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Show t nrri m ' vr M'l m rw-TTnrr t i r,T,vTnrn'rr Ttttt n 1 T 1 T Thursday, March THE GREEN SHEET 13 31, 1986 mmcrnf UTAH smnmum mmmA nou Si HEARING it TsjV frft : .X , t ivV ' 5 ' I & 'WftSr . s fJ test tkc fax V. 1 ..V: , fN i&Z ic VC-- f m? I ' ' I f . fH? ? x s Jj ?. WTki 4j5 S? K1 ' lrV" Jy iKennecott Utah Copper, a division of BP Minerals America, will become one of the most efficient copper producers in the world this fall when its $400 million modernization is completed. Highlights of the project will include a new ore crusher, a new grinding and flotation plant near the mine, and transportation improvements: the mine's existing rail haulage system will be replaced by a overland ore conveyor system and three slurry pipelines. KennecotT closed in 1985 because the price of copper had fallen below the cost of production. Only with modernization will the company be able to compete in the world market. While Kennecott Utah Copper is modernizing, many copper mines throughout the country have closed because they can no longer compete. The Utah operation is one of a very few worldwide that has undertaken new methods. " The modernization of copper production at Bingham Canyon Mine is on schedule and on When the is complete, visitors to the mine will no longer see trains haulmodernization budget. ing ore to the concentrators near Magna. Instead, ore will be dumped directly into a new crusher by the trucks that move around the two- capacity wide, half-mildeep Bingham Canyon pit. is "relocatable This new gyratory and will probably be moved to another location in the mine in years. It reduces the ore to pieces no larger than 8 to I0inches in diameter. The ore falls from the crusher onto a wide conveyor for a long conveyor ride through a rail tunnel, to the stockpiling area near the new concentrator building north of Copperton. Up to 10,000 tons of ore per hour can be transported to the concentrator on this new conveyor system, making it much more efficient than the old system of rail cars. Crushed ore travels on smaller conveyor belts to three identical grinding lines inside the concentrator building. Here the ore is ground to 38" diameter by giant grinding mills 34 feet in diameter and 15 feet long. Each mill is driven by two 6,000 hp. DC electric motors. The ore is then reduced to the consistency of face powder as it travels through ball mills 18 feet in diameter and 28 feet long. This finely ground ore is then sent to new flotation cells, which create a concentrate. This concentrate is thickened, and then sent on a ride diameter pipeline to the Garfield smelter. A diameter concrete pipeline through a delivers tailings from the concentrator to the tailings pond, where the water is extracted. This recycled water is then pumped through a pipeline back to two Vh million gallon reservoirs near Copperton. Kennecott Utah Copper's concentrator and flotation facility is the most modern of its kind in the world. The plant is controlled from a main control room with a sophisticated Hewlett Packard computer. Three satellite control stations control the three production lines. The plant can be run by 45 persons per shift, with an overall manning complement - including maintenance staff - of 280 persons. When modernization is complete, the Bingham Canyon mine will process about 77,000 tons of ore per day. The low grade ore produces approximately 12 pounds of copper from each ton of ore processed. Annual copper production will be slightly below the previous system, at about 190,000 tons a year. Gold, silver and molybdenum are of the copper process. With modernization making it possible to produce about the same amount of copper with 1,800 people rather than the peak of 7,000 with the old process, Kennecott and BP Minerals America will be able to compete in the world market for many years to come. in-p- it jyfc'O 5 y 3 .J y '' ' fflPLSTIOM uiot fv v' ; 1 3 !j in-p- fr 170-to- n T 4f diesel-electri- c e N T t ore-crushe- r, 0 y f;ds, hai .1 X "J 3000-cubic-fo- - lv ' copper-molybdenu- A, h wfrnw h ,wim$m -- "'11!V-, v( A iAW -- -- SU ,c- :4V- 2 - ?& l f jgjr fK y i.t Nk. w i s X ''i .aTA, 'V N V f A f fcWjj tv f ssi A -- O iw I. v 7& ljCt rvs BP MINERALS AMERICA it |