Bingham Canyon Copper Mine 12-11-2009

Kennecott Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine from a commercial aircraft in December with snow cover. The mine is the world's largest man-made excavation. Located 28 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, the mine is 2 3/4-miles across and 3/4-mile deep. It is so big that it can be seen from outer space. You can see better detail in the large size.

Kennecott is the second largest copper producer in the United States, providing approximately 13 percent of the country's copper needs. Kennecott produces approximately 300,000 tons of refined copper each year. In addition to copper, the mine also produces about 400,000 ounces of gold, 4 million ounces of silver and 20 million pounds of molybdenum.

The mine is open 24 hours per day, 365 days a year.

May 2010: This photo was published in the August 2010 issue of NWT Magazine by Tamar Stelling in a "fotoreportage" of the Netherlands.
Apparently NWT magazine is comparable to Popular Science magazine in the US. I don't know, I couldn't read it because of the language, but I did like all the other photos :) It's a nice magazine.