Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

Moving Mountains
Bingham Canyon provides over ten per cent of the US’s refined copper requirements and continues to be one of the largest sources of copper in the world. And plans are being laid to extend the mine’s life to around 2030.

To be able to move mountains has always been one of puny humankind's metaphoric ambitions, the stuff of fairy tales. In Utah, at the start of the last century, a generation of miners turned myth into reality, laying the foundations for a prolific industrial centre at the heart of the world's copper production.

The Oquirrh Mountains, on the eastern edge of Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert, can be seen in the west from downtown Salt Lake City. Slopes were once riddled with miles of old mine shafts and tunnels.

On the surface numerous mining towns existed with shacks and hundreds of mines with pit gear and tramways where miners once laboured. But, in the middle of the Oquirrh mountains, the landscape has now been reclaimed and Kennecott Utah Copper is still hard at work in Bingham Canyon.

Its story began in 1848. Two pioneers, brothers Thomas and Sanford Bingham, arrived at and named a canyon amongst peaks whose name comes from a Native American word for "shining mountain", and ran their cattle over its slopes. For twenty years the area was used for grazing and timber.



Moving Mountains Bingham Canyon provides over ten per cent of the US’s refined copper requirements and continues to be one of the largest sources of copper in the world. And plans are being laid to extend the mine’s life to around 2030. To be able to move mountains has always been one of puny humankind's metaphoric ambitions, the stuff of fairy tales. In Utah, at the start of the last century, a generation of miners turned myth into reality, laying the foundations for a prolific industrial centre at the heart of the world's copper production. The Oquirrh Mountains, on the eastern edge of Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert, can be seen in the west from downtown Salt Lake City. Slopes were once riddled with miles of old mine shafts and tunnels. On the surface numerous mining towns existed with shacks and hundreds of mines with pit gear and tramways where miners once laboured. But, in the middle of the Oquirrh mountains, the landscape has now been reclaimed and Kennecott Utah Copper is still hard at work in Bingham Canyon. Its story began in 1848. Two pioneers, brothers Thomas and Sanford Bingham, arrived at and named a canyon amongst peaks whose name comes from a Native American word for "shining mountain", and ran their cattle over its slopes. For twenty years the area was used for grazing and timber.
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