Kennecott Copper Mine

 While Jared and Catherine are here visiting us in Utah, we decided to go visit Kennecott Copper Mine yesterday. It is only about 20 minutes from our home. It is in Bingham Canyon and is the world's largest open-pit copper mine. It produces about 1% of the world's copper and provides about 8% of the U.S. annual copper consumption. 

The open pit reminds me of the grand canyon. So huge!

The big dump trucks that haul all of the rocks for smelting and refining are huge! Look how big the tires are on the truck!

I heard someone say that each tire costs $100,000 and there are 6 tires on each truck! Crazy big and crazy expensive! I can't imagine driving one of those trucks around each day for work.

This picture shows how big the engine of one of the trucks is (in red). I read that it has 18 cylinders. Compare that to our cars that have 4 or 6. Catherine and Benjamin are standing in front of one of the plows (or whatever the yellow thing is called) So big!

We actually had tickets to see the mine last Wednesday, but when we arrived there, we discovered that it was closed due to very high winds. It turns out that they refunded us the money we had spent and then gave us free tickets for yesterday (Friday). I guess the delay paid off financially, but we did have to drive out there twice.

Some people might not find the mine a very interesting tourist attraction, but the four of us enjoyed learning more about the in's and out's of mining. Each bus taking people up to the mine was full, so many others were interested in seeing this big, famous mine also.