RonnieAdventure #0311 - Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine, "Up" House (Utah)

Google Earth Aerial Photograph

Photographer Unknown

The Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine located near the communities of  Copperton and Herriman is the largest man-made hole in the world. It is over 0.75 miles deep, 2.5 miles wide, and covers about 1,900 acres. The mine is so large it can be seen from outer space.

Copper ore was first discovered in Bingham Canyon in 1848 while the Bingham brothers were grazing cattle in the area. They reported their find to Brigham Young, but no mining claims were filed and the brothers moved out of the area. 

In 1863 ore samples from the canyon were analyzed and found to contain 2% copper. Mining claims were filed in the areas considered to be the most producitve, but it was not until 1903 that Utah Copper Company was formed and a pilot mill was constructed at Copperton. By 1906 an open pit mine was started and by 1912 the open-pit mine was the largest industrial mining complex in the world. In 1989 the Rio Tinto Group acquired all of the mining assets in the canyon and then modernized the mine, mill and smelter.

Then, on April 10, 2013, one wall of the mine collapsed and the incident was recorded as the largest landslide that has ever taken place in North America (outside of volcanoes). Over 70 million cubic meters of rock and debris cascaded into the pit and it shook the area around the mine so hard that the slide registered as a 5.1 earthquake.

Rio Tinto, the mine's owner, had been monitoring the mine's wall for stability using an interferometric radar system and realized the wall was going to collapse, so no one was injured. Open-pit mining is still being conducted, but it was reported that underground mining will be used to reach ore-rich areas under the pit.

Prior to the landslide, there was a visitor center and observation area at the mine, but after the landslide, the visitor center and observation area were closed and no reopening information is listed on the mine's web site. I once photographed the mine from the visitor center, but I have not been able to locate the photographs.

Although the visitor center and mine overlook is closed, the public is still allowed to drive up Butterfield Canyon for about ten miles and then follow a somewhat rocky dirt/gravel trail about 5 miles to an overlook area on public land. A high clearance vehicle is recommended, but it is possible to make the trip with a passenger vehicle during good weather conditions. (Anyone afraid of heights or narrow one-lane dirt/gravel trails without guard rails should not attempt this trip.)

There were a lot of spring flowers in bloom along the trail and there was even a deer standig close to the road that was not easily spooked by vehicles.

If you have ever wondered what happened to the house from the movie up, wonder no more because it appears to have landed in Herriman, Utah.