Show tearing down mountains at bingham BY WILL C HIGGINS every day the earth trembles at bingham utah every day thare th are ere the mountains crumble and diminish in size and their crests are gradually sinking below their original horizon and yet this phenomenon is not due to natural causes to earthquakes or underground convulsions but to artificial agencies the bingham bindham of to day in its ghys phys physical cal appearance is entirely different from that which it presented two or three years ago agg and in five or ten years more the oldest inh inhabitant abitanta wil not liot be able to recognize this famous old camp which has so justly been termed the old reliable while a heavy producer of the precious and alid base metals in the past bingham has reached a stage in I 1 its ts history where modern Il mining lilling has given way to fo old time methods aila d this is why the eartie att trembles and shakes and accod accounts n t s tor for the le velling of the mountain tops gigantic t 1 capital splendid enterprises alid mighty lity ina in machinery chinery are now employed mining operations in the handling of vast quati of low cotal grade ore ore which could not lot be treated t successfully and profitably sani were it not for forthe the fact that thou min ailed upon thousands of ts tons are daily y cled and conveyed to the smelters shelters sm elters at such a low cost and on such an economic basis that a fair profit still remains today bingham is a twentieth century wonder and incredible as this may appear this innovation this era of unwonted prosperity all hinges upon the steam shovel this powerful machine which gouges into the bowels of the mountains tears up the hill M k Z 7 av t fl AW A j all jasd A no 4 photo phalo bj b will C fliggins iggins II steam shovel loading waste into cars sides uproots trees and which loads ore and waste into cars as easily as a child can spin a top or roll a hoop at bingham the sign this is our busy day is always in evidence on every hand all is commotion and activity every minute tra trainloads train unloads loads of ore are thundering along the copper belt railroad and the high line branches of tho the R G W railroad system from the level of the canyon up to the skyline steam shovels are scraping up th sir air b burden of wealth and depositing their loads into waiting cars the constant rumbling of three aerial tramways tram ways is a reminder that wealth galore is finding its way to mills and smelters shelters sm elters through still other avenues and this tremendous output is further augmented by trainloads train loads of mine cars drawn by electrically operated locomotives which dash out into the open from an underground world dumping their contents into massive ore bins from wh which eh through chutes the mineral bearing rock is conveyed into stan standard dard cars and then whirled away to the fiery and ever gaping maws of the valley furnaces from smaller mines comes ore in wa wagons and the single road of the canyon is crowded congested almost beyond belief for months it ha has been the desire of ahe writer to visit t the operation of the steam al shovel lovel to see the new method of outdoor out door in mining ining and what lie he saw was a revelation to him just above lower bingham the utah copper M company was busily engaged ene in stripping nl 1 the mountain side of its it s capping of soil and in the breaking up the lower stratum of porphyry containing the small copper content from which such great wealth is being derived higher up on the th e mountain and on its very crest the boston consolidated was also stripping the waste from the payable rock by means of the powerful and tireless steam shovel while other shovels were scooping up the ore so exposed and loading it into the cars ever ready for its reception preparatory to the operation of the devil catch the hindmost is the slogan and very quickly every one is under some sort of cover behind some building or underneath some friendly ore car shortly a noise like thunder is heard beard the earth quivers and in a second or so the rattling of descending rock is heard A shower of stones has taken place and woe be to the man who failed to find a place of shelter the mighty blast has shaken the moun shovel said one of the men in charge will fill a pound ore car in from three to four minutes and from fifteen to sixteen shovels full will load a car the two locomotives attending each shovel when ore is being removed take out the loaded cars to a switchback switch back where they are asEem assembled bled into trains of from fifteen to twenty cars when the train is made up it starts at once for the garfield concentrators and smelter and one of these train 5 R 7 ma 1 C w 1 5 5 A X 5 A 4 ak view of the steam shovel operations steam shovels great holes are drilled deep into massive bodies of ore exposed by stripping as above outlined these holes are sunk by means of machine drills and are heavily charged with dynamite before the fuse is lighted warning is given and a scattering of employees and visitors is witnessed which would be amusing to behold were it not for the tact fact that danger is near and death is lurking in the background every man for himself and the lain has shattered the great zones of cop per bearing porphyry and the steam shovels begin again to plow into the loosened rock to perform in one minute more work than a hundred men could do in an hour at the utah copper seven steam shovels are employed in mining operations for avery every steam shovel two locomotives are necessary to bring in empty ore cars and take out the loaded ones and these cannot keep the shovel in constant operation one loads of ore goes out over the high line every hour or so in stripping operations the waste is loaded into dump clump cars much of this waste is conveyed over the sky ky line fori foil a distance of a mile or so where it is dumped into gulch gulches es as which are he be ing filled up almost as rapidly as the noun moun j tain tops are being leveled down j the boston consolidated has four steam shovels in operation and iund while its output from surface mining is not as heavy as that of its near neighbor the company is out a heavy tonna tonnage ie daily which netting ettin n t is s colv conveyed eyed by rail to the splendid new concentration plant recently placed in cominis commission cent ration ion near garfield the utah copper company at its bing lian bam mines has about seven hundred men in its employ three hundred of these are working underground from the tunnel working from 1200 to 1400 big mine cars of ore are sent out every twenty four hours FI 41 4 54 tf N I 1 AM aw NA 7 an V x 7 it IN Z 1 company at bingham utah photograph baor hy hr harry ie daily output of the mine is reported to be between and tons the tunnel 18 11 in a distance of about 2500 feet and 1000 feet of this is double tracked it is stated that the e company is producing of copper per month besides the gold produced as a byproduct by product the boston consolidated operating above the e utah copper has four steam shovels and il 8 producing about tons of porphyry mill ore ire daily ily while from to tons of sul it is difficult to even imagine what the steam shovel means for the future of bingham its introduction has revolutionized mining operations in this grand old camp and when this method of ore production is more fully utilized the output of bingham mines will amount to thousands upon thousands of tons of ore daily |