Kennecott Utah Copper Taking Giant Leap into the Future

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Touted as the largest man-made excavation on the face of the planet, extending 2.5 miles wide and three quarters of a mile deep, the Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah is going to get even larger with a major expansion at the mine. Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Plc (London, England), is underway with the $170 million "Giant Leap" project, which will extend Bingham Canyon mine life from 2013 to 2017.

The Bingham Canyon mine is part of one of the largest mining complexes in the world, which in addition to the open pit mine includes a smelter, byproduct sulfuric acid plant, an electrolytic copper refinery, the Copperton Concentrator, and a 175-megawatt power plant, with about 1,500 employees and 600 contractors, of which 650 are employed at the Bingham Canyon mine.

The majority of the Giant Leap project is happening at the mine site and includes construction of a new visitors center, relocation of facilities and a maintenance shop, plus a push back of the open pit, which will eventually allow access to future underground mining at the site. The truck and shovel mine employs a fleet of 63 haulage trucks, mostly Caterpillar mechanical-drive 240-ton-capacity and Komatsu electric-drive 320 ton-capacity vehicles, which service ten electric shovels and one hydraulic shovel.

A separate $43 million pebble crushing circuit addition is underway at the Copperton Concentrator. CEntry Constructors & Engineers (Sandy, Utah) is providing engineering services for the pebble crushing circuit addition. Site work is underway for the project, and major mechanical and electrical construction will occur starting in the first quarter of 2006. The Copperton Concentrator has four grinding and flotation lines. Copper concentrate is piped 15.6 miles to the smelter (Outokumpu flash smelting process).

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