relate well to the audience. Thank you!
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I love watching mining videos . My times in the pit were the most fun. Moving water around making sure trucks and shovel can keep going. 🙃
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Amazing facility... I visited 20 years ago.
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Great video. Amazing mine. I remember learning about this mine in school. Amazing it’s been operating for so long. It’s a great piece of mining and North American history.
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You said the crusher can crush 10,000 tons per hour, and a truck is "over 300 tons". That means that in order to keep the crusher working they would need one of those dump trucks every 2-3 minutes. That's crazy
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SAG mills DO have grinding balls in them "SAG is an acronym for semi-autogenous grinding. SAG mills are autogenous mills that also use grinding balls like a ball mill." Autogenous or "auto" mills do NOT have grinding balls in them and use rock on rock action to grind up the ore
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You simply have the greatest job in the world!!!
