Kennecott

[Iceaxe]

This is amazing....

65128


MAGNA

[accadacca]

Crazy! I heard they were expecting it. Has it happened before? I wonder how much money it will cost them?

[Iceaxe]

Yes, its happened before. A couple years back the northwest wall slid. This time it was the northeast wall. I do a lot of engineering work for KUC so I'm up there a lot. The slide took out the visitors center and truck shops, but the big deal is it took out the main road into the mine. That will be a big deal to get a road cut back in as any road will have to probably cross one of the sllide areas. I don't think most people realize how massive the slide was unless they have been in the pit.

My big worry is this will shut the mine down for a while and force layoffs, which will just kill the Utah economy. Most people have no clue about the amount of money KUC brings into the SLC valley, but its in the BILLIONS, not millions.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[rockgremlin]

This is deemed a "catastrophic wall failure." It will take likely weeks, possibly months to mitigate. It's a good thing nobody was injured or worse during this event. There are probably about 20 MSHA inspectors out there right now, conducting interviews and snooping around. It's a mess.

KUCC has the resources (heavy equipment and manpower) to clean this up no problem ---- the biggest concern here is doing it SAFELY. This massive pile of loose rock is still slowly on the move, as well as the pit wall from whence it came. All of the slide material will need to be removed, as well as the unstable slope pushed back. That takes time, and it's very delicate business, always keeping eyes in the back of your head to be sure the wall isn't sending more in your direction while you're cleaning up the mess.

As a result of the timely cleanup process, it may be possible that a temporary layoff might occur. But once the mess is cleaned up, they're gonna need trucks rolling outta that pit ASAP, which means a resumption of employment for those affected (hopefully). Sometimes when this happens other mining companies will swoop in and look to hire good trained laborers who might be laid off.

And as ICE mentioned, this WILL affect their bottom line. This is an expensive failure for many reasons:

1. Ore isn't being hauled out of the pit, and won't be hauled for a while.

2. Instead of ore being hauled, waste will be hauled constantly for the same duration. Always hauling waste doesn't pay the bills.

3. Skilled labor will have to be paid to clean up the mess.

4. The stockpiles of ore will likely be drawn down significantly.

So, basically, they're spending a bunch of money and not producing ore at the same time. Double whammy. Another consideration is that all of that slide material will end up in the waste dumps without regard to ore content. If they planned on mining some of that wall as ore, then it's now gone. Tripple whammy. Youch...

[Iceaxe]

Those who work in the mine will be very busy for a while. Those that work at the concentrator, smelter and refinery will be with out work soon as they have processed the stockpiled ore.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

[accadacca]

BIG slide for sure...

24760295

[reverse_dyno]

One would think that a mining company would know how to prevent a rock slide that they were expecting. Seems to me that they figured it would be cheaper to let the thing slide that to prevent it from sliding. They knew this was going to occur, then why did they not try to stop it? Or make it slide in a controlled manner using explosives? Simple, it was cheaper to let it slide on its own.

[rockgremlin]

One would think that a mining company would know how to prevent a rock slide that they were expecting. Seems to me that they figured it would be cheaper to let the thing slide that to prevent it from sliding. They knew this was going to occur, then why did they not try to stop it? Or make it slide in a controlled manner using explosives? Simple, it was cheaper to let it slide on its own.


Absolutely no way to prevent a slide of this magnitude....except to cease mining...which isn't going to happen. They have copper, silver, molybdenum and gold reserves out to the year 2027 or thereabouts. That amounts to billions of dollars, not only to Rio Tinto but the community as well. They were aware of the possibility of a slide and planned for it. Aside from stopping mining that's the best they could do. There's no way to predict how explosives will perform in a slide either. It's tricky business. Mother Nature is a fickle beast, and she doesn't give up her treasures without a cost.

[rockgremlin]

...they have processed the stockpiled ore.

OUCH!


^^^In the embedded video, that large structure that was torn in half and hanging off the crest of the failure is their old truck shop. They built a new truck shop at a different location out of the path of the impending failure, anticipating it would happen one day. I worked as a summer intern right beside that thing about 9 years ago. Kinda eerie to see it now.

[accadacca]

Kennecott cleanup will take 2 years to dig out, officials say

[kslvideo]24766164[/video]

BINGHAM CANYON

[Iceaxe]

^^^In the embedded video, that large structure that was torn in half and hanging off the crest of the failure is their old truck shop. They built a new truck shop at a different location out of the path of the impending failure, anticipating it would happen one day.

They were still using the old truck shop to service the new trucks. The newest trucks will not fit in the new truck shop as the doors to enter are not large enough. The new truck shop was designed and built to a set of specs, and not long after it was finished KUC bought new bigger trucks that had just come out.


Tap'n on my Galaxy G3