Bingham Canyon Mine

Bingham Canyon or commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine is the world`s deepest man-made open pit mine for copper and gold, located near Salt Lake City, Utah. The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group. According to “Top 10 Deep Open-pit Mines” article, since Bingham Canyon Mine started its operation in 1906, it has become the “granddaddy” of all copper mines with a diameter of 2.75 miles (4,5km) and a depth of 0.75 mile (1,2km). In fact, Bingham Canyon Mine is also called "the richest hole on Earth” for the average $1.8 billion dollars value production of metals produced annually (Arrlington & Hansen, 1963). However, despite being the largest copper mine the USA, it also produces a wide range of byproduct metals and waste rocks; approximately, “three billion metric tons” of waste
rocks was produced in the past century that cover “more than 2000 hectares” (Borden, 2001, p.15). In short, Bingham Canyon mining causes soil pollution, groundwater pollution and geomorphologic problems. Soil contamination is caused by acidification of soil from waste rocks and heavy metals. Pollution severity is further exacerbated by the seepage of contaminants into aquifer polluting the groundwater. Meanwhile, the geomorphologic problems are caused by landscape modification through human-induced geological hazard such as erosion and landslides. Firstly, the soil pollution is caused by the concentration of dissolved metal penetrates down into the soil and contaminates the groundwater. Pyrite is by far the most common sulphide minerals in the waste rock and is prone to oxidization that provides a continuous source of soil acidity (Borden, 2011, p.17). Supposedly, soils and atmosphere share a relatively “pH of about 8” (Krauskopf & Bird, 1995). However, soils that contain sulphides have an average of pH of 3.9 (Borden, 2011, p.18). The low pH caused by the oxidation of sulphides leads to soil degradation and subsequently affect the vegetation growth near the mining area (Sheoran et al., 2010). Secondly, over a century of operation, mining activities in Bingham Canyon has caused extensive groundwater pollution. The groundwater near the mining site consists of dominantly “wastewater leaching from acid” produced by the pyrite-bearing waste rock deposited on Oquirrh Mountains nearby (Weber, 2003).
Aside from acid coming from the leaching of pyrite, lead and arsenic are not only dissolved into the soil and but are also sent downstream by runoff from the mines. In addition to soil pollution by waste rocks and heavy metals, the mining activities also cause landslide and erosion. Birmingham Canyon landslide is one of the largest human-induced landslides (Adkins, 2014). The landslide takes place when consistent blasting of the rock leads to the reactivation of pre-existing fracture of rocks. In combating the pollution by heavy metals and waste rock, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated the Superfund program. Superfund program is established to clean and improve the polluted soil and water by hazardous materials that pose risks to humans and environment. However, the conflict of interest shown by the government agency has weakened the effectiveness of Superfund program to mitigate the negative impacts of Bingham Canyon mining activities on soil quality (“Are we cleaning up”,
1988). In short, the pursuit of profits in Bingham Canyon mine by Rio Tinto Group continues despite its disruption to soil quality that includes soil contamination, aquifer pollution and geomorphic hazard due to ineffective government policy in Superfund program