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Virtual Vista: Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, Utah, USA

The final Virtual Vista is a fitting one to illustrate man's reliance on Earth resources and the extraordinary technological means used to exploit those resources.

The images on this page are of the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine near Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. This is an open pit mine developed to exploit a disseminated copper deposit. The ore-bearing rock was first discovered in 1863, and mining activity began very shortly after the discovery.

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Presently, the mine is over 1.2 km deep and over 4.6 km across. An entire mountain has been removed to create this mine, "the richest hole in the world". Since production began in 1863, this mine has yielded over 16 million tons of copper, more than any other copper mine in the world. In addition to copper, the mine also yields substantial quantities of gold, silver, and molybdenum.

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This Virtual Vista was created by processing a digital elevation model (DEM) of the mining area, then mapping a digital aerial image to the rendered surface using Geographic Information System software.

Use the link below to take a dizzying virtual flight inside the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine:

Bingham Canyon Copper Mine Fly By (2334.0K)

To learn more about the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine and its parent company, Kennecott Copper, visit their website by following the hyperlink above.

Points to Ponder:

Go to the web site of Kennecott Copper to obtain statistics on the size of the Bingham copper mine.

1. What volume of rock that has been removed from the mine?

2. How many tons of rock was this (assuming an average density of 2.8 grams per cubic centimeter)?

3. How much copper was extracted for each ton of rock mined?

Having trouble loading or viewing the video clip? You will need the DivX video codec for your media player to watch the video. The DivX codec is available free from www.divx.com. Click on the link or type the URL into your browser to go to the DivX download site. Once at the DivX site, follow the "DOWNLOAD" links until you locate the download "Standard DivX Codec (FREE)" hyperlink. Click on the link and download the small DivX codec file. The codec file may take a few minutes to load. Please be patient. Once the file is downloaded to your local computer, double click on the file to automatically install the Divx codec.

You may also discover that the Virtual Vistas work best with the Windows Media Player, available as a free download from www.microsoft.com. Click on the link or type the URL into your browser to go to the Microsoft web site. Once at the web site, type "windows media player" into the Search box, then click on the appropriate link to download the latest version of Windows Media Player.






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