Mining

The Unknown Side of Copper Mining—Tailings!

The Unknown Side of Copper Mining—Tailings!

#Unknown #Side #Copper #MiningTailings

“Aaron Witt”

Last fall, we visited Rio Tinto Kennecott to check out the copper mining process from A to Z. While we saw almost every step, from …

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33 Comments

  1. Copper and tin make bronze. Copper mining was important to the advancements of ancient weaponry and ultimately led to the Bronze Age. The Greek civilization thrived during this time of sophistication of language, weaponry, agriculture, and organized violence

  2. Why so little plant life also we’re the metal plants like the ones that accumulate metal in there bodies up to 5% or more.
    Also how toxic is the water at the end and do they reuse it.

  3. I live in Magna Utah, which is the city directly south of this tailings pond. It’s always fun when we get a rain storm with wind out of the north. The wind picks up the dust, which then mixes with the rain and coats the whole city in a reddish mud. Get it off your car fast if you want the clear coat to last! Super fun to breathe as well!🤮

  4. What's crazy is this use to be out in the boonies and away from the population but the last few decades have surrounded this area. I will say they have done as much as humanly possible to keep it safe and less impact on the environment as possible. (of course its not 100% but still)
    Thank you for the video

  5. They extracted copper but are there other minerals they could remove from the tailings? Seems a little wasteful. In Florida where they extract phosphate, the tailings piles still contain Uranium Thorium, Palladium, Silver, and massive amounts of Magnesium and of course Gypsum. Those tailings piles(Gypsum Stacks) are toxic and an environmental nightmare.

  6. At what point in the rock to copper to tailings processing are they inserting a process to isolate and refine Te ? This was noted about a year ago in news releases but I never caught exactly where and when in the process it fit.

  7. Thank you very very much for going to the ( Trailing recycling area) I went to the overlook visiting center and I very much wanted to see the END process 😊❤😊
    You my all things ", MINE" friend 😊❤😊
    Showing me this is a dream come true. I saw the copper making building way off from the mining hole. I wanted so badly to SEE what you showed US all in the U- tube
    Land. Again Thank you my friend. The "BIG" John Deere farm tractor was very interesting and to hear the superior say trials and errors "TESTING" of compact machines making it the best 😊❤😊
    That is amazing that a Big farm tractor does the best compaction. I have watched videos of Farms doing corn storage for COWS and using Farm tractor for compactor in cement walled storage areas. Great video content, you are so so
    Amazing the places you visited. And this end result is you have basic "SAND" storage with GRASS and it's not a big environmental issue. It's just a big sand bank. The same as the sea does in many areas of the country. Southern Oregon is one of them.

  8. The question is, how many hard hats were dropped and pipes clogged before the removal of hard hats were required? When these types of rules are made, its always interesting to go look at the history behind it.

  9. Love your content. You do a great job with your explanations. Just a question regarding recycling of the tailings material……great to hear that 85% of the water is recycled! Since the de-watered material is referred to as "sand", are there any other uses for this material other than just building it up in berms and being used as impoundment for the tailings ponds? I'm guessing that there are heavy metals in the sand and that's why it's not re-used?

  10. There are new ways to deal with the waste of copper mining. There are enzymes that safely break down sulfides. People need to study the science and not base their opinions on emotion and old technology. We do a lot of safe mining here in MN. I worked in a mine that had to deal with copper and cobalt. We did it safely and100% environmentally friendly.

  11. Any idea what size of pumping systems or pump stations they are using? Absolutely amazing setup they have on the barge that is awesome 👍. Excellent video, presentation and detailed description of the process 👍👍 Thanks for sharing.

  12. At the coal mine, i worked at. A lot of the old guys would dump used oil and waste diesel on the coal before getting haul away to the prep plant. They would say that's why our coal had such high BTU's 😂

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