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Spc Nobody Special
Spc Nobody Special
Join Date 08/2004
+10

Walking on water, copper mines, and other assorted miracles.

More fun than taking a bath in pop rocks!!!

September 24, 2006 6:44:13 PM from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
And the merry go round goes round goes round.........

I got extremely fortunate this weekend and picked up GASP!!!! a two day weekend!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!

So, I did what any red blooded american would do, and set out to see the sights of Salt Lake City. (excepting all the LDS stuff, they're having some kind of special weekend, and every Mormon in creation is downtown at the temple.) Being a total fanatic for all things involving metal and the melting thereof, I naturally started off with the WORLD's. LARGEST. OPEN. PIT. MINE!!!!!!!!!!!! (as seen here)



(and here)



Big enough to be seen from space, big enough to stack two Sears towers in and not reach the top. BIG!!! It produces 320,000 tons of of copper a year from rock containing less than .6%. To get a feel for scale, that wee little truck in the second photo is so big, it can carry 300 plus tons of ore at a time. It's been mined for a hundred years now, and still has enough for at least another twenty to thirty years.

Even more impressive to me were the ecological statistics. Mining is a filthy filthy business. Smelting traditionally puts out clouds of sulferous smoke that kills everything for miles. It destroys the land, the air, and the water. Not these guys though.

They reclaim all their tailings. All the left over crap rock and slag doesn't get just piled up and left. They clean it up, and plant trees and grassland over it. Even better, not only are they not polluting the water, they're actually reclaiming 30,000 gallons of "dirty" water a minute from the local communities. Enough that they're starting to sell the leftovers back to the local communities as drinking water.

And the smoke? Non-existent. I went to their smelter (where they actually melt it into metal). Not a damned thing from the smoke stack. Nothing. The reclaim 99.99 percent of the sulfur and use it to make industrial sulfuric acid which they also sell. Impressed the hell out of me.

Also went to the Great Salt Lake and waded on in. Stinky and shallow. I walked out fifty yards before I even covered my ankles. It was like doing a bad Jesus on the Sea of Galilee imitation. I walked all the way out over a hundred yards and didn't have to pull my jeans above my knees. Pretty sweet. I have so got to play Ultimate Frisbee out here.......

Then pulled a lady's car out of the sand (and laughed my ass off doing it, since she was in a huge Mercury, and I towed her out with my little Plymouth Neon and a thin nylon rope) and followed up with Thai curry and fried banana (nanananananna) ice cream..........Mmmmmmm Fried banana.

Today's project; church, then Clint Eastwood movies (High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider) whilst (and at the same time even) knitting a scarf. Take warning Dharma, I will be your match in a mere ten to fiteen years!!!!!! muhahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! Toodles, I'm going running.

Until next time,
NBS.
humor
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Spc Nobody Special
jennifer1
Join Date 08/2006
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Reply #1 September 24, 2006 7:15:42 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
It must be a very dizzying drive into and out of that mine!
good pics
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Spc Nobody Special
ParaTed2k
Join Date 12/2004
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Reply #2 September 24, 2006 7:23:23 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Glad to see you went to visit my family pit, SPC! ;~D

Like I have said before, in Utah you are either related to me or related to someone who is related to me. The copper in that little dip in the dirt of the Oquirrh Mountains was first discovered by my very own Great Great Great Great Grandpa, Erastus Bingham. Of course, being a faithful Mormon, he followed the advice of Brigham Young and didn't mine it much. Brigham Young warned the people that mining the riches of the valley could bring on a Gold Rush, which would kind of erase the benefits of settling in the Great Basin (namely, no one else would live there ;~D). Of course, a few decades later, Mr. Kennicott wasn't so faithfull... ;~D

Funny how people are, there are members of my family now who resent Old Erastus, blaming him for any financial woes they might have. ;~D

Glad you are venturing beyond the fences of the great Metropolis of Camp Williams, Utah.
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Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #3 September 25, 2006 7:47:10 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
That is an awesome story about the mine!  Yea, I like that stuff too, especially seeing those huge tonka trucks!
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