Visiting The World’s Deepest Open Pit Mine - Kennecott Copper Mine

[@rossnielsen6820]

I work in the truck shop as a mechanic. You would be amazed at how this pit creates its own weather. This is the largest man made hole on earth. Its an amazing operation.

[@steventeter3332]

In my MSHA class they showed pics of the massive slide in the pit. The haul pacs all piled up at the bottom looked like minutiae toy trucks.

[@Nubenhoofer]

I hear that planes have to avoid flying over it, as a downward airstream can suck them right in and stall it.

[@lka1988]

@@Nubenhoofer Probably planes coming and going from SLC airport. Planes already at cruise altitude (35,000+ feet) are likely unaffected by this, if at all.

[@stevenaune2837]

I've been on that mine a number of times as a contractor working on their power grid. Awesome site to be on. Keep up the good work Aaron

[@tsachinaarizona]

Your search term is too long.japan;;;》》》korea;;;state;;investagation

[@thecodingchicken]

I can't even imagine the power draw of an operation like that. And that isn't included what they get out of diesel

[@massive_droner]

Is that giant excavator electric power? I saw that long cord

[@cadene9095]

Fun fact, they actually bought the town of Bingham right next to it, and completely covered the houses in waste ore. Another fun fact, they actually have no idea where a lot of the underground sections are from back in the day, so sometimes when they drill or blast they blow straight into an old shaft and send an rc car with a gps and camera into it to map the surrounding area. I’d say it’s definitely the coolest place I’ve ever worked haha

[@RonaldWood-ep7vg]

I was visting a friend in that small town( Bingham ) back in 1968 and some of the homes were already being removed .I have some photos of the town & mine .

[@cadene9095]

@@RonaldWood-ep7vg no way! I’d absolutely love to see some photos, is there a way I could contact you?

[@dang3304]

Random question, why do they haul the ore up with trucks, rather than using a system of conveyors?

[@petuniasevan]

@@dang3304 Think about it. They are constantly moving around where they are blasting and loading ore. They're not in the same place more than a few days running. The logistics of constantly adding sections and removing sections would be a nightmare, take much longer, and require constant maintenance. They DO have a conveyor from the crusher to the concentration process building. This is because the crusher and the separator/concentrator building are static locations. Consider this: the huge dump trucks are mobile conveyors that don't need to be picked up and moved around to get them to the latest blast site. It is so much less work and energy used, doing it this way.

[@cadene9095]

@@dang3304 actually interestingly enough, kennecott has the worlds longest conveyor belt system I believe. The trucks take the ore from the sides or the bottom of the mine up to the crusher which pulverizes the rocks so they can travel on the conveyor belt to the smelter. But basically having a longer belt system than they already have would be a mechanical and logistical nightmare especially since the topography of a mine is technically constantly changing. It would need to be in a new spot almost every other day

[@GIS-vt1wx]

Absolutely stunning! I had no idea the world's largest open-pit mine was this massive. The perspective of the workers and machinery against the vastness of the mine is truly awe-inspiring. Great job capturing the essence of modern mining!

[@davidanalyst671]

I could have watched 3 hours on this mine. The thing most people dont know about copper is that most deposits are like less than 5% copper. So when you say copper ore, it makes you think its 30---70% copper, but no, its nowhere close to that.

[@AaronWitt]

yeah the ore is far less than 1%

[@Bowiiihowdy]

Copper mine i work at the concentrations are .3%. Thats concidered pretty high grade. The highland valley mine in canada runs .03%. So alot of big mines are just straight bulk tonnage

[@johnowens8992]

.5 be closer

[@preoco8241]

I'm working on the .75% ore and we call it the rich ones

[@preoco8241]

true dude@@johnowens8992

[@josephcooney6573]

Worked with Keiwit when they built that alignment for the conveyor and relocated that crusher.......was the coolest and most impressive job I've ever been on I LOVE THAT MINE!!!!

[@AaronWitt]

sweet!!!

[@josephcooney6573]

Gotta say Aaron I love your content, thank you for spot lighting those of us that get our hands dirty for a living I truly appreciate it!!!!!! 🤘😎👍🤔

[@beestoe993]

Ive lived near the mine all my life. It has undergone amazing technological advances over the years. A few decades ago it used to pollute the Salt lake valley pretty bad, so they built a massive smoke stack to try to lift the emissions above the valley. Now that behemoth of a smoke stack seems obsolete. Not only has the pollution been dropped to minuscule amounts, but they have also re-processed massive amounts of slag from the very old process and extracted more copper from it as well. Modern mining is impressive.

[@massive_droner]

Where does all the waste go? Just piles around the mine?

[@susansmart8086]

Interesting to see this mine again. When I was a kid, Kennecott used to sponsor “Kennecott Neighborhood Theater” on tv. Instead of regular commercials, the time slots would show operations at the mine or the smelter. Haven’t looked down into the mine since the 70s.

[@zzINSANETYzz]

Love the videos where you are visiting mines! Super fascinating and happy you’re showing the American mining machine!

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching!

[@cadene9095]

Hey I work there!! so glad you made this video!

[@eccentricsmithy2746]

I work there too!

[@Poverty_Welder]

How y'all get a job there? Do you need a degree?

[@cadene9095]

@@Poverty_Welder honestly it’s very hard to get work there. The people that do end up getting a job there just never leave cause it’s honestly great work. But for lower level stuff no degree is needed. The easiest way is to get on with a contracting company

[@mariabarragan8701]

My Husband and his Dad worked there. Amazing place!

[@russward2612]

Living in the Salt Lake Valley for 50+ years, I've seen a mountain being turned inside out over that time. The mine dominates the south end of the valley. The processing facilities dominate the west edge . The smoke stack there is the tallest structure in the state.

[@gunnar1911]

2nd tallest chimney in the US, 4th tallest chimney in the world.

[@AdamThygerson]

And the tallest freestanding structure west of the mississippi

[@ProudPapaw88]

Another very educational video, Aaron. Keep up the great work. I could watch videos like this for hours. Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend!!

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching!

[@daman7129]

Dont forget the Mount Lyell mine in Queenstown Tasmania, what a history that place has in copper mining!

[@kahvac]

Thank you RIO TINTO ! Great Tour !

[@wanttogetupgoahead]

Great video as always. Love your enthusiasm for large scale operations and machinery. It helps you're easy on the eyes. Thank you!

[@jasonstroup4123]

Great video, the visitors center was closed for several years after a massive landslide in 2013. The mine actually has GPS units all over the mine to detect movement and had closed it several days prior for safety. You can fi d videos of the slude on youtube. Its also fun to drive up Butterfield canyon in the summer and look down in it. They used to announce a blast schedule, but i dont think they do that anymore.

[@leviedens5985]

Awesome video man! Nice work and glad you’re out there enlightening the world about the importance of mining 👍🏼

[@TheSinjas]

SAG mills DO have grinding balls in them "SAG is an acronym for semi-autogenous grinding. SAG mills are autogenous mills that also use grinding balls like a ball mill." Autogenous or "auto" mills do NOT have grinding balls in them and use rock on rock action to grind up the ore

[@johndop9140]

That's true ! Thanks

[@TomG-f4r]

...lol rock on rock action to grind up de ore....poetry. Man. , press on !

[@ubergeek1968]

I live about 2 miles from the power plant, in Magna, and go up to the Pleasant Green Cemetery to watch the trucks running between the mine and the plant.

[@carlaromeroribeiro6844]

I love watching mining videos . My times in the pit were the most fun. Moving water around making sure trucks and shovel can keep going. 🙃

[@nerfzinet]

You said the crusher can crush 10,000 tons per hour, and a truck is "over 300 tons". That means that in order to keep the crusher working they would need one of those dump trucks every 2-3 minutes. That's crazy

[@meteoro123OF]

Thats why you can see 6 trucks in the waiting line at 2:14

[@Treesusb]

I worked on the ball mills at that mine. Incredible operation 😊

[@jimbob7218]

What kind of work was it? Relining?

[@Treesusb]

@@jimbob7218 yes sir, relining the ball mills

[@fomocowboy]

Haha years ago I would deliver the balls for the mills.

[@jimmyr3591]

Great video. Amazing mine. I remember learning about this mine in school. Amazing it’s been operating for so long. It’s a great piece of mining and North American history.

[@zachansen9053]

I drive by the smelter every day to go to work in Grantsville. Great video!

[@wunexec]

This was AWESOME! You have a great film presence and relate well to the audience. Thank you!

[@jimbeam2705]

Loading all day after time ,starts to rot the brain from boredom. The haul truck operators at least get to move and see whats happening in the pit. After digging and loading on and off road haul trucks, i couldn't take it for more than a hour a day. With that said, another great video.

[@AaronWitt]

it's the case for some but most of the career shovel operators I've met absolutely love what they do

[@itsAbadWorld]

Just think about your paystub it will remind you it's not so boring after all

[@jimbeam2705]

​@@itsAbadWorldI'm retired and the money doesn't matter after years of doing it. It's mental torture.

[@lastnamefirstname520]

@@jimbeam2705can you explain boom jacking please? Ive read about it on CATs website, but its never explained properly. Thank you

[@stevenjm8001]

It is a lot better than having a boring job, and not making a lot of money, which you do make in the pits.

[@bobsmith6079]

This mine is the largest producer of the element scandium. Scandium while being relatively common has no known deposits so one source of broken rock is as good as another and this is the the largest pile of broken rock in the world. While being common the lack of scandium deposits means that on a per gram basis scandium is more valuable than gold and this place makes the most.

[@coltonbyu]

"This mine is the largest producer of the element scandium" Id be curious to see the source for this, the comment made me curious and I was doing some light googling and dont see this mine listed on any top 10 list for scandium production. Rio Tinto doesnt even mention it in their top 2 mines for scandium, and Rio Tinto is around the 5th place globally for Scandium

[@bobsmith6079]

@coltonbyu It seems you are correct. Bingham mine is the largest open pit mine in the world and therefore the largest source of broken rock and since there aren't any scandium mines one place is as good as another for refining scandium but it seems they don't do it. Another bit of common knowledge is that the by products of copper namely gold silver and molybdenum pay for the mining operation and the copper is pure profit.

[@artofnick]

I've lived in SLC my whole life and I have never seen this operation so up close. They own the entire west side of the Salt Lake valley. The best views of the pit in my opinion are if you hike Butterfield canyon, which is behind the mine.

[@johannessamuelsson6578]

This mine is truly huge. I recently saw a video from Boliden's copper mine Aitik in the Swedish northern ore field, and that mine is huge. But Bingham Canyon is on a nother level entirely, it's an actual canyon.

[@king_cristof1891]

You should see if u can come to Sudbury Ontario and tour around the nickel operations with vale

[@AaronWitt]

I've heard that's a sweet operation

[@calebvandervelde]

Lol literally was about to say that I live in ontario and would love to see a video of the mine I did safety training for vale for my trucking job and now I wanna see Inside the mine

[@king_cristof1891]

Yea i live in Sudbury and work on mining equipment but never went down and wonder whats its like down there

[@mchughcb]

@@AaronWitt Don't wait too long. The way nickel is at the moment a lot of underground nickel sulphide mines are headed for care and maintenance as the open pit nickel laterites in Asia take over.

[@1pcfred]

I just came here to say pennies aren't copper anymore. They stopped making pennies out of copper in 1982. If a penny was made out of copper today it'd be worth about 3 cents. Now you can argue that the mint makes up for that shortfall when they print twenty dollar bills but that's not how they see it. The copper plating is pretty thin so you can scrape it off and see the base metal that's inside of a penny. It's zinc.

[@mrMacGoover]

So sad.

[@LibertyDIY]

If you flick a 1982 penny you can literally hear if it is copper or zinc

[@1pcfred]

@@LibertyDIY if you cut a penny in half it's really obvious there's some grayish pot metal in them. I think it's zinc?

[@darinclark1853]

Amazing facility... I visited 20 years ago.

[@dr.a006]

Crazy that these house-sized ore haulers look like toy trucks compared to the scale of the pit. I’ve yet to visit this pit and it’s only an hour away from me! Gotta do it!

[@DanielSouza-mh5qb]

Amazing mine! The Rio team must be very proud of it!!

[@dave1jeeper]

I wish the smelter segment wasn't so vague, the process is so complex and interesting to see what all is involved.

[@AaronWitt]

it was really tough since we couldn't hear well in there haha

[@dave1jeeperify]

​@AaronWitt i currently work here and i can definitely understand 😂😂

[@williamchastain9510]

GOD DANG Aaron!! Almost 300k subs? Last time i saw your sub count you were at 20k. Keep up the good work bro love the videos.

[@AaronWitt]

We’re starting to figure it out I think

[@Boussaty]

Great video and fantastic tour, thanks for sharing.

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching!

[@sludge801beats]

I grew up in a town near Kennecott. Awesome video!

[@Ewokforlife]

Every day I wake up in the morning to go to school, and look at this massive chunk out of the mountains

[@theblackdahlia64]

You should look at teck’s trail operations. One of the largest smelters of its kind in the world in a small town, main products are lead and zinc

[@Bruvva_Wu]

During the Cold War, the Cominco Trail Smelter would have been nuked, because of its strategic value for war production.

[@DrewWithington]

Nice to see the big sign "Think safety, work safely".

[@rockzalt]

Awesome! Flying a drone around would be a treat. I would be curious how much one of those enormous pure copper plates would be worth if it was like scrap material being recycled. It's one of those metals that are highly prized by recycling businesses.

[@bibumpombo4233]

very professional and educative video, well done Aaron Witt

[@vishwamohankumar3676]

Quite interesting process!👍

[@peterconnolly2724]

Very interesting video - thank you. Pro tip: If you go to the visitor center, you won't see a fraction of what was shown here. But, they are building a new visitor center.

[@zyoninkiro]

I visited the Bingham mine about 25 years ago. The visitor's center was in the pit itself and you could watch the as they hauled ore to the crusher. You had to be careful as you drove on the access road to the visitor's center as you reached a point where haul trucks crossed the access road. I have no idea how much the set up has changed since.

[@benpaynter]

Surely having so many trucks queuing up waiting to be loaded is not very efficient? Or am I missing something?

[@AaronWitt]

they had a shovel go down which is why the long line -- unusual for this operation. It's one of the best I've ever seen

[@rockkitty100]

You simply have the greatest job in the world!!!

[@sdrammm696969]

Your videos are on another level😮😮

[@fasteddie8225]

Crazy the amount of byproducts that come out of that mine!!!

[@dadasaurusrex5461]

Freeport McMoRan in Arizona also processes their own copper ore in their own smelter. They do Moly as well on site.

[@richcollins513]

10:28 The process is called electrolysis. The plates take on either a positive or negative polarity depending on anode or cathode. The polarity of the electric charge attracts the copper because it has an opposite polarity. Electromagnetically

[@CharlesNewkirk-lb6uh]

Another great video keep up the great work I know it's not easy!

[@joseph78e4n6]

Unbelievable Process the Rock 🪨 looks like granite or Blue Stone

[@RicWithE-ve6tn]

Copper Great childhood memories picking copper pieces from gravel road Copper Country in upper MI they would crush gravel from grout piles at copper mines There was alway copper tossed through the crusher. There in, the gravel roads. My dad would bring pieces home from his excavation sites also for us boys 🇫🇮

[@OldGuyAdventure]

Great video. You should take a look at the Rio Tinto Mine for Iron Ore in Labrador. Would love to work on their mines, but sadly, apparently, they do not hire people my age anymore.

[@malcolmanon4762]

What's the efficency of the process?How much can be recovered? Is it 50% or 90% recovery?

[@tomrunge2016]

You have seen sooooo many amazing things. It is really fun to watch your videos. Thanks for sharing.

[@roskene]

Back in the early 80's I worked for a mjor tire company to facilitate field repair of the tires on the haul trucks. 3 of us worked to make this process work. I've been retired many years and wonder if it is still being used.

[@bryanfleming9226]

Very nice, I do miss the slightly longer videos though

[@AaronWitt]

they're slowly getting longer! We're trying to shoot for over 10 min at least now for our new stuff

[@steelshepherd6843]

What a great episode!

[@mostlyinterested1016]

You should see the Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper mine in Mongolia. It's huge.

[@BenjaminIMeszaros]

Man how in the world did humans extract copper ore at scale before we had technology like this

[@joesutherland225]

Built a similar mine,electrical,about 8yrs ago now has 1 of three biggest ball mills in n america mt milligan bc canada

[@MCBxlx61]

Thank you, that was great work!

[@ThornappleConstruction]

I so badly want to go there in person

[@jeff-w]

Pretty wild to think our wires and pipes come out of those rocks. Human inginuity is awesome.

[@brucejensen3533]

Super cool to see what's going on, as a Slc resident!

[@Watusifarm]

I lived in salt lake for most of my life and this mine is always in the background on the hill. My father in law works there now. Every piece of equipment up there is so massive it doesn’t compute😂

[@jamesc7925]

I live next to the mine. There’s a great lookout spot at the top of Butterfield Canyon.

[@davewilson7565]

Great presentation 👍🏻

[@maxbattles3705]

That was the most entertaining way I've heard electroplating described hahaha You, sir, have earned a like and subscribe

[@machinemind-l2y]

Thank your video!!

[@roberthenry9319]

Fascinating video. Thank you, Aaron. Is it known when the ore will be depleted and the mine will have to close? The mine can not last forever. Right?

[@Qce-i6d]

Woah, I think I saw the massive tailings pile right next the city when driving up into Utah for vacation a few years back.

[@Wileybird03]

Cool tour thanks👍

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching

[@willc6434]

SAG mills have balls in them too, just a lower percentage of balls compared to a ball mill. SAG stands for semi autogenous grinding, the idea being that the rock half breaks itself down by colliding with itself, but there are also some balls in there to assist. Great video by the way 😊

[@torralf9926]

Unbelievable interesting your videos. Thanks for that.

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching

[@steeplecab]

Great video with some exceptional images! This has probably the best images of flotation I've seen. You mention SAG mills. Is that a manufacturer's name? In my experience with Anaconda's Washoe mill and smelter, those would be rod mills. Can you explain the difference?

[@ypaulbrown]

Always Great Aaron, cheers from Florida, Paul

[@kurtdnelson9653]

Show where they separate the other metals that would be cool to great video

[@ernierundall1336]

Great video I would love to see more

[@SkeelesFortySeven3277]

That mines really impressive! Does that shovel bucket have a external power supply? I noticed that cable running to it.

[@massive_droner]

Is the P&H 4100 shovel electrically powered? Curious with that long cord attached to it

[@ThamagaMosa]

During the agitation air is actually introduced forming bubbles the valuable minerals particles will collide with the bubble and be embedded on the surface of the bubble as in moves from the bottom to eventually be floated . the process is called froth flotation

[@johnowens8992]

You would think bringing the hopper feeder deeper would be much more efficient

[@bachlava7]

My cousin drives one of the big trucks there, pretty cool

[@rhinomite5203]

Come see Chino and Tyrone in Silver City NM. Would love to see videos on the 2 sites 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

[@computer2492]

Great video would love to see where they take all the waste rock from sudge a massive hole!

[@AaronWitt]

Hoping to have a video on that later this year

[@paulprigge1209]

@@AaronWitt Thank you! Both video and come and video with the waist sludge

[@getinit56]

You lost me with representing copper with a zinc penny.

[@Endthefedplease]

😂😂😂

[@Julian-tf8nj]

Actual details of many things were fuzzy or missing in this video...

[@ColeMacjewski]

Really cool mine but i am amazed that they are able to pay so little for a rock truck driver $23.24 on the website you look at the area surrounding the mine and you would be lucky to afford a 1 bedroom condo off a full time rock truck operator roll i know its considered entry level and i bet that they give a pay bump plus tons of overtime definitely would be a cool job for a young person though wish i new about this when i was 18

[@iningomontoya9358]

I spoke with a haul truck driver a couple weeks ago, she said she was hoping to break $100k this year. They have built-in overtime and have great benefits. BTW the driver I spoke with has only been there 3 years...

[@AaronWitt]

Thanks for the info

[@ColeMacjewski]

Holy cow if I was younger I know where I would be hahaha

[@andrewjeffers3174]

That is just starting wage for 6 month training and probation period. Jumps to over $30 after first year.

[@misha4422]

Copper, the element, is _made_ in “stars,” and not normal stars but super nova and similar very energetic stellar events. Modern pennies are plated with copper (~2.5% of the total) with the other 97.5% being zinc.

[@patrickwhelan5703]

How many shovels does it take the P&H to load one dump body?

[@ianwallett7438]

I’m sure they work on three passes?

[@aguythatworkstoomuch4624]

Excellent video! Subbed👍

[@smartcarclubofalaska2255]

Kennecott mine was located in Alaska and was closed decades ago!

[@JustNaturallyAwesome]

How long does it take round trip for a dump truck from bottom to top?

[@wyskass861]

I'm curious how they adapt in real time to the inevitable variations of raw material coming in. Surely they have some sensors and testing and adjust the process constantly.

[@wyskass861]

I like how those shovels run on a electric and are plugged in by cord, which is visible there.

[@dhamps10]

Very good video. How long is spiral road from top to bottom?