Kennecott in Utah is the largest Copper and open cast mine in the world.
Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history — about 17 million tons.
The mine is 2-1/2 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.
The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle astronauts as they pass over the United States.
By 2015, the mine will be at least 500 feet deeper than it is now.
If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you’d have 500 miles of roadway — enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.
JonesBlog, Kennecott FAQ, National Geographic
They took a mountain and created a mine, impressive but not the most impressive. That title has to go to Russia. They have the most impressive open cast mine going even if it isn’t the largest. This is a diamond mine in Eastern Siberia near the town Mirna. It’s 525 meters deep and 1.25 km in the diameter. It takes a truck two hours to drive from the bottom of the mine to the surface.
Both of my grandfathers were miners so something in me is naturally impressed by these mines but the damage to the environment is awful. You think they’ll repair the landscape once the mine runs dry? I doubt it.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jackdaw // Jul 29, 2006 at 9:30 AM
The national geographic link is already in the post … and the two hour stat … and I didn’t read the post either ;)
2 AhSoon // Jul 29, 2006 at 8:45 AM
I’ve done my University project about Diamonds and i read this before.
Take a look on the National Geographic presentation for more detail. It said a truck would take TWO Hours to surface from the bottom!! and people would work under the tempreture of -50F to -70F.
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2002/03/01/sights_n_sounds/media.1.2.html
Its under part 4, Extreme minining
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