WORLD'S BIGGEST COPPER MINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 80, 28 December 1917, Page 8

WORLD'S BIGGEST COPPER MINE

. A REMARKABLE ENTERPRISE. In Bingham Canyon, Utah, near Salt Lake City, is the largest and most remarkable mining operation 'in the world. Here,'\Wiere infrequent rains once washed furrows into the sagecovered slopes of the Wahsatch. Mountains, a half hundred hungry steam shovels are now eating their way into the heart of a mountain of copper ore —not copper ore as ordinarily ...seen, rich and heavy, in conspicuous seams and veins; but a new sort of copper ore, rock with such a scant scattering of copper minerals that "to the 'ordinary eye it looks no more like ore thancommon granite, rock so lean-in copper values that to old-line mining methods it remains as unprofitable to mine as common granite. ■ Yet this new type of copper ore, developed not only at Bingham, but recently also as a.result of its leadership at several localties in the south-wor.t, as well as in Mexico and Chile, is' now producing j more copper than the .whole. United! States provided a decade past. '.;! This achievement of adding millions of tons of copper to the world's output' is duo to the vision and,constructive imagination of. a single mind. Twenty years ago tho mininn; of rock in which the copp.er minerals . could scarcely be seen was undreamed of. But tine man dreamed and acted; and the ' dream came true. He. is Daniel C. Jackling, first' vice-president "'and managing director of the Utah Copper Company. . . ..■ 'In 1888 Bingham Canyon was n<.district of small and none too flourishing gold mines. Low grade popper ores had'long been known to be present, ever since, in fact, the Third California Infantry, stationed '-in SaltXake City in 1863, varied their'activities by pro'spectinjr in the neighbouring mountains and drove a tunnel into the cop-per-beaiing' rock. But rock carrying in each ton only 301b. of copper, and that in the form of complex minerals, had to await large scale engineering ideas to materialise. Jackling made an examination, of this ungainly copper occurrence in 1898. He saw its. possibilities. He roported that millions of pounds of copper were scattered through a mountain'of rock, and that the copper could he secured at a profit if operations were-planned on ajaree enough scale:, in other words., if the whole" mountain were demolished in the process. But theidea was and not until five years later did capital venture into this tremendous undertaking. Success has now crowned the. venture, not merely material or financial successes, but success of deeper significance. We have here the turning point between the mining of the past and the mining of the .future. The bonanza type of mine, m which rich values are gotten from the earth vtrtn little effort, is fast becoming obsolete, even in the- undeveloped regions, ot the globe, writes the "Scientific American," the world"must turn more and more to low-grade ores for its essential inotals, and the' achievement at Bingham has blazed the trail; • ', y ■ Bingham Canyon' is easily reached from Salt Lake City. After skirting the spurs of the Wahsatch llange and passing the enormous mills and smelter at Garfield, placed at the -mouth.of the- Canyon twenty miles from the mine to handle the thousands .ot tons of ore that como down daily, the visitor's train turns info a narrow valley. Near its head, he in a minin<* town, pressed between precipitous slopes, smoky and noisy, from passing ore trains. .If he climbs the steep slope surmounting the place he can gam n panoramic view of tho mining activities - He eees a whole mountain, resting "against the crest line of a snowdad'range, stripped bare pfrbrmaiitle of soil, raw and naked m its deinolishment. Terrace after terrace of R rayroek, twenty-five in all, rise stepWee from the valley bottom, and extend'like giant stairs to the very summit, .supporting nearly fifty miles .of railroad. As the eye .wanders up to the ton it catches here and_ there puffs of white vapour, accompanied by raucous ' noises, where ponderous stoam shovels, looking tiny in the distance,arc scooping out tons of copper rock and loading their charges into. long trains nf cars gaping for tliPir burden. It is u«ly, yet fascinating, this unwilling tribute 'yielded up to the masterful effort of'modern .industry. ■'. ;