Massive slide has closed huge open-pit copper mine
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There goes the price of copper!
Jerry
Really big slide-- 500 million tons estimated. could take up to 2+ years to reexcavate all that rock--- and its not ore bearing rock.
No injuries, thankfully. That's by farther most important thing. The article did not say whether they got all the railroad equipment out of the pit before the slide occurred.
They used to use electric engines in this pit, but I think they converted to EMD diesels some years back. Anybody know for sure?
Hot Water, did you ever deliver any diesels to Kennecot?
I think all the mining out of the pit is now done with conveyer belts and large dump trucks. I would think a concern would be to get the pumps working to keep the pit dry. if it floods it will make the process even more difficult. It is possible that the pit will not reopen. There is a lot of material to more and the owner, Rio Tinto, is an international company. The money to clear the pit might be more productive used else where in the world.
Yeah thank goodness they had enough warning to prevent loss of life.
Looks like it will take a lot of time to be back to normal operations.
I saw one of the GP-38's in Ogden two summers ago in Ogden. It was in the yard of a local switching RR. It was in rough shape, no idea where it went, haven't seen it around town since.
As for the slide, they had been predicting it for the last few weeks but it was far larger than the thought. All the material is waste, so all they can do is dig it out and move it again, no chance to find more copper.
I was looking at the mine today, they were lucky the slide was on a face inside the pit and not caused by the outside walls. Same slide outside the pit might have taken out quite few houses that are built out that way.
Believe this became Soo Line 4598. The 794 became 4599
Here's one of the high cab units. It's a GP39-2.
Bob
Originally Posted by Number 90:
They used to use electric engines in this pit, but I think they converted to EMD diesels some years back. Anybody know for sure? Hot Water, did you ever deliver any diesels to Kennecot?
Yes Tom, I was involved with the special "high cab" GPs and SW models that EMD produced for Kennecott. When I was out there, they still had electric motors handling the ore movements. Kennecott eventually disbanded ALL the railroad operations within the pit, and went exclusively to heavy haul trucks.
One interesting little fact I learned from the Kennecott folks we met with was; they made little no profit on the EXTREMELY expensive process of mining and producing copper. The REAL money was in all the precious metals, i.e. gold, silver, etc.!
It will be interesting to see how the already high price of copper is affected by this shutdown. Last I heard they produce about 15% of the US supply
Here's a bit of fun regarding an open pit copper mine, that being the Kennecott pit in Butte, MT. At this past weekend's Burlington Route Historical Society Spring Meet, the key leadership of the Burlington's Passenger Dept did a presentation and described how they bent over backwards to accomadate ANY passenger business in the '60's. A regular customer for charter trips was Elliott Donnelley, of the RR Donnelley Company, and a well-known railroad enthusiast. He chartered a trip to the Black Hills and on up to Butte in 1966. The railroad gave him first class equipment, including a California Zephyr dome car. And someone someone popped up with a picture of that CZ dome car being led down the spiral trackage in the pit, by a BA&P electric locomotive! Whatever Elliott wanted, Elliott got!
