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PHOTOS: Rio Tinto Kennecott in Utah
PHOTOS: Rio Tinto Kennecott in Utah
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Bingham Canyon Mine in the Oquirrh Mountains at Rio Tinto Kennecott near Salt Lake City, Utah. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Descending three-fourths of a mile down into the world's biggest open-pit mine, Bingham Canyon, in Utah. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Rio Tinto Kennecott haul truck operator Chris Burson escorts – KJZZ's drive to the bottom of Bingham Canyon Mine – in his white pickup. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Dump trucks line up at the bottom of Bingham Canyon Mine, waiting to be loaded with copper ore. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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A dump truck filled with copper ore begins uphill climb out of Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Sharing the muddy road with trucks tipping 1 million pounds when fully loaded, KJZZ's escorted ascent out of Bingham Canyon Mine. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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An aerial image of Bingham Canyon Mine taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in 2007. (NASA/Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth)
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A truck dumps copper ore from Bingham Canyon Mine into the crusher that grinds the rock. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Rock dumped into the crusher is then transported by a five-mile conveyor belt to Rio Tinto Kennecott's concentrator. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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The copper ore stockpile where Rio Tinto Kennecott's five-mile conveyor belt ends. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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The flotation circuit where copper concentrate is separated from ore by using chemicals at the Rio Tinto Kennecott concentrator. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Overlooking the Great Salt Lake, the Garfield Smelter Smokestack is the largest freestanding structure west of the Mississippi River. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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The Garfield Smelter at Rio Tinto Kennecott is among only two operating copper smelters nationwide. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Beyond copper, Rio Tinto Kennecott sells other byproducts, including sulfuric acid that's sent by rail to make fertilizer for Idaho farmers. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Rio Tinto Kennecott refinery supervisor Brian Bergstrom guides KJZZ through the tankhouse where copper is refined after smelting. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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A crane operator hoists cathode sheets to be cleaned inside the tankhouse at Rio Tinto Kennecott in Utah. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Copper cathode sheets are cleaned inside the tankhouse before being pried apart from stainless steel sheets. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Before getting stamp-punched and stacked in bundles at the warehouse, copper cathodes are stripped from stainless steel sheets. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Machinery stamp-punches each 300-pound sheet of American-made copper, stacking them in 5,500-pound bundles. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Bundles of Rio Tinto Kennecott copper sit inside its warehouse ready to be shipped direct-to-consumer, mostly wire and pipe manufacturers in the Midwest. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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An estimated 14,000 sheets of American-made copper sat inside the Rio Tinto Kennecott warehouse in August 2025. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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The “Fort Knox of copper” warehouse at Rio Tinto Kennecott on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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Rio Tinto Kennecott managing director Nate Foster at the company's main office in South Jordan, Utah. (Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ)
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