Anaconda in Utah
Compiled by Don Strack
This page was last updated on May 27, 2011.
(This is a work in progress; research continues.)
Additional Information
- Tooele Valley Railway — A separate page describing the history and operations of the railroad that connected the International Smelter with the Union Pacific and Western Pacific railroads west of Tooele.
- International Smelter — A separate page about the International Smelting Company and their smelter near Tooele.
Overview
The Highland Boy mine was owned and operated by Utah Consolidated Mining Company, which had its own smelter out in the Salt Lake Valley. The smelter-smoke suit of 1904 forced them to build a new smelter on the other side of the mountain, above Tooele, as the International Smelting Company. The Tooele Valley Railway was built to serve the International smelter, which opened in 1910. A lead-silver smelter was added in 1912, and Anaconda bought the whole setup (mine, smelter, and railroad) in 1914.
Ore arrived at the Tooele smelter by two methods, either by the 20,000 feet long aerial tramway of Utah Consolidated that traversed the ridge from Bingham Canyon, or by the Tooele Valley Railway that operated between International and a connection with Union Pacific at Tooele Junction (later Warner), west of Tooele.
Through a series of court cases and mergers, Utah Consolidated was combined with several other large underground Bingham/Carr Fork mines, such as Utah-Apex, Utah-Delaware, and Utah Metals, and in 1937 they all came under the control of a new company known as National Tunnel & Mines Company.
In 1937, ground was broken for a 22,000-foot tunnel from the underground mines in the area west of the Bingham mine, at the top of Carr Fork. This was to replace the Utah Consolidated aerial tramway. The tunnel was completed in 1941. In 1948, Anaconda acquired full control of all the mines and the smelter, as well as the tunnel company.
At various times, from 1910 through 1972, the company operated copper and lead smelters and a lead-zinc flotation mill. The smelter processed ores mined from several areas in Utah and Nevada. The copper smelter was closed in 1946, followed by the closure of the lead/zinc flotation mill in 1968, and finally, closure of the lead smelter in 1972. The entire site was demolished during the years 1972-1974.
In 1969, they began exploration drilling with plans for a large expansion project. In 1974, Anaconda constructed and operated a copper mine and mill known as the "Carr Fork Operations". The main mill of the Carr Fork operation was one mile east of the International Smelting smelter property in Pine Canyon on approximately 12.5 acres. The Carr Fork operation began processing ore in 1979 and ran until ARCO shut it down in 1981 (Atlantic Richfield purchased Anaconda in 1977). Tooele Valley Railway was used to haul away the scrap when the International smelter was torn down, and remained to serve the Pine Canyon mill. It was finally shut down and abandoned when the Pine Canyon “Carr Fork” mine and mill shut down, with its last day of operation being on August 28, 1982.
The Carr Fork mine stopped production in November 1981, while Anaconda waited for copper prices to rise. When this did not happen, the processing facilities were torn down, sold, and removed from the property in late 1984. The Carr Fork Operation property was sold to Kennecott Copper in October 1985. This included the mine and mill along with several acres of land east of the smelter site.
Timeline
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