Geo-Research

 Kennecott Copper Mine is located in the State of Utah (Southwestern USA). In a specific area southwestern Salt Lake City. Fig.1

 

Fig.1. Location of the Mine.
 

Owners… 

Kennecott Utah Copper is wholly owned by Rio Tinto, one of the leading mining companies in the world, which employs 35,000 people in 40 countries. Rio Tinto’s worldwide operations supply a wide range of minerals and metals, including gold, silver, coal, iron, aluminum, diamonds, borates … and, of course, copper.
 
Kennecott Utah Copper operates as a separate entity from sister companies in Utah including Kennecott Minerals, Kennecott Exploration, Kennecott Land, Rio Tinto Technical Services, Rio Tinto Supportive Services, Inc., and Rio Tinto Procurement.

Reogional Geology…    

The Mine is placed in the Oquirrh Mountains which were built between 260 and 320 million years ago (Late Paleozoic Period). Fig.2.
 

Fig.2. Geological map of Utah.Inset the Mine´s location (courtesy of AboutGeology.com). 

About 30 to 40 million years ago, molten, metal-bearing rock deep within the earth’s crust began to push toward the surface and formed Bingham’s ore deposit. Volcanoes erupted above the evolving ore body. This particular ore body contains primarily copper, gold, silver and molybdenum (mo-lib-de-num).

Tiny grains of ore minerals, mostly copper and iron sulfides, are scattered within what is called “host rock” . . . and there is more of the host than minerals. Thus, it is known as a low-grade ore deposit.

Because this is a low-grade deposit, about 6/10 of one percent, a ton of ore contains only 13 pounds of copper.

A bit of history….

Bingham Canyon was settled in 1848 by the Bingham brothers, Thomas and Sanford. They weren’t miners, however, they were ranchers.

In 1863, soldiers stationed at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City explored the canyon and discovered lead ore, creating Utah’s first mining district that same year.

In 1873, discoveries of silver, lead and gold created a mining boom in the canyon that lasted for 20 years. Miners came here from Northern and Western Europe during that time.

In the early 1900s, a second boom, created by the development of large-scale, open-pit mining, brought immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and the Orient to Bingham Canyon to join American-born miners. Fig.3.

 

 

Bingham Canyon was one of America’s great early melting pots, with 40 different nationalities living here. Fig.4.

 

 Fig.4. Mine, 1940.

At one point, Bingham Canyon’s population was approximately 20,000.

Up and down Bingham Canyon, the miners and their families lived in such places as Highland Boy, Copper Heights, Copperfield, Carr Fork, Heaston Heights, Telegraph, Dinkeyville, Terrace Heights, Greek Camp and Frog Town.

In 1893, Daniel Jackling, a metallurgical engineer, and Robert Gemmell, a mining engineer, studied the deposit and recommended developing the ore body by a revolutionary, open-pit mining method and processing the ore on a large, industrial scale.

In 1903, the Utah Copper Company was formed to develop the mine, based on the recommendations of Mr. Jackling and Mr. Gemmell.

In 1906, the first steam shovels began mining away the waste rock that covered the ore body. Some of the shovels were the same kind used to dig the Panama Canal. The ore was found in a mountain that divided the main canyon into two canyons.

Today, that mountain has been mined away . . . and in its place is the Bingham Canyon Mine.

Open-pits….

Bingham Canyon itself is now being filled with waste rock from the Bingham Canyon Mine, so one day most of the canyon will be filled.

But, what makes Kennecott´s Mine so special? This is one of the biggest Mines of Copper in the USA. It has taken nearly 100 years to make the mine this big. And it’s hard to believe that this huge pit was once a mountain!

Kennecott’s Barneys Canyon Mine is located 25 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, just north of the Copperton Concentrator. Its mining and ore crushing operations were suspended in December 2001 due to the end of mine life. Fig.5. 

 

Fig.5. Aerial Photograph of the  Bingham Canyon Mine.

Barneys Canyon was another open-pit gold mine nearby that used an oxide heap leach and sulfide milling process.

The Mine produced more than 1,600,000 ounces of gold since its inception in 1989.

For the next few years, gold inventories will continue to be recovered with a small workforce through Barneys’ heap leach operations.

Reclamation and revegetation of mine waste dumps and haulage roads have been underway for several years concurrent with mining operations and were completed by the end of 2002. In 2004, Barneys Canyon received an Earth Day Award for reclamation from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. Final reclamation of the heap leach pads and other surface facilities will be completed about 2008.

 

  References: 

 

• Google Earth.
• Map Card (topographic maps and aerial photos).
• www.kennecott.com
• www.aboutgeology.com (geological map of Utah).

 

As you have heard it…

 Well, The Geological Society of London and the Springer Journals are available on pdf for free, first from May to 18th of June and the later for 4 weeks only.

 I´ll give you the website address to download the papers:

Geological Society papers: http://www.lyellcollection.org/

Springer papers: http://www.springerlink.com/content/103695/

Enjoy of it!

Recently I came across this game about natural hazards, how it works. Easy?

 

 

 

I´m doing a report about my last cartography in the Pyrenees (Northern Spain). But unfortunately I´ll upload it at the end of the week, because now I´m doing a Subsurface Geology Course at the ICOG (Spanish Official Association of Professional Geologists). So, I´m very busy right now.

 The Report deal with the presence of a fault propagation fold (Boixols-Sant Corneli Thrust), maps of seismicity and focal mechanisms. Additional Satellite and ortoimages from the air as well. Geological Cartography and thin-sections of microscope.

 

I was Looking at the Highlyallochthonous Blog when in one of its entries I came across this: a Maps-Quiz

I think that it could be interesting, so try your luck…..

 

The WSM database contains different kinds of information for the different types of stress indicators. The CASMO allows you to create stress maps with topography and full color of all around the world.

 This stress database is defined by:

- Earthquake focal mechanisms

- Well bore breakouts and drilling-induced fractures

- In-situ stress measurements (overcoring, hydraulic fracturing, borehole slotter)

- Young geologic data (from fault-slip analysis and volcanic vent alignments)

 

You can see here an example of UK:

 

References:

• Reinecker, J., Heidbach, O., Tingay, M., Sperner, B. & Müller, B. (2005): The release 2005 of the World Stress Map (available online at www.world-stress-map.org)

More available information and downloadable maps here:

http://www-wsm.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/index.html

 

Sometimes, the paradigms of the structural geology shakes my mind when I´m at field.

Do you think any time about the difference between Flexural-slip, flexural-flow, quasi-flexural folds and passive folding? Well, maybe you should think in that, because these are very common fold-structures in field.

Here´s the difference between one each others:

Flexural Slip Folds: I would say that this kind of fold is the result of folding accomplish by slip between the layers. So layers mantain the whole thickness (uniform). This sort of structures could involve cataclasis and macroscopic fracturing within layers.

Flexural Flow Folds: we could explain this structure looking for relative thickerning at the hinges and thinning on limbs of the folds. Basicly both structures flexural flow and slip could be seen in the next pic. Layers of dolomite (yellow) are intercalated with limestone (grey), So dolomite make up Flexural Slip folding, meanwhile more ductile limestone constitude Flexural Flow folding. Moreover, in the pic could be seen a big thrust.Fig.1

 Fig.1.These folds are part of the Musconetcong Nappe within the Reading Prong nappe megasystem in Lehigh County.

 

On the other hand, Passive-Folding, a special structure depicted by flow in very ductile rocks with layering clearly passive, so the fold form has resulted from differential flow within the rock mass.Fig.2

 

Quasi-Flexural folding(as well as known: ptygmatic folds): we could consider those folds which layers are distorted (layers independently folded one each other). So they are consider disharmonic folds. The associated rocks show irregular or contorted flow and extensive redistribution of material.Fig.3

Fig.3. “Ptygmatic folding”. 

However, many passive folds are probably initiated as flexural folds; as the flexurally folded rocks become more ductile owing to changing environmental conditions (Tª and P), they yield to passive mechanisms.

 

References:

Donath and Parker (1964):Folds and Folding. Geological Society of America Bulletin, v.75,p. 45-62, 10.

Davis. G.H (1984): Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions. Wiley&Son, Canada. ISBN0-471-80532-7.

Internet:

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/hefferan/geol320/folds.7.jpg

www.dcnr.state.pa.us

www.globalchange.umich.edu/…/structure.htm

Next Thuesday, it´ll take place at the International School of Madrid (Spain) the conference talk about Geology.

 You can download the Power Point from the link:

Conference Talk

“Burgo de Osma”, a moving, idylic, pretty and cold place located at Soria (Northern Spain). Close to that village, an amazing fold run through the countryside. You can see these panoramic views. I wish you joy of it!.

 

Shouthern “Burgo de Osma”, and close to “Caracena”, some fault propagation folds could be seen and some related structures in the Jurasic rocks. But the most spectacular features are the Pliocene progressive unconformities over the Mesozoic.

Pics were loan by the geologist Antonio Olaiz.

 

I´ve done a map with the Focal Mechanisms of the Iberian Peninsula and surroundings from 1976 to 2007.

The data were obtained only from CMT Harvard Catalog (so it´s not complete), and compiled with GMT.Earthquakes with Mw> 5.

And this is the result: enjoy of it.

If you want a copy of the map, don´t hesitate to request me by e-mail.