Richest hole on Earth...Bingham Canyon

Bingham canyon is the largest hole on earth and also the largest man made excavation. The only man made feature visible from orbiting space shuttle. Other than raping the earth, this is pretty amazing. Here's a link CHECK IT OUT. www.rockhounds.com...

[edit on 20-6-2004 by I See You]

Here's some stats: To begin with a few production statistics, the Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any other mine in history--about 14.5 million tons of the metal. Bingham Canyon is primarily a copper mine, but it has also yielded a bonanza in byproduct metals. These include 18.5 million troy ounces (about 620 tons) of gold, 157 million troy ounces (nearly 5,000 tons) of silver, 610 million pounds of molybdenum and significant amounts of platinum and palladium. The cumulative value of Bingham Canyon metals far exceeds the total worth of the Comstock Lode and the California and Klondike gold rushes combined. With production statistics like that, it's no wonder that the Bingham Canyon Mine has been nicknamed "the Richest Hole on Earth."

Surprisingly not a single reply to this. I found it quite interesting compared to other posts here. Although this might be a way of telling myself that I find things interesting when in reality they are not. I'll have to work on that.

It is interesting... especially from a couple viewpoints like: Geological, innovation, sheer massiveness!

Link isn't working for me though...

www.rockhounds.com...

Same damn link I found on a search... wtf... goofy pute (just got Firefox .9... could have something to do with it).

It kinda saddens me to see such a large scar on the earth, but I guess it's better than alot of the large scale strip mines I've seen. On the western side of Eisenhower pass (I think... been awhile since I've been to the Grand Junkshop area) there's a nasty looking strip mine. I've seen reclamations on these, and they still look like crap

Still, though... that is a massive undertaking... crazy stuff. Isn't this the place that it takes like a half hour drive just to reach the bottom?

It saddens you that such a hole can be seen from space?

Well chit man it saddens me that this giant hole can be seen from ANYWHERE in the Salt Lake valley!
This chewed up mountainside is our western view!
They take elementary school kids out there for feild trips.

from the Snowbird ski resort THIS chewed up mountain is the MAIN view of the valley of Salt lake City.......

I can step out on my porch right now and see this discolored mess on of what USED to be a pretty LARGE mountain.......

Yes this mine is MASSIVE........no doubt. It is a view we Salt Lakers live with every single day. Part of the 'scenery'.

My Grandfather worked for Bingham and retired from there. That place has very VERY good paying jobs, and folks are thrilled to be PART of that operation in terms of a paycheck.

Some of the largeest earth moving equipment on the planet is down in that pit......flippen tires the sise of a 3 story house. ( I have ALWAYS wanted an inner tube from this equipment to ride on the snow in winter)

With all this copper, you would THINK that we would also have quite the UFO activity around here..........but I am not seeing the crafts. I am just seeing the chewed up mountainside over on our sunsett view.

Bingham Canyon is more than a half-mile deep. If the world's tallest building, the 1,454-foot-high Sears Tower, were placed at the bottom of the pit, it would reach only halfway to the mine's rim. The Bingham Canyon open pit stretches more than 2.5 miles across at the rim and covers 2,000 acres. Its immensity makes it the only manmade feature visible to the naked eye from the orbiting space shuttle.

I read the site, and have actually seen it from a distance when I lived in Layton. I understand how big it is... I was curious if it was the mine that takes about half an hour for a regular truck to get from the rim and around the roads to the bottom. If this isn't, I presume it takes even longer...

theRiverGoddess,
I feel with you... there are many beautiful lands in your neighboring states (namely WY/CO) that are torn up in such a manner and do create quite an eyesore... as I stated before, even the best reclamation projects cannot undo the damage. BUT, here's one point that we can look forward to: someday, humans will either leave or become extinct, and the earth will enforce her own reclamation project! As long as we're here, we're going to scar, just as fleas on a dog (Hopi reference there... forgot about that until I saw it on another thread... forgot about alot of the things we were taught in grade school concerning 'native' people. WY schools always make a point of teaching at least a little bit about american native indians, since their history and demise are actually a big part of our state's heritage, albeit mostly hidden by the politics... and, yes... they made us fully aware at an early age... or they used to... about our part in their demise, but also show us how alot of the tribes were hurting eachother due to warring factions, etc... didn't soften the blow, but at least we learned that they weren't perfect either, and they are still human too).