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Name       
GLY-2038 – Environmental Geoscience Fall 2020

Group Discussion – Bingham Canyon Copper Mine

Purpose: Most of the modern technological conveniences that we enjoy on a daily basis rely heavily
on mineral resources mined from the earth. The devices that we depend on to maintain our standard
of living – cell phones, laptops, electric vehicles, flat-screen TVs, etc. -- would not exist were it not for
the mining and refining of metals, metalloids and rare earth elements. As users of the end products,
we rarely consider the impacts that extractionn of the raw materials has on the natural environment.
Like many of the benefits of modern life, this resource extraction activity has some significant negative
consequences, including:
 Depletion of scarce resources
 Permanent alteration of natural landscapes
 Contamination of groundwater and surface water
 Production of toxic waste

Knowledge: This investigation is intended to develop a quantitative and visual understanding of the
impact of human activities – in this case surface mining -- on an area’s land, water and air resources. In
order to do so, we will examine a major open-pit copper mine in Utah. We will use Google Earth Pro to
calculate the quantity of rock removed from the Bingham Copper Pit in Utah, one of the world’s largest
open-pit mines. In addition, we will be able to estimate the percentage of copper ore disseminated in
these rocks and the quantity of rock that must be removed for each ton of copper produced, along with
the value of the copper, as well as the amount of waste rock that ends up in the tailings piles.
Additionally, we will look into the lifetime of the resource, and the costs and benefits of the mining.

Skills: This exercise will involve the quantitative analysis of topographic and geologic data for the
purpose of examining the effect that a major resource mining operation has on a regional landscape.
The analysis will also involve the interpretation of numerical data in order to better understand the
environmental impact of modern technological society’s use of mineral resources.
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Fig. 1. Google Earth image of the Bingham Canyon open-pit copper mine, Utah, USA.

Tasks: Follow the detailed instructions below, which will enable you to develop the data necessary to
answer the numbered questions that follow.

Open Google Earth Pro. Make sure the Terrain box in the Layers menu is checked. Turn on the metric
measures by clicking on Google Earth Pro on the menu bar at the top of the page, then clicking on
Preferences. Under Units of Measurement select Meters, Kilometers and then select OK.

To locate the Bingham Canyon Copper Pit, enter the following coordinates into the Search bar of
Google Earth: 40.5226, -112.1483. NOTE: don’t forget the negative sign in front of the longitude
coordinate. This places you at the bottom of the Bingham Canyon copper pit southwest of Salt Lake
City, Utah. Click on the Pin icon and place a pin at this spot. Label the pin CENTER. The elevation
is shown at the bottom right side of the screen for any location where you place the cursor. Mark
the elevation of the the pin in your notes:  1420 meters above sea level.

Zoom out so that the full extent of the excavated area fills the screen.

We will construct a topographic profile from the north rim of the pit to the south rim, going in a straight
line that passes through the pin in the bottom of the pit. First, place a pin at the north rim at the
following coordinates: 40.5551, -112.1518. Lebel that pin NORTH RIM. Then place a third pin at the
south rim at: 40.5028, -112.1460. Label that pin SOUTH RIM.

Next, return to the Google Earth window and click on the “Ruler” icon near the top of the screen. When
the Ruler dialogue box opens, select “meters” as the unit of measure. Also select the tab labeled Path.
Then place the cursor on the NORTH RIM pin.

Draw a north-south profile across the center of the Bingham Pit. Begin by clicking on the NORTH RIM
pin. Then click on the CENTER pin. Finally, click on the SOUTH RIM pin. When you are finished, click
Save. Then give the transect a name and click OK. Make a screenshot of the result and attach it to
the file you upload after you complete this assignment.

Make sure the menu panel on the left side of the screen is open. The name you gave the transect will
appear in the menu. Right-click on the transect name, and select Show elevation profile. This will
bring up a horizontal profile across the pit. Place the cursor at the northern edge of the profile. Record
the elevation at that point. As you move the cursor along the transect, the elevation and distance is
shown. Use that information to answer the questions below.

Note that the excavation is approximately cone-shaped. As a consequence, we can estimate the
volume of rock removed from the mine by calculating the volume of this cone. Access the Internet to
obtain the formula for the volume of a cone. Using this formula, calculate the volume of rock removed
from the pit by determining the maximum depth of the pit from rim to center. Answer the following
questions to help you determine the volume and mass of rock removed from this pit:

1. What is the approximate elevation (meters) of the northern pit rim?_  2221 m

2. What is the approximate minimum elevation (meters) in the bottom of the pit?  1401 m

3. What is the approximate height change (h) of the pit, from rim to bottom?  820 m

4. Using the length scale at the bottom of the profile, what is approximate radius of the pit (half of
the north-south diameter)? 
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3235_m

5. Using the formula for the volume of a cone, what is the volume of rock removed from this pit?
[SHOW THE CALCULATION]  πr^2h/3
pi 3235^2 820/3 10465225 * 273.3 =  2860494833.3    m3

6. Given that density = mass / volume, if the density of rock in Bingham Canyon is 2.8 g/cm 3,
calculate the mass of rock removed from this pit. Note that you will need to do some
conversions to get proper units in your answer (metric tonnes).
[SHOW THE CALCULATION] 
2860494833.3      2.8= x/2860494833.3 2.8*2860494833.3 =x

8009385533.2 tonnes

7. Since mining began in 1904, 15.4 million metric tons of pure copper have been smelted from
this mine. What percentage of the total rock mass mined from the pit was copper?
[SHOW THE CALCULATION] 
15400000/8009385533.2g  0.2     %

8. How many metric tons of bulk rock must be mined to yield one metric ton of copper?
[SHOW THE CALCULATION]  0.2/100 =
1/x 100/0.2
500 tonnes

9. How much of the excavated rock, in metric tonnes, has ended up as waste? Describe briefly
what the likely effect is of disposing of this waste in tailings piles.
 7993366762 tonnes  it could release hazardous materials into the water

10. Note that reported ore grade of the Bingham Pit is 0.6%. How does this compare to your
estimate above? Discuss potential reasons for this disparity.
 a ton of rock could have more copper than another and the 0.2 is just an estimate if it
was proportionate throughout

11. Go to the supplementary materials file on Mineral Resources on the Webcourse site. Look up
the estimated lifetime, in years, for the global copper resource. What is it? How does this
affect your answer to the previous question?        years       

12. Look up the current market price ($/lb) for copper at:
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/copper/. If you were the mine operator, what
would be the upper limit for your production cost, per tonne, before the cost outweighed the
profit? (Assume that the copper concentration you calculated in #7 above does not change).
[SHOW THE CALCULATION] 
6,708.00*15.4 mil     
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13. Discuss the production costs that would need to be included in the above calculation, including
the cost of all of the potential environmental impacts that might result.       

14. What are the most significant considerations in making a cost-benefit analysis of continuing the
mining operation?       

Names of group members: 