Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, is one of the largest copper mines in the world. Copper, like silver and gold, can be produced directly from naturally occurring minerals by heating and oxidation. Smelting began on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake in 1906 to process ore from Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine.  In 1992, Kennecott Utah Copper began construction of an $880-million modernization of the Smelter and the Refinery. This project was the largest privately financed construction project in the history of Utah.  In 2013 the mine collapsed a huge landslide.

Location: Bingham Canyon, UT