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

Only a stone's throw from Salt Lake City lies the world's deepest mine - Rio Tinto Kennecott. Hardworking miners have extracted copper, silver, gold, and other critical resources here for over a century.
Not only do they mine incredible amounts of ore here using shovels and trucks, but it's also America's only integrated copper mining operation. This means they start with rock and end with 99.9% pure copper, all in the same place!
If you use electricity, you use copper. It doesn't get more essential!
To learn more about the operation, check out the website linked below:
www.riotinto.com/en/operation...

[@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

[@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

[@kahvac]

Thank you RIO TINTO ! Great Tour !

[@cadene9095]

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

[@eccentricsmithy2746]

I work there too!

[@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!

[@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

[@So1b0w4t3Jah]

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

[@jimbeam2705]

​@@So1b0w4t3JahI'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.

[@leviedens5985]

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

[@zzINSANETYzz]

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

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching!

[@wanttogetupgoahead]

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

[@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

[@daman7129]

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

[@DakotaRomanLucas]

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

[@jimbob7218]

What kind of work was it? Relining?

[@DakotaRomanLucas]

@@jimbob7218 yes sir, relining the ball 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.

[@wunexec]

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

[@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!!!!!! 🤘😎👍🤔

[@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. 🙃

[@Boussaty]

Great video and fantastic tour, thanks for sharing.

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching!

[@sludge801beats]

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

[@rp1645]

Thank you Mr. Mines 😊❤😊 for going to the BIGGEST Mine and one YES went to the observation ( visiting) overlook. Those BIG haul trucks look so small standing overlooking the vast open pit. If you ever visit Sail Lake City please go visit this amazing site. 😊 It is well worth your time. It looks so different than when I went just a few years ago. The Huge CAT graders working in threes keeping the haul road smooth 😊 these graders are the biggest ones CAT makes. There was a tour bus at gift shop at overlook. The works said the riders in the bus were students from an engineering school who were getting access like you to mile floor and work areas. There is an operator training building for new and experienced operators to practice with a small remote control P&H shovel with control set up just like a real Shovel. To upgrade their skills. These students were going to get to operate that great teaching aid. 😊 There is a pumping station at bottom to STOP the ground water from filling the mine, saw a big CAT excavator digging and opening these basically rivers that pour water through the bank above and to the side of haul Roads. As soon as the "BLAST" went off, the Huge CAT Dozer started "Ripping" the blast area. I can't stress it enough if you have ever wanted to SEE a big open pit mine, see the giant shovel haul trucks and the other huge equipment actually working a cut.😊 Go visit this mine. Even though we were in Salt Lake to go to a truck convention and driving & Backing up semi's competition see the BYU big church school campus. See the Island in the middle of the great Salt lake. This trip to mine was my best and favorite 😊❤😊 part of trip there. I will go again. A big thanks again for doing video on this wonder of earth 🌍 works. They do get a LOT of GOLD out of mine besides just their main copper ⛏️

[@tristenklein225]

I wonder what their daily operations expenses are and what type of investments it takes to open new parts of the mine, if I ever travel to Utah the tour would absolutely be on my itinerary list thanks for the information well appreciated 👍.

[@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

[@AgricultureTechUS]

Astounding heavy machinery innovations push the boundaries of possibility.

[@darinclark1853]

Amazing facility... I visited 20 years ago.

[@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.

[@brucejensen3533]

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

[@sdrammm696969]

Your videos are on another level😮😮

[@Wileybird03]

Cool tour thanks👍

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching

[@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

[@davewilson7565]

Great presentation 👍🏻

[@johnnymurff4137]

Awesome thanks awesome commentary

[@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.

[@user-hb2ku5oq5r]

Copper is the big star in EV industry,the longest business of this century to mitigate climate change negative effects as well as to eliminate CO emissions globally¡¡Chile has the major reserves of copper in earth¡¡¡Codelco has 20% base reserves all over the world¡¡Rio Tinto has copper operations in Chile too¡¡In my view,copper outlook remains price-positive in the long term¡¡

[@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.

[@torralf9926]

Unbelievable interesting your videos. Thanks for that.

[@AaronWitt]

thanks for watching

[@ypaulbrown]

Always Great Aaron, cheers from Florida, Paul

[@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!

[@ernierundall1336]

Great video I would love to see more

[@hotmexican6067]

Hi! Thx for ur videos. Plz make content about underground mining!

[@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

[@mysterybuyer3738]

Why would you show a zinc cent on your cover page if this is about copper?

[@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.

[@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 🇫🇮

[@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.

[@msurette]

Great job!

[@ThornappleConstruction]

I so badly want to go there in person

[@donstravelsandrants.]

Absolutely amazing. 👍😊🇮🇪🇺🇸

[@bachlava7]

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

[@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?

[@mostlyinterested1016]

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

[@Awesomes007]

Copper is made in the hearts of stars.

[@antoniobalmorac3761]

Good vodeo thanks

[@jeff-w]

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

[@dhamps10]

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

[@Bandar_Alai_Heavy_Equepment]

Nice sharing Vidio.. very inspiring and useful... good luck.. greeting from Bandar Alay Heavyequepment Channel Indonesia 🇮🇩⚒️⛏️💎😍👍👍

[@rhinomite5203]

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

[@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😂

[@zack9912000]

Just massive all around

[@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?

[@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

[@braydengordon5001]

Good show, jolly good show!

[@SKFortyseven3277]

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

[@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 😊

[@joesutherland225]

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

[@4literv6]

Any idea how many gallons of diesel that place burns up or consumes daily? 🤔

[@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 😂😂

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@patrickwhelan5703]

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

[@ianwallett7438]

I’m sure they work on three passes?

[@Milkme4030]

Keep up the good work! I could easily watch hour long videos of you guys.

[@steveminton8329]

How much longer will this be an active mine?

[@jeffarmfield2346]

You should try to come to burns harbor steel mill outside of Chicago. Youd love it

[@AaronWitt]

I've visited that's a WILD place

[@KdREAd801]

Hey what team was running in the pit on your visit? I drive Haul Truck 489 on team 4. Anyway, awesome video ✊🏽

[@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

[@duggydo]

Will you be heading to the gold mines in Nevada sometime?

[@AaronWitt]

We’ll have a video on the gold mines in the next few weeks

[@scottymoondogjakubin4766]

Would like to see how the gold - silver - moly etc... are seperated !

[@kingranch51]

Sag mills contain balls. They are just larger than the ball mills.

[@AaronWitt]

I learned this the other day

[@pumpgunranger2336]

One day I hope to be as confident as Aaron when he’s calling machines by the wrong name 😂

[@AaronWitt]

That’s why I make the big bucks

[@dougadams9419]

One cent coins (Penny) are Copper plated Zinc. Thumbnail. Have been since 1984.

[@kswis]

I live 25 min away n haven't had a tour yet damit. They do have a sweet outlook on too the mine but its windy. Be prepared

[@tommybokelman5565]

It would cool if you could do a show on the open pit gold mine in the city of Mojave

[@macgoob3214]

4:45 he’s like a kid in a candy store 😂

[@beavischrist5]

Nice work , i can use a little copper in my mineral supplements.

[@KenworthKyle69]

How do you become a shovel operator? I strive to run a shovel

[@AaronWitt]

Start in a truck at a large mine

[@tylerk3616]

The refining process must use an incredible amount of water.

[@johnowens8992]

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

[@1138Savage]

This is like the new age version of all those construction vhs tapes we rented and i watched as a kid lol

[@doughahn9263]

Was the shovel electric???

[@AaronWitt]

most large shovels are

[@GaryCSchade]

Your Mom's a Star🎉

[@wmg33]

How do you get this level of access to these places ?

[@AaronWitt]

A lot of years and a lot of phone calls

[@wmg33]

@@AaronWitt That’s awesome man. You get VIP level access and are allowed to film in places people can’t even go to visit. Good stuff.

[@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.

[@patrickbass3542]

Ammonium nitrate?

[@sixpest]

Simply so cool 😂

[@UnknowableAbsolute]

4100 is best shovel

[@Bigmike3406E]

Amfo. Diesel and nitrogen fertilizer mix . That’s your main explosive. Still need blasting caps and primer cord .

[@AaronWitt]

not ANFO -- they use emulsion here

[@phosphate66]

I wish this was hours long

[@floydwilliams3321]

That is cool❤

[@Harry_Gersack]

Very interesting, but for my taste you could have gone a bit more into the details 👍🏼

[@jaypayne8363]

You said that rio tinto is the only mine that does the full process at the mine to make it pure copper but I work at the Morenci copper mine in Arizona and we do the same thing

[@AaronWitt]

Morenci doesn’t have a smelter

[@craiglesworth2460]

Miami and Hayden?

[@Jutf7xd]

⁠@@craiglesworth2460Hayden was also an integrated operation but the smelter is closed, and the Miami smelter is still operating but there’s no concentrator

[@craiglesworth2460]

@@Jutf7xdthanks for the clarification! I think there’s still plans to restart the smelter in Hayden, but I’ve heard that for years now.

[@johnnylavoie]

The title should read: World deepest *open pit* mine. It's not in the top 30 of the actual deepest mines, with some mines being 3x as deep as this one

[@jimbob7218]

6:41 SAG mills do indeed have steel balls inside them!