Bingham Canyon Mine Photo

Photographer’s Note

Also known as the Kennecott Mine.

Dominating the landscape of the Oquirrh Mountains southwest of Salt Lake City, this open pit mine is the largest man-made excavation. The mine comes in at over 3/4 miles in depth and 2.5 miles wide. Mining in the area started in the 1850's but it wasn't until the early 1900's that the mine really started producing, when it was shown that the low grade ore could be profitable. Over its life the mine is one of the largest producers of copper, more than any other mine in the United States. It also produces gold and silver, which are impurities removed from the copper. These metals have combined to make the resources mined of more value than the Comstock Lode, Klondike, & California gold rush area combined.

As for the photo, this is a 1x4 stitch to get a feeling for the size of the mine. I had to work quick so that the trucks wouldn't cause problems with the stitch. The trucks, which run pretty much continuously are quite large, with the tires being about 15 feet in diameter and costing around $20,000 each. Each truck carries over 250 tons of material on each trip.

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Critiques | Translate

azleader (6) 2009-05-21 11:09

A superb image and well merged.

I like it a lot. The only down side is that it makes things look much smaller than they really are. But you had to do that to capture the whole scene.

You don't provide much tech info but I'm guessing that each of the 4 images were from a wider angled lens as well and, given its aspect, I'd say taken in portrait orientation.

Very nice.

gneufeld (14959) 2009-05-21 18:51

Hi Allan,
Perhaps not that pleasing to see so much land consumed in mining, but then we depend on a variety of resources. Good image technically. Sharp clear, and excellent depth. Well done and TFS. Gerald

mkamionka (4226) 2009-05-22 3:21

Hi Allan,
thanks for this unknown rather image from Utah.
The colors are amazing. I really like it,
TFS
M

photoray (1174) 2009-05-28 17:32