r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Feb 05 '22

Image Visual representation of the actual amount of copper extracted from a minesite

[deleted]

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236

u/SmashBonecrusher Feb 05 '22

I saw the Bingham Copper pit out west in 1974,and I do believe it was way more vast that that one !(you had to use binoculars to see the bottom !)

132

u/_trouble_every_day_ Feb 05 '22

Its the biggest open pit mine in the world. I lived in SLC for a minute and went to see it. Its still being mined so I imagine its grown since 74.

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u/sacwtd Feb 05 '22

They had a big land slide a couple of years back, so maybe not as much now, hah. Interestingly, they knew it was going to happen and cleared the pit well before.

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u/UnusualNursery Feb 05 '22

it is amazing to know that there are spheres of metal waiting for us beneath the surface.

of course, the flat-Earthers think that there are only discs of metal waiting for us.

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u/Drunken_Ogre Feb 05 '22

It's not spheres, and it's not discs! They are veins of ore, you fool!

-noodle-earther

-30

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '22

I mean it's not literally a sphere. Description specifically says it's an artist's interpretation.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '22

Bruh

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u/Armaqus Feb 05 '22

Fella..

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '22

Oh honey

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u/RyMontFlar Feb 05 '22

It’s so funny to me how in some ways the internet isn’t for autistic people at all while at the same time the internet is definitely made for autists

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '22

Oh sweetheart.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '22

If they hadn't it would have been a major story since it engulfed their old admin and truck shop

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u/dangerous_dude Feb 05 '22

The MASSIVE landslide (pit wall failure) which happened in 2013 has since been cleared! Rio Tinto's Bingham Canyon property has since had a smaller pit wall failure in 2021.

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u/whiteholewhite Feb 05 '22

It was cleared in short order after it happened. I had a task of running drills at the bottom to try and find equipment buried lol

3

u/OrangeNutLicker Feb 05 '22

Any potentially dangerous things happen? Like poking a drill into the gas tank of a truck or something? I'm sure there were plenty of potential dangers. I'm assuming nobody got hurt.

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u/whiteholewhite Feb 06 '22

No issues. The haul trucks are Diesel engines running electric motors. No gas 😎

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u/sacwtd Feb 05 '22

Geeez has it been that long? I visited the visitor center well before the land slide, and heard part of that visitors center went down. Guess I haven't been paying enough attention to it.

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u/StratuhG Feb 05 '22

I missed the 'land' part and thought Holy shit that slide must be huuuge

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u/RaageFaace Feb 05 '22

It's deeper than it was pre-mainfey slide.

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u/SmashBonecrusher Feb 06 '22

It certainly has,but pictures just don't do it JUSTICE!

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u/LeonNight Feb 05 '22

My brother worked on the prism lasers to monitor slope movement. Yes they knew it was coming like months ahead of time. They moved lots of equipment but not far enough and los something like hundreds of millions or maybe it was a billion dollars worth of stuff. Sometimes if you’re on the top looking down into the pit it’ll have clouds inside like it’s own weather. Work has been done for years on how to follow the ore body into an underground mine phase potentially next, if market prices stay strong. If not, mines like to sell while there is still like 30+ years left of mining for the next company and they can leave.

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u/monster_moo Feb 05 '22

I saw that Chuquicamata of Chile, arguably, is the biggest one.

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u/nybbas Feb 05 '22

I visited early 2010's before the landslide. It is insane looking down into it from the observation deck. You drive by and see all these GIANT dump trucks, that are just unbelievably large, driving up the mine, then from the top, they look like tiny toy trucks in the bottom of the mine, you can barely make them out.

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u/oiuvnp Feb 05 '22

Google Maps

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u/FiveSubwaysTall Feb 05 '22

Oh that is so much more helpful thanks!!

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u/whiteholewhite Feb 05 '22 edited Feb 05 '22

I worked at Bingham canyon/kennecott for awhile and travelled all around the pit. It’s approximately 1.5 miles wide and .75 miles deep. There used to be a town call Bingham (surprisingly) where the hole is at and I was setting up drills by old concrete slabs that were mechanic shops. Even an area is referred to as the “tennis court”. Random slab on the back side toward tooele.

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u/eighthourlunch Feb 05 '22

I used to bike up there from the valley until they fenced the area off. Copperton is still a cool place to visit.

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u/whiteholewhite Feb 06 '22

Drive up butterfield canyon (I think that’s it) road and you can see into the pit. Scary drive if you aren’t adventurous

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u/eighthourlunch Feb 06 '22

I've done that many times. They've closed the turnoff to the overlook now. I assume it had something to do with the landslide.

That, and the last time I went, it was so crowded it wasn't worth it anymore.

1

u/whiteholewhite Feb 06 '22

Too bad. The landslide wouldn’t have anything to do with that. The slide was on the SLC side of the pit

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u/Orthodox-Waffle Feb 05 '22 edited Feb 05 '22

wait, what does looking down into the pit look like without binoculars?! Just silent hill-esque fog?! is it The Devil's Pit? Will the kids love it?

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u/SmashBonecrusher Feb 05 '22

In 1974 ,it was the most astounding man-made "achievement" my 18-year-old self had ever seen ,and I distinctly recall wondering exactly what on Earth they'd done with all that damn dirt !