#collapspe

Slide in Bingham Canyon Mine

The Bingham Canyon mine in Utah is, by volume, the largest open pit mine in the world. It has produced a huge amount of material, most notably copper, but also silver, gold, and molybdenum – in fact, it accounts for all nearly all of those materials produced in the entire state of Utah. In 2013, the mine suffered a major collapse which interrupted production for about 3 years. On May 31, a smaller portion of the walls of that mine collapsed, as seen in these press photographs.

Some mining activities in the portion of the mine are likely to be disrupted, but the company that operates this mine has for years managed the oversteepened walls of the mine by proactively monitoring the site for motion that could indicate a developing hazard. As was the case in the large slide in 2013, all workers were evacuated from this area before the slide occurred.

-JBB

Image credit: Fox 13

Reference:
https://blogs.agu.org/lan…/2021/06/04/2021-bingham-canyon/
https://www.sltrib.com/…/06/02/another-slide-disrupts/