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UNIVERSITY OF UTAH DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING PRESENTATION to IMOA by Louie Cononelos “Kennecott Utah Copper-Sustainable Over Time

PHOTOS/VIDEO AUDIO

This is a story that had its beginning

over 150 ago…and that story is still

being written today.

It began in Bingham Canyon, Utah

located about 26 miles southwest of Salt

Lake City, which was destined to become

one of the greatest “mining camps”

anywhere in the country.

Mining in Utah, which was part of

Spanish Mexico, can be traced back to

Spanish miners in the mid-1700s.

The start of mining in Utah, however, is

credited to the United States Army in

1863. Troops under the command of

Colonel Patrick Connor are credited

with the discovery of Utah’s first mining

claim and helping to form the first

mining company and mining district in

Bingham Canyon.

The early mining at Bingham was

underground with the exception of

placer mining.

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Bingham Canyon was a beehive of

mining activity at the turn of the

Century. Dozens of small companies

dug tunnels and sank shafts in the

mountains where they were mining lead,

silver and gold ores…but not the low-

grade copper ores that were in

abundance and considered a nuisance.

Then, along came Daniel C. Jackling, a

29-year-old metallurgical engineer,

who with his partner, a mining engineer

named Robert Gemmell, studied and

assayed ore samples from the operations

that dotted the canyon. They determined

that there were vast tonnages of low-

grade copper ore in the main mountain

that divided the canyon…it was the kind

of ore the mining companies tried to

avoid because it interfered with the

recovery of the metals they were mining.

Jackling’s vision was to mine and

process this mountain of porphyry

copper ore using steam shovels for

removing the ore and waste, and steam

locomotives to transport it from the

mine to large scale mills.

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This was the first time that mass

production technology was used in

copper mining. Mining experts of the

day scoffed at his crazy idea…especially

when 98 percent of the rock was waste.

Most investors also agreed that it was a

bad idea.

But Jackling took some influential

financiers to Bingham Canyon in June

1903 to convince them that his theory

would work, and that handsome profits

could be made by mining low grade ores

containing 39 pounds of copper per ton.

Jackling’s determined conviction was

good enough for the backers. They

invested $500,000…enough to get

Jackling started…and that gave birth to

the Utah Copper Company on June 4,

1903. That was the beginning of what

was to become one of the greatest mining

enterprises in the world.

Jackling and Gemmell went to work and

built a small experimental plant, the

Copperton Mill, at the mouth of

Bingham Canyon. They were testing

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new engineering technologies and

theories to prove they could mine, crush,

grind and process about 300 tons daily of

low-grade copper ore and produce high-

grade copper concentrate.

They did it and in its first year of

operations showed a very handsome

profit of $142,000. Some investors who

initially were skeptical now wanted to

come on board and invested an

additional $5,000,000 for what would

prove to be the ride of the decade.

Other companies were also interested in

these massive low grade copper ores.

One of Jacking’s biggest competitors

was the Boston Consolidated Mining

Company operated by Samuel

Newhouse.

There were about 40 companies in the

Bingham District mining underground

for lead, silver, zinc and gold but only a

few were interested in mining copper

from the surface.

In 1906, these two mining giants started

mining “The Hill”. Utah Copper

purchased steam shovels with two-and-

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half-yard dippers, like those digging the

Panama Canal, and steam locomotives

with rail cars and started mining the

mountain for the copper ore.

Boston Consolidated did the same and

was the first to actually remove waste

with steam shovels but Jacking’s Utah

Copper was the first to mine ore.

Jackling built a large 6,000 tpd mill near

the town of Magna to replace the

successful experimental mill and his

rival Boston Consolidated built their

3,000 tpd Arthur Mill one mile away.

Demands for electricity were increasing,

so Utah Copper built its own power

plant near the Magna Mill.

Meanwhile, a smelter was being built by

American Smelting and Refining

Company near the Great Salt Lake to

process copper concentrates from both

Utah Copper and Boston Consolidated

into cakes of nearly pure copper.

To move the ore from Bingham to the

new Magna Mill, the 20-mile Bingham

and Garfield Railroad was constructed.

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Meanwhile, Utah Copper was mining the

lower portion of “The Hill”, and its

major competitor, Boston Consolidated,

was mining the upper portion. Clearly,

this mountain wasn’t big enough for two

large mining competitors.

Utah Copper purchased Boston

Consolidated in 1910.

From the vision of 1903 to the

accomplishments of 1910, Utah Copper,

through its acquisition, had grown to

become part of the largest industrial

mining complex in the world.

People from all over the world, most of

them immigrants from Europe, Asia and

Mexico came seeking work and over 40

distinct ethnic groups lived in camps and

towns throughout the mining district.

Jackling had proved that mass-

production of low-grade porphyry

copper ore, using revolutionary new

processes; technologies and innovations

would set new standards for the copper

mining industry.

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Early on, even safety training was

innovative, as evidenced by this 1913

“Rules and Regulations of the Mining

Department.” Because of the multi-

ethnic workforce, the manual was

printed in English, Serbo-Croatian,

Greek, Italian and Japanese.

By 1914, the Mine had 23 steam shovels,

48 steam locomotives and more than 350

ore and waste rail cars.

The Magna Concentrator was expanded

to process 12,000 tons of ore daily,

and the Arthur Concentrator was

expanded to 8,000 tons per day.

In a joint development between Utah

Copper and ASARCO, the first acid

plant was installed for pollution control

at the Garfield Smelter.

By 1915 Utah Copper’s operations were

so successful that the giant Kennecott

Copper Corporation acquired 25

percent of the company.

World War I called for an increased

demand for copper, and Utah Copper

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was second only to the Anaconda

Copper as a source for mined copper.

Following a post-war slump, in 1923, a

major innovation in operations at both

the Magna and Arthur mills involved a

change from standard gravity separation

to froth flotation, which dramatically

improved copper recovery. By 1924, the

crushing and grinding operations were

expanded and new rotary car dumpers

were installed in both mills

In 1920 electric service was introduced

into the Mine and steam shovels were

converted to electric power in 1923.

By 1928, steam locomotives in the Mine

were replaced by electric locomotives.

In 1936, Kennecott acquired all the

property and assets of Utah Copper.

And that same year, engineers devised a

new process in the concentrator flotation

circuits to recover and produce another

valuable by-product: molybdenite

concentrate, another product for sale.

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By 1939, everything was bigger, the

Mine covered 648 acres.

Electric shovels with four-and-a-half

cubic yard dippers loaded 80 to 100-ton

capacity ore cars, or 70-ton side-dump

waste cars. New 75 ton electric

locomotives did the haulage in the mine.

Jackling, his Board and managers were

proud to see his vision become reality

through the accomplishments and

innovations of his engineers and

employees.

Innovations, such as the track shifter,

improved mine production significantly.

This equipment provided important

track relocation for rail operations much

more efficiently than labor-intensive

hands-on manpower.

350-ton Mallet locomotives pulled 50,

100-ton ore cars from the Mine to the

Magna and Arthur Concentrators,

The two mills followed almost identical

procedures to crush, grind and process a

combined 70,000 tons per day.

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Copper concentrates produced at the

Concentrators were hauled by rail

to ASARCO’s Garfield Smelter for final

processing.

In 1941…the nation went to war and

demands for copper in the production of

munitions and armament soared. Many

men at Utah Copper left their jobs to

serve their country, and women stepped

in to take over many of the mining jobs.

Like “Rosie the Riveter” or “Millie the

Miner” women were a real force in

wartime production.

Kennecott’s Utah Copper operations

produced 320,000 tons of copper and

Kennecott’s combined operations in

Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada

produced 637,000 tons of copper in 1943.

During World War II, Bingham Canyon

alone produced more than one third of

the copper needed for the allies’ war

efforts.

In 1944, increasing demands for

electricity were met by Utah Copper’s

new 50,000 kilowatt power plant, built

just above the Magna Mill.

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In 1946, Utah Copper drove a 4,650-foot

tunnel through the mountain…it was a

rail haulage short cut that greatly

improved efficiency and reduced costs.

In 1947, the original Utah Copper

Company was dissolved and became

known as the Utah Copper Division of

Kennecott Copper Corporation.

In 1949… the Mine continued to be the

largest man-made excavation on earth,

at a depth of more than 1800 feet.

The electric shovels were bigger, with

five and seven-yard dippers scooping ten

tons of material in a single bite.

Ore and waste trains operated on 160

miles of standard gauge track inside the

huge open pit. In the pit, there was a

a network of steel towers that carried

electrical service to the shovels and

locomotives.

Electric locomotives also replaced steam

locomotives to haul ore from the Mine to

the Magna and Arthur mills.

The Mine continued to grow deeper, so

in 1949, an additional 7,000- foot tunnel

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was driven through the mountain from

the Mine into Bingham Canyon.

In 1950, Kennecott Utah Copper

dedicated its own, state of the art

Electrolytic Refinery, which would

process copper anodes produced at the

Garfield Smelter.

In 1954, the Kennecott Research Center

was dedicated on the University of Utah

campus where company scientists and

engineers developed new methods and

facilities to improve the production and

recovery of copper, gold, silver,

molybdenite and other minerals from

Kennecott’s mines.

In 1958, a third rail haulage tunnel was

driven 18,000 feet through the mountain

that divided the Mine and Bingham

Canyon.

Kennecott Utah Copper became totally

integrated in 1959 with the purchase of

the Garfield Smelter from ASARCO.

As requirements for additional

electricity continued to grow, the Power

Plant was expanded to 175,000-kilowatt

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capacity. The company has plans to

upgrade the Power Plant with newer,

efficient and cleaner natural gas turbines

that will continue to produce about 85%

of the company’s power requirements.

In 1963, Kennecott began a four-year,

$100 Million expansion of operations.

Safety training and procedures were also

expanded and improved.

In the Mine, 65-ton capacity haulage

trucks began replacing rail haulage in

the upper, waste rock sections of the pit.

A revolutionary cone Precipitate Plant

was built at the mouth of Bingham

Canyon to capture tiny traces of copper

from the overburden dumps. The end

product was a rich, red sludge the

contained nearly 90 percent copper,

which was treated at the smelter.

Another major component of the four-

year expansion project was the start up

in 1966 of Bonneville Crushing and

Grinding Plant that was engineered and

built to provide additional feed for the

Magna and Arthur Concentrators.

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Another revolutionary innovation was

the Molybdic Oxide and Rhenium

Recovery Plant next to the Garfield

Smelter. In this facility, three by -

products of molybdenum were recovered

as saleable commodities.

While new plants were being built as

part of the expansion program,

companywide safety training was

increased as engineers and operators

were making improvements to the

Magna and Arthur operations to

accommodate the increased feed from

the new Bonneville plant.

Because, Magna and Arthur were

providing more copper concentrate, the

Smelter, was modernized to include the

rebuilding of two reverberatory smelting

furnaces, which resulted in increased

production of 98.5 percent pure copper

anodes and additional acid plants.

At the Refinery, more improvements

were made to handle the increased

volume of Smelter anodes, which were

placed in electrolytic tanks and

transformed into copper cathodes at

99.96 percent purity. They were melted

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and cast into shapes required by

Kennecott customers.

In 1974 Kennecott announced a major

Smelter modification project in response

to the 1970 Clean Air Act.

The project was completed in 1978, and

included a 1,215-foot stack, and

advanced smelting and gas cleaning

technologies. Final cost-$300 million.

In 1981, Kennecott was purchased by

The Standard Oil Company of Ohio

(SOHIO) and Kennecott was no longer a

publicly traded company.

In 1984, all waste rail mining operations

were replaced with 170-ton haul trucks.

In 1986, SOHIO approved a $400 million

dollar major expansion and

modernization program designed to

make Kennecott Utah Copper a lower

cost producer by the end of the decade.

Ownership of Kennecott changed again

in 1987, when British Petroleum

acquired total control of SOHIO.

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In 1988, Kennecott’s modernization

program opened a new era of innovation

with an in-pit crusher in the Mine…

a five-mile ore conveyor from the

crusher… through an old rail haulage

tunnel through the mountain…

and arriving at the new Copperton

Concentrator.

The new concentrator contained a three-

line grinding circuit of SAG and ball

mills, which produced a slurry for

flotation, where molybdenite minerals

and copper minerals containing gold and

silver were liberated from the host rock.

In 1989, one of the world’s largest

mining conglomerates, RTZ

Corporation, now known as Rio Tinto

became the new owner of Kennecott and

enlarged the Copperton Concentrator in

1992, with an additional fourth grinding

line, which increased plant ore

production to about 150,000 tons per

day, and a fourth flotation circuit that

increased concentrate production to

about one million tons yearly.

Meanwhile, the old Arthur Mill was

shut down in 1984, and razed in 1991.

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In 1988, the Magna Mill, also built in

1907, ceased crushing and grinding

operations, but continued with flotation,

processing ore from the Bonneville

crushing and grinding operations. This

hybrid facility ceased operating in 2001.

In 1992, Rio Tinto approved a massive

$880 million expansion and

modernization project that would

include a modernized refinery and

building a new smelter using flash

smelting and converting technologies,

a revolutionary Hydrometallurgical

Treatment Plant that virtually

eliminated the generation of hazardous

wastes, and an elaborate gas cleaning

and double contact acid plant.

In 1995, the new, state-of-the-art smelter

was dedicated as the cleanest copper

smelter in the world, capturing 99.9+

percent of sulfur emissions and waste

heat from the boilers was captured to

provide about 60% of the smelter’s

electric power needs

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The modernized electrolytic refinery

came on line a year earlier, in 1994, with

an entirely new look.

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Basic electrolytic technology remained,

but in a new highly automated setting.

Anodes were delivered, and cathodes are

removed from the tank house by

Automated Laser Guided Vehicles. This

system was later replaced with a more

robust, internal rail transport system.

The modernized Refinery also featured

total production stripping, cathode

sampling, corrugation, bundling and

shipping. Cathode purity is 99.99 %.

The Refinery also included a new

precious metals refinery for the

recovery of by-product gold and silver,

processed to 99.99 % purity. We are

proud of the fact, that Kennecott Utah

Copper mined and donated the copper,

gold and silver and Kennecott’s Greens

Creek Mine in Alaska mined the zinc, to

produce the gold, silver and bronze

medals for the 2002 Olympic Winter

Games held in Salt Lake City and the

copper, gold and silver for the 2012

Summer Olympic Games in London.

Since the beginning of Concentrator

operations in 1907, tailings, the waste

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by-product from milling operations,

were impounded near Magna.

The Impoundment was expanded on

several occasions and grew to cover

5,700 acres at a height of 250 feet, nearly

reaching its maximum storage capacity.

Starting in 1995, a new storage area was

developed north and adjacent to the

original impoundment, which was

seismically upgraded, reclaimed and

vegetated.

Concern for the environment began as

early as 1915, when Utah Copper

engineers and workers helped ASARCO

design and build acid plant technology to

help reduce sulfur dioxide emissions at

the Smelter.

For about three quarters of a century,

company environmental engineers and

employees have tackled and solved most

of our environmental challenges

throughout, and adjacent to Kennecott

properties. Since the 1990s, more than

$400 million dollars has been spent in

Kennecott’s comprehensive approach to

cleaning up and reclaiming land, and

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also water, impacted by historic mining

and processing operations.

From about 1990 to about 2010,

Kennecott Utah Copper was mining

about 150,000 tons of ore and about

350,000 tons of waste rock every day

from the Bingham Canyon Mine that

produced about 300,000 tons of refined

copper and about 450,000 ounces of

gold, 4,000,000 ounces of silver, 30

million pounds of molybdenum and

1,000,000 tons of sulfuric acid.

For the past 110 years, workplace safety

has evolved from a company priority to

a company value and the company has

won numerous safety awards and is

recognized as an industry leader.

At Kennecott Utah Copper, evolving

technologies and a determined work

force have helped us meet the challenges

of extending the economic life of the

Bingham Canyon Mine. This included

the Giant Leap initiative launched in

2005 that included a new Pebble

Crushing complex at the Copperton

Concentrator and in 2011 the

Cornerstone initiative, both designed to

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extend the open pit mine life. Today,

about 160 tons of ore and 450 tons of

waste are mined daily by 10 electric rope

shovels, the largest is equipped with a 74

cubic yard dipper that can load about

110 tons per lift and two hydraulic

shovels. Ore and waste are transported

by a fleet of 90 haulage trucks most of

them with a capacity of 320 tons and the

largest being 350 tons.

At the present time, Bingham Canyon

has about a 15-year open pit mine life

with a copper ore grade of about .005 %.

However, by reducing costs and

improving operational efficiencies, we

can hopefully continue to extend our

open pit mine life through about 2029,

which pushes consideration of possible

underground mining further into the

future.

Bingham’s underground mining also

looks very promising.

While the phrase “Sustainable

Development” has been embraced by

industry in recent years, Kennecott has a

long history of striving to build on its

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economic, social and environmental

record. The company has contributed to

sustainable approaches that help meet

the needs of the present generation

without compromising the ability of

future generations to meet their needs.

Evidence of that can be found in

Kennecott Utah Copper’s efforts to

extend the economic life of its operations

and, through the efforts of a sister

company, Kennecott Land, where they

develop post-mining land and water

resources for today and tomorrow.

Since 1903, the company has been one of

the world’s largest mining families,

working one of the world’s greatest

mining operations. Their workforce,

one of the best in the industry, forever

changed the way people mine and

process copper ore and many employees

trace their family roots back three, four

and five generations.

The world famous Bingham Canyon

Mine, through dedicated people…

engineering innovations…and a

remarkable gift of Nature, is truly

Kennecott Utah Copper Living Legacy.

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