Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, Utah, 1970s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, Utah, 1970s — Archive & Atlas

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Bingham Canyon

Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, Utah, 1970s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1970–1979

AA-2026-D89889

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Vast amounts of earth were rearranged here. The goal was to extract small amounts of metal from enormous volumes of rock, a process that made perfect sense on a balance sheet. People believed this was a good way to get rich, and often, they were right.

Giant machines, specialised for tearing apart mountains, moved slowly along planned routes. Each step was calculated, each bucketful accounted for, all leading to a product that someone, somewhere, needed. This was efficiency on an epic scale, driven by quarterly reports.

The result is a new kind of landscape, engineered for profit. It stands as a testament to the belief that nature existed primarily for human consumption, a belief confidently held by everyone involved in the operation during the 1970s.

The historian's note

This image depicts the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah during the 1970s, one of the world's largest open-pit mining operations. Primarily extracting copper, along with gold, silver, and molybdenum, the mine has been in continuous operation since 1906.

The 1970s saw continued expansion of the mine, characterised by the distinctive terraced landscape formed by systematic removal of overburden and ore. These large-scale operations significantly altered the local topography and ecosystem, creating one of the largest man-made excavations on Earth.

The mine represented a critical component of the American industrial economy, supplying essential raw materials whilst also generating considerable discussion about the environmental consequences of such massive resource extraction projects.

Subjects & keywords — each links to a search

1970s·industrial landscape·mining·open pit·terraced·copper extraction·engineering·historical documentation·industry·resource extraction·Utah·environmental impact·heavy machinery·blue sky·vista

United Statesplace · location Utahplace · location Bingham Canyon Minestructure · depicts

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