Bingham Canyon Mine, USA

Among the largest copper quarries of the planet. the Bingham Canyon Mine is worth mentioning. It is located in Utah, in the western United States. A large deposit of copper was discovered in these places in the middle of the 19 century. In 1863 an active development of mine began, it has been going on for over 150 years. The Bingham Canyon is the largest man-made excavation in the world. It is 1200 meters deep, 4000 meters in diameter in its widest part and covering 7,7 square kilometers.

About 1400 people are involved in mine development nowadays. 450000 tons of valuable species are extracted from the mine daily. The size of the pit has increasingly become the base of the controversy between large mining companies and environmental organizations. The attempts to close the mine have not been brought to a successful conclusion yet, although thousands of experts from all over the world consider it dangerous.

The mine experienced a large landslide on April 10, 2013. Officially, no injuries were reported, but some large constructions and tens of pieces of costly equipment were smashed. After the landslide, the mining operations were suspended. Now the work continues as before. The Bingham Canyon Mine is owned by Rio Tinto company. Next - Quarry Lucky