(This page printed from UtahRails.net, Copyright 2000-2012 Don Strack)

To Move A Mountain

Railroads and Mining in Utah's Bingham Canyon

This page last updated on April 6, 2012.

(Return to Bingham index page)

Copper Era, From 1989 to today (Rio Tinto)

(click here for a brief summary history of RTZ and Rio Tinto)

1989
With the completion of the new Copperton mill, production for the Bingham mine was reported as: 111,000 tons of ore mined per day; 99,200 tons of waste rock moved per day; 210,000 tons of copper produced in 1989.

During 1989 there were five ore shovel faces, and five waste shovel faces being worked to maintain production. The majority of the ore was located in the bottom 900 feet off the mine, below the 5740 Level. The upper-most waste removal was taking place at the 7740 level. (Jeffery D. Tygesen, "Porphyry Copper: Bingham Canyon Mine", Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, SME Mining Engineering Handbook, Second Edition, Volume 2, 1992, ISBN -0-87335-100-2)

May 25, 1989
RTZ Corporation of London announced that it had completed the terms of its purchase of the mineral assets of BP, for a reported $4.3 billion. (New York Times, May 25, 1989)

June 1989
World-wide mineral interests of British Petroleum (including the Kennecott Utah Copper unit of BP Minerals America) were sold to RTZ Corporation for $4.4 billion. The name of BP Minerals America, Kennecott Utah Copper was changed to Kennecott Corporation on or about July 5, 1989. (Salt Lake Tribune, July 6, 1989)

Negotiations for the sale were first announced by Reuters in mid December 1988. (New York Times, December 15, 1988, citing a Reuters story; Salt Lake Tribune, December 24, 1988; Deseret News, January 3, 1989)

June 30, 1989
The sale of BP Minerals America to RTZ was expected to close on June 30, 1989, following the approval of the sale by RTZ, Corp., shareholders in London. (Deseret News, June 16, 1989) The sale was for all of BP's mineral assets worldwide, including Australia, Europe, and South Africa, as well as the holdings in the United States.

The sale of Kennecott by BP to RTZ would allow BP to buy back the 22 per cent interest in BP held by the government of Kuwait. The reported figure for both transactions was $4.3 billion. The government of Kuwait, through its Kuwait Investment Office, purchased over a period of a few months, 21.6 per cent of BP, which was a portion of the 31.5 per cent of BP that was sold by the British government in October 1987 as part of Margaret Thatcher's move to privatize companies in which the government held a financial interest (the sale raised $12 billion for the British government). Concerns were soon raised by BP management and British politicians about foreign ownership of a British company, and in October 1988, Kuwait was allowed three years to reduce its ownership of BP, a total of 1.3 billion shares. (New York Times, October 5, 1988; January 4, 1989)

January 1990
The new parent company, RTZ Corporation, announced that it would spend $227 million to expand the Utah operations of its Kennecott Corporation subsidiary. (New York Times, January 15, 1990)

1992
Kennecott mined a total of 142,000 tons per day during 1992. (Jeffery D. Tygesen, "Porphyry Copper: Bingham Canyon Mine") (click here for more information from 1992)

1992
"The Copperton concentrator was expanded in 1992 and fitted with some of the world’s largest Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) and ball mills, and large flotation cells. There are four grinding and flotation lines, sequentially yielding a copper and molybdenum concentrate. The copper concentrate is piped about 27km to the smelter. Until its closure in mid-2001, the older North plant supplied about 20% of the copper concentrate for smelting." (Mining Technology.com; link)

1992
As part of a $900 million modernization program that included updates to the Garfield smelter and refinery, Utah Route 48, the state road in Bingham Canyon, was decommissioned and abandoned; the roadway and right-of-way west of the low point at Copperton became private property of Kennecott.

March 1992
Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation (KUCC) became a unit of RTZ Corporation (England). It is reported that a new smelter would be built with a completion date set for 1995. At present, 40 percent of the mine's output is exported for processing. The new smelter will change the amount shipped out for processing. (Wall Street Journal, March 12, 1992)

March 1992
The capacity of the Copperton concentrator was increased to 112,000 tons per day. "Commissioned in March 1992, the Copperton concentrator expansion project increased its nominal capacity to 112,000-stpd. In 1992, a three-year program was initiated to replace the existing smelter facility with a new Outokumpu flash converting smelter. This project also included a double contact acid plant, cogeneration power plant, modernization of the existing copper refinery and a new precious metals refinery. It was completed in June 1995 at a total cost of US $1.1 billion." (David F. Briggs, Mining Operations Report, Bingham Canyon, June 2005; link)

"The Copperton Concentrator was completed in 1988. Modernization and expansion of the facility was completed in 1992 and was designed to process a capacity of 142,000 tons of ore per day. Ore is transported from the Bingham Mine via a conveyor belt to the coarse ore stockpile. The ore is fed to Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mills which crush the ore for separation and floatation to concentrate metal recovery. Tailings are slurried via a 13 mile pipeline to the tailings impoundment adjacent to the Great Salt Lake." (Utah Water Quality Report, 2009; link)

Kennecott expanded the capacity of the Copperton concentrator, adding a fourth crushing and grinding line. The intent was that the Copperton operation would replace the North Concentrator Complex, which had been restarted in September 1986, following the suspension of all operation at Bingham in 1985.

Historical Summary, 1960 Through 1995

Kennecott expanded its power plant in 1960 to a 175,000-kilowatt capacity. By 1961 Kennecott's copper mines included four large open pits in the western United States and one underground mine in Chile. In addition to those in Utah, operations existed in New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. In 1963 the company began a four-year, $100,000,000 expansion of operations. Parts of this program led to the 1965 opening of a cone precipitate plant at Bingham, and the Bonneville concentrator and a molybdenum oxide production plant at the Garfield smelter in 1966.

Further expansion led to the demise of the town of Bingham, which ceased to exist in 1971. Later in that decade, the town of Lark also succumbed to mine expansion. In 1977 construction began at the Garfield smelter to comply with the Clean Air Act. By 1978 the 1,215-foot smokestack at the smelter was completed. The smelter ultimately captured 94 percent of the sulfur contained in the copper concentrates.

The year 1980 marked the beginning of a worldwide copper recession which initiated significant changes for Kennecott. Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO) in 1981 acquired Kennecott, including the company's Utah Copper operations which had over 7,500 employees. In 1985 operations ceased at the Bingham Canyon mine. New labor agreements were negotiated in 1986, and resumption of all Kennecott Utah Copper operations occurred in 1987. British Petroleum acquired total control of SOHIO in 1987, with Kennecott becoming part of BP Minerals America. In 1988 Kennecott announced a $400,000,000 modernization program under president Frank Joklik.

A revitalized Kennecott Utah Copper began 1988 with the completion of a peripheral tailing discharge system at the tailings pond near Magna, and the start-up of modernized facilities at Bingham and Copperton. These included an in-pit crusher, conveying system, and three grinding lines in the Copperton concentrator, which processed about 85,000 tons per day. Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) Corporation purchased Kennecott in 1989 and continued the company's expansion. In 1990 a fourth grinding line at a cost of $220,000,000 was begun at the Copperton Concentrator, and it was completed in 1992. This increased the concentrator's production to 125,000 tons per day.

Kennecott's overall modernization has vaulted the company to being one of the most efficient copper producers in the world. During the first years of the 1990s, Kennecott Utah Copper, employing 2,400 people, produced approximately 300,000 tons of copper annually plus significant quantities of molybdenum, silver, and gold.

In 1993 Kennecott started construction of a new smelter and modernized refinery at the company's Utah Copper operations at a projected cost of $880,000,000--the largest private investment ever undertaken in Utah. The project was projected for completion in 1995, making the new smelter the largest and cleanest copper smelter in the world, capturing 99.8 percent of the sulfur contained in the copper concentrates. Kennecott, under RTZ, continued to expand in various mining ventures in the United States and throughout the world. (Source: OnlineUtah.com; link)

(click here for a brief summary of Kennecott history, through 1995; courtesy of Jim Harrawood's now-abandoned UtahRails.com web site)

1994
As part of the expansion of the tailing pond, Kennecott bought the property of the former Chevron Chemical phosphate fertilizer plant:

Chevron Fertilizer Plant: Located just north of the pre-1997 South Tailings Impoundment and mostly buried by the North Tailings impoundment was the Chevron Fertilizer Plant and its wastes. The plant, built in 1952, was originally a joint venture of Kennecott, ASARCO, and Stauffer Chemical. The plant treated phosphate ores with sulfuric acid to produce phosphoric acid and dry phosphate fertilizer products. Annual production ranged between 10,000 and 70,000 tons/year. Wastes included 300,000 tons/year of phosphogypsum. Chevron bought the facility in 1981. They ceased production of the phosphoric and acid and dry phosphate in 1986. Then they leased the land to FCI Agri-chem who mined the phosphogypsum tailings at the site for use as soil additives. The wastes covered about 385 acres and was thought to be about 6 million cubic yards. Kennecott bought the land in 1994 for use in the North Expansion and dismantled the plant in 1995 retaining only the administration building. There were 4 above ground fuel oil storage tanks that were removed and contamination in the footprint excavated and placed in a land farm at the site. There were also reports of the burial of Picloram at the site, but an investigation did not find any traces of this pesticide. (http://www.kennecott.com/assets/documents/RODNorthEnd.pdf) (link)

June 1995
Kennecott completed the construction of a new smelter at the site of the existing Garfield smelter, completing a project that was started in 1992-1993. The new smelter was to incorporate a new smelting process known as flash conversion. It was completed in June 1995 at a reported cost of $1.1 billion.

October 1995
Kennecott signed a contract with Union Switch & Signal Company for US&S to furnish a desktop computer-based rail traffic control system. The hardware of the new system was to include one dispatcher console and one system maintenance console. The dispatcher would be able to control wayside signals, switch machines and other wayside field equipment from the single console. The system would include centralized traffic control functions such as train tracking and entrance-exit routing. (US&S news release dated October 24, 1995)

June 2, 1997
RTZ Corporation changed its name to Rio Tinto.

Fall 1999
Kennecott had two concentrators. The new one at Copperton was supplied by a conveyor belt directly from the pit and the old "North Concentrator" at Magna. The North Concentrator was supplied by rail. So as long as the North Concentrator was operating, the railroad was too. When the North Concentrator was shut down (date unknown) it was the end of the rail operation to Copperton. Kennecott still does a lot of intra plant switching with their own engines within their huge plant complex. (message from Dick Ebright posted to Trainorders.com, May 21, 2004)

September 1999
During the period between 1999 and 2005, Kennecott would need a place to dump 400 to 600 million tons of waste rock. The best candidate was to fill in Bingham Canyon itself, but there was a set of railroad tracks in the way. These tracks connected the last in-mine reload station with tracks that took ore trains to the North Concentrator at Magna. Plans were put into place in September 1999 to relocate the reload station from inside the mine, to a point just below Dry Fork Shops. The move was estimated to cost about $8 million, but the payoff was projected to be $30 million. The move was originally scheduled to be completed in 2004, but in September 1999 plans were made to move the reload station in 2000. (KEEP Program summary, dated September 8, 1999)

March 2000
The reload facility in the mine was moved to a site below Dry Forks shops. The previous reload site was inside the pit, accessed via rail through the 5840 tunnel, and had been found to be located on top of a pocket of high grade ore. Moving the reload site outside of the mine also allowed the 5840 tunnel to be closed. The rail in the 5490 tunnel had been replaced in January 1988 by a new conveyor belt that moved ore from the primary crusher in the pit, out to the new Copperton concentrator.

March 19, 2000
The last ore train was operated from the mine. After that date, all ore was loaded at the relocated reload site outside of the mine. (Louie Cononelos, email dated December 27, 2011)

During May 2001, there were three or four trains per day between the mine and the mills. (Steve Ellis, Trainorders.com, May 21, 2001)

May 30, 2001
The last ore train was moved from Bingham to the Bonneville crusher. All later moves over the former Ore Haulage mainline were to transport new sections of the conveyor belt between the rail interchange with Union Pacific at Garfield, and Copperton, where Kennecott was marshalling supplies for conveyor maintenance. (Ken DeLuca, email dated December 27, 2011, citing an earlier internal document compiled on September 5, 2008)

Sections of the conveyor belts were replaced during 2001 and 2002 as production downtime was scheduled for other equipment at the mine.

June 1, 2001
Kennecott shut down the original Magna mill. In its news release dated May 25, 2001, Kennecott gave the reason for the closure as a reduction of operating costs and improved efficiencies. During 2000, Kennecott had shipped 30,000 tons of copper concentrate to independent refineries and smelters because its mills were producing more concentrate than Kennecott could process in its Garfield smelter. (Kennecott news release, dated May 25, 2001)

KENNECOTT TO CURTAIL OPERATIONS

MAGNA, Utah---May 25, 2001---Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation (KUC) will start to suspend operations at its North Concentrator Plant on or about June 1. Associated rail haulage operations will also be curtailed. The curtailment will impact about 235 hourly and salaried employees, and will reduce KUC's annual ore production by about 18 percent. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices were issued on May 25 announcing the curtailment.

According to Bruce Farmer, Kennecott's president and CEO, "The action is in response to difficult market conditions and the need to improve the Company's business performance. Our costs are too high and the closure of the higher cost, older North Concentrator Plant, will help reduce our costs over all. This action will be only a part of an ongoing drive to reduce costs and improve efficiencies." In the last three years, continuing low copper prices and increased costs of production have resulted in United States copper production being reduced by more than 33 percent.

"Kennecott regrets the impact that this necessary action will have on employees. To minimize this impact, the Company is discussing an enhanced early retirement for eligible hourly and salaried employees. Meetings have been held with union officials to discuss the proposal for hourly represented employees. An early retirement program also will be offered to eligible salaried employees. We are hopeful that the loss of jobs can be minimized through attrition," said company spokesman Louie Cononelos. He added that the Company believes that the proposed enhanced retirement plans and the reassignment of personnel should reduce the number of involuntary terminations.

The North Concentrator is Kennecott's oldest plant. Its Bonneville Crushing and Grinding facility was built in 1966, and its Magna Flotation facility was upgraded in 1982. Following completion of Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine and Copperton Concentrator modernization in 1988, the North Concentrator was to be closed, but its operations were continued because of high copper prices. In 2000, KUC sold approximately 30,000 tons of copper in concentrate produced from the North Concentrator to independent smelting and refinery facilities because it was unable to process it on site. According to Farmer, KUC's smelting and refining production will be maximized as the Company reduces operating costs and improves efficiencies.

November 2001
In June 2001, operations at the North Concentrator Complex had been temporarily suspended, but on November 27, 2001, Kennecott Utah Copper announced that it would close the North Concentrator Complex permanently.

November 27, 2001 - Rio Tinto's wholly owned Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation (KUC) today announced several steps to cut costs and improve productivity to help secure its future. KUC will permanently close its North Concentrator and make consequential changes to its mining operations as well as outsource smelter maintenance.

KUC announced the permanent closure of the North Concentrator near Magna, Utah where operations were temporarily suspended in June 2001. On an annual basis, KUC's North Concentrator processed approximately 12 million tons* of ore and produced about 60,000 tons of copper in concentrate. Because of the closure, concentrate sales, which had averaged about 100,000 tons per year in recent years, will cease. As a result of this closure, associated rail ore delivery systems at the mine will be shut down and the equipment fleet matched to the new mine plan. Two electric shovels and rotary drills together with part of the haul truck fleet will be idled. These changes will affect about 30 jobs. KUC anticipates that copper production for 2002, based on a lower ore grade at the mine, will be about 320,000 tons.

KUC will outsource the maintenance function at its smelter, affecting approximately 150 positions. The decision was arrived at only after the company and union failed to negotiate a reasonable, practical and mutually agreeable alternative. The implementation effects will now be discussed and negotiated with union officials. Eligible employees may be offered enhanced retirement benefits or other employment within the company, and there may be some forced reduction in numbers.

Bruce Farmer, KUC's President and CEO, said: "These are tough but necessary actions for our operations in response to the difficult economic climate. Copper prices remain at record lows and 50 per cent of American copper production is idled. We must reduce overall costs by 20 per cent and improve productivity significantly."

With an initial investment of $880 million in the mid 1990's, KUC built a new smelter and expanded and modernized its refinery. The smelter is the key facility that processes copper bearing minerals, through heat and oxidation in furnaces, into 99.5 per cent copper metal called anodes. The anodes are then transported by rail to the nearby refinery, where they are further processed into copper cathodes, which are sold to KUC's customers. KUC's smelter is the cleanest, most energy efficient copper smelter in the world. It captures 99.9 per cent of sulfur given off during the smelting process, and uses waste heat to co-generate about 60 per cent of the plant's electric power needs. On an annual basis, the smelter is designed to produce about 320,000 tons of copper anodes. (Rio Tinto news release, dated November 27, 2001)

December 2001
"Milling operations at the North (Bonneville/Magna) concentrator were suspended in June 2001 and it was permanently closed in December 2001, due to high operating costs and low copper prices." (David F. Briggs, Mining Operations Report, Bingham Canyon, June 2005)

March 26, 2002
All rail switching operations were assumed under a contract awarded to Railworks. From that date, Railworks was responsible to deliver rail cars to Copperton, including cars with new conveyor belt segments for the conveyor belt refurbishment project. They also made several trips per month unrelated to the belt cars. On December 11, 2003, a separate contract line item was added for Rail Link to operate "extra switching" trains between Garfield and Magna, and Copperton. These became known as a “Copperton run.”

As part of its contract with Kennecott, Railworks made a subcontract with Rail Link, a company owned by Genessee and Wyoming, the parent company of Utah Railway. Railworks was responsible for the operations contract and Rail Link furnished the operating crews. Railworks was also responsible for the maintenance of Kennecott's rail car fleet (mostly the white sulfuric acid tank cars). To fulfill the operations contract, Railworks purchased three of the GP39-2s from Kennecott. The Railworks contract (and Rail Link subcontract) remained in place until Railworks was purchased by Tangent Rail in 2005.

(click here for more information about railroad switching at Garfield)

Removal of Copperton Line

Starting on October 10, 2011, a contractor started work to remove the rail and ties of the Copperton Line. By late March 2012, the work had progressed along the Magna/Arthur low line as far as the highway overpass just south of Magna, where the rail line crosses Utah State Route 111, at about 4400 South. The Bonneville high line was apparently still intact from Central Junction west to a point just west of the rail crossing of SR 111, at about 5400 South. The yard tracks at the site of the Bonneville dumper and crusher were removed when the site was demolished in 2007, and reclaimed in 2008.

August 2002
The longest of the six conveyor belts used to move ore from the pit to the Copperton mill was replaced due to normal wear and tear. It had been put into operation in January 1988, and was installed in the 5490 rail tunnel. The conveyor system consisted of six separate conveyor belts, with the longest, known as C-6, being 17,300 feet in length. By the time the longest belt was replaced, the conveyor system had carried 700 million tons of 10-inch minus material, from the in-pit crusher, out to the material storage pile adjacent to the Copperton mill. The conveyor belts were 72-inches wide. The C-6 belt was replaced during a normal 10-day downtime to move the in-pit crusher. "After almost 14 years of service, the most critical belt was removed after exceeding all warranty expectations. In particular, it exceeded warranty life by 40 percent and warranty tonnage by 245 percent. The belt was finally replaced [in August 2002] due to the convenience of system downtime created by a crusher move and because of the awareness of the increasing incidence of cord damage/breaks." (Dr. Robin B. Steven, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, "Replacing C-6 Conveyor Belt at Kennecott Copper, Bingham Canyon Copper Mine", http://www.saimh.co.za/beltcon/beltcon12/paper1209.htm)

2004
The following comes from Kennecott's 2004 Sustainable Development Report:

Mine Expansion

The red area on the east of the open-pit mine is the site of the planned expansion. The Visitors Center is currently located in this area and will be moved in 2006. This expansion project will extend the life of the open-pit mine through 2017.

Kennecott is moving ahead with plans to extend the life of its open-pit mine from 2013 to 2017. A series of engineering studies demonstrated that pushing back the east wall of the mine is not only a feasible option but an economically viable one. The pushback began in February 2005.

This expansion of the open-pit will be accompanied by the addition of a pebble crushing circuit at the Copperton Concentrator. Pebble crushing will allow the concentrator to achieve higher throughput rates when encountering harder rock types in the mine, resulting in greater copper production. In 2005 and 2006, capital expenditures of $138 million will be spent on new and relocated mine facilities, mobile equipment and concentrator upgrades. Approximately $53 million in additional capital will be required in 2008 for the relocation of the in-pit crusher and de-watering facilities.

The mine expansion will add years of economic benefit to shareholders, local communities, organizations and projects. Kennecott will continue to look for ways to economically mine the remaining ore to extend mine life even further.

East Wall Pushback

Why open-pit rather than underground expansion?

In value terms, the east pushback is broadly similar to the underground plan. However, the east pushback requires significantly lower capital expenditure to develop and is less technically challenging than an underground development. It also allows the resource to be exploited using proven mining methods that Kennecott is highly experienced with.

Furthermore, the pushback gives Kennecott additional time to complete studies to determine the most effective solution for increasing mine life beyond 2017. The studies will look at further open-pit expansions, smaller underground developments and concurrent open-pit and underground mining operations.

June 30, 2006
Kennecott reopened the public visitor's center that overlooked the Bingham Canyon open-pit mine. The new 6,000 square-foot visitor's center was located 300 feet lower in the mine, and included "1,200 square feet of additional exhibit space and 12 new exhibits and displays, including four video locations. Visitors also may view a new 16-minute video in a 90-seat theater." (Salt Lake Tribune, June 24, 2006, Business Digest)

April 2007
To date, nearly 18 million tons of copper have come out of the Bingham Canyon Mine along with 23 million ounces of gold, 190 million ounces of silver and 850 million pounds of molybdenum, a steel-hardening metal. (Deseret News, April 8, 2007)

April 2007
Demolition started of the Magna concentrator mill, shut down since November 2001. The work, expected to be completed by June 2007, included the removal in May 2007 of the overhead pipeline from the mill to the tailings pond that crossed over State Road 201. The Arthur mill to the west, was shut down in 1984 and was demolished in 1991. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 10, 2007)

2007
The buildings and facility of the Bonneville crushing and grinding mill were demolished. During 2008, the site was to be reclaimed and replanted to return it to its original state prior to the construction of the mill in 1966. (2007 Kennecott Utah Copper Sustainabe Development Report)

New Soccer Stadium Named for Rio Tinto

On September 30, 2008, Rio Tinto Group and Salt Lake City's professional soccer team, Real Salt Lake, announced that the team's new stadium in Sandy, Utah, would be named Rio Tinto Stadium. In return for naming rights for the stadium, completed at a reported cost of $115 million, with a seating capacity of 20,000, the mining company would pay the soccer team $1.5 million to $2 million a year for 15 years. The team's opening game at the new stadium was planned for October 9, 2008. (New York Times, September 30, 2008)

November 8, 2008
Kennecott announced that they would build a molybdenum smelter at Magna, with ground breaking set for Tuesday November 11, 2008. Kennecott said the $270 million Molybdenum Autoclave Processing facility will run on clean energy and reduced emissions. Tom Albanese, chief executive of Kennecott parent company Rio Tinto, said that China and India are big buyers of molybdenum, a silvery white metal with many applications, including the points on spark plugs that fire everyday engines. The news release stated that molybdenum is a byproduct of copper production, and is used in high-strength steel alloys. It's also a key ingredient in oil refining. (KSL.com, November 8, 2008)

2008
The following comes from Rio Tinto's 2008 annual report:

In 2008 the Copper group realised substantial increases in mineral resources from work completed by Rio Tinto Exploration.

Brownfield exploration in the Bingham Canyon mine area provided a 640 million tonne increase in resources from those reported in 2007. The resource is located beneath the current Bingham Canyon pit and is currently under study for extraction by open pit mining methods. A recently discovered molybdenum orebody beneath the existing pit could provide additional options for future development. ("Brownfield exploration" is exploration in already disturbed ground, near known ore deposits.)

In June 2008, Rio Tinto approved a US$270 million investment in the Molybdenum Autoclave Process (MAP) at KUC. As part of the Group wide decision to reduce capital expenditure in response to recent economic developments, this project will be delayed while retaining the option to restart development when economic conditions improve. The facility is expected to increase molybdenum recovery, produce chemical grade molybdenum products and recover by-product rhenium.

A US$82 million expansion and modernisation of the bulk flotation process at KUC’s Copperton concentrator was completed during 2008. A US$73 million investment in mining equipment has also been agreed in order to accelerate mining and allow possible mine extensions beyond 2019.

Kennecott Utah Copper -- (Rio Tinto: 100 per cent) -- KUC operates the Bingham Canyon mine, Copperton concentrator and Garfield smelter and refinery complex near Salt Lake City, Utah. KUC is a polymetallic mine, producing copper, gold, molybdenum and silver. As the second largest copper producer in the US based on 2008 production, KUC supplied approximately 12 per cent of the US’s annual refined copper requirements and employed approximately 1,900 people at 31 December 2008. KUC is well positioned on the industry cost curve, benefiting from significant byproduct revenues from molybdenum, gold, and silver. Although mining operations at Bingham Canyon have taken place for over 100 years, the mine continues to have extensive optionality for future development.

Over the past three years, exploration has identified a significant molybdenum deposit beneath the Bingham Canyon open pit, additional porphyry mineralisation below the southern pit wall at depth, and multiple exploration targets with further potential both in the immediate three to four kilometre wide orbit of the Bingham pit and within 20 kilometres of the Oquirrh Range.

Ore processed at the Copperton concentrator in 2008 was a new record. KUC’s copper in concentrate production increased to 238,000 tonnes in 2008, an increase of 12 per cent from 2007. Copper cathode production of 200,600 tonnes was 65,000 tonnes less than in 2007. The decrease in refined copper and gold were primarily the result of a planned smelter shutdown during the second half of 2008. Molybdenum concentrate production in 2008 was 19,400 tonnes, compared to 26,600 tonnes in the previous year. The decrease in molybdenum production was driven by a nearly 17 per cent decrease in ore grades compared to 2007.

Stripping of waste rock on the east side of the pit was accelerated in mid 2008. This is expected to bring deliveries of higher grade ore forward to compensate for declines in ore grades expected in 2011 and 2012. Current ore reserves and mineral resources are expected to enable open pit operations to continue until 2019 and possibly to 2036.

The Keystone project continued to evaluate open pit and underground expansion options at the mine. The timeline for development of this project is under review given the current global economic setting. Dewatering and rehabilitation of an existing mine shaft continued in 2008, and some surface infrastructure was constructed.

The bulk flotation upgrade at the KUC concentrator, which started in 2007, was largely completed in 2008. The project is expected to increase copper recovery by two per cent and concentrate grade by four per cent.

The construction of the Molybdenum Autoclave Process (MAP) facility approved during 2008 has been delayed due to falling prices.

2009
During 2009, Rio Tinto's Bingham Canyon mine was the number two copper mine in the nation (first was the Morenci mine in Arizona), and the United States was second on the world's copper producing nation in the world (first was Chile). (http://copperinvestingnews.com/4147/the-top-10-copper-producing-countries/)(link)

2009 Bingham Production:

Worldwide 2009 Copper Production

In August 2010, Kennecott Utah Copper began the approval process to expand the size of the Bingham Canyon mine, and to increase overall production. The expansion is known as the Cornerstone Project. (Kennecott page and news release) (Utah Environmental Quality page)

In December 2010, Rio Tinto proposed to replace three coal-fired boilers at its Magna power plant, with a single natural gas-fired turbine and generator. The largest coal-fired boiler (Unit 4) will remain in use to give the power plant an alternate source of fuel. Unit number 4 was completed in 1959 and has always had the capability to be fired by either natural gas, or by coal. The improved power plant is needed to provide additional power to the planned Cornerstone project at the Bingham mine. (click here for more information about the Central Power Station)

2010 Bingham Production:

In 2011:

March 2012
Rio Tinto announced a test in 2013 for the use of a tunnel boring machine to develop underground mining methods at Kennecott's Bingham copper mine. The following comes from Mining Magazine, April 2012 (dated March 29, 2012) (link):

Rio Tinto has announced a second tunnel-boring trial, aimed at significantly reducing the time taken to excavate underground.

The company is working in partnership with Atlas Copco on the trial, which will start in 2013 at Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Utah Copper (KUC) mine in Salt Lake City. Tunnelling rates of 10 meters per day are expected; nearly twice that of conventional methods.

Later this year, the Copper NuWave recovery technology, will be trialled at Kennecott.

The first tunnel-boring trial is set to start this year, in partnership with Aker Wirth at the Northparkes copper and gold mine in New South Wales. Locations are currently being considered for a shaft-boring system trial.

John McGagh, head of innovation at Rio Tinto, pointed out that mining is moving increasingly towards underground operations as deeper orebodies are being identified and open pits reach the end of their life.

He added: "These trials mean we can test the technology to allow us to mine deeper and more safely, with the potential benefits of greater efficiency and speed of underground mine construction, which would increase the value of projects."

As part of the mineral-recovery programme, the company has even looked outside the mining industry by partnering Norway’s TOMRA Sorting Solutions, which supplies sensor-based systems used in recycling and food processing. Together, the companies plan to develop commercial-scale systems for separating minerals from rock waste.

Another partnership with UK-based e2V uses large-scale microwave technology and radio-frequency generators to improve the efficiency of mineral recovery from discarded ore.

Mr McGagh added: "This technology has the capability of being a potential game changer in the mining industry."

April 2012
North Rim Skarn (NRS) is in essence the underground expansion project for Kennecott Utah Copper, one of the largest and oldest copper mines in the world, and a flagship mine for Rio Tinto. NRS will involve the construction of an underground mining facilities, including new vertical shafts and horizontal drifts and galleries and declines, as well as refurbishing an existing shaft. Most of the work will be contracted out. NRS is undertaking various studies and works to determine the viability of an underground mine which will exploit the large porphyry Copper mineralization identified within the pit at the Bingham mine.

A "Skarn" is the area between host waste rock and mineralized ore rock, and is usually mineable due to high concentrations of minerals.

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