Bingham Canyon Mine
This is the gargantuan
Bingham Canyon Mine - an open-pit copper, gold, silver and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molybdenum molybdenum mine
near Salt Lake City, Utah.
In full-scale production since 1906, the pit is over 0.75 miles
(1.2 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covers 1,900 acres (7.7
km²), making it the largest open-pit copper mine in the world, and
the world’s largest man-made excavation.
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All along the road to the sensibly named mining town of
Copperton, we can see the absolutely massive
3 million dollar dump trucks - which are among the largest
trucks in the world. Used to transport the raw ore their huge size
is a necessity, as by 2004 the mine had produced more than 17
million tons of copper - more copper than any other mine in the
world.
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See these older posts for more mining related enormity:
Casa Grande Copper Mine,
Siberian Diamond Mine,
The Longest Conveyor Belt in the World,
Bucket-Wheel Excavators, Berkeley
Pit, Tetraeder
Bottrop and
Lavender Pit.
Thanks to Dr. Ed Data, Kristian Twombly, Kevin Byrne, John S.,
Steve Hulet, Zachary and RodneyG