page_title: Copper mining in the United States
section_title: Utah
hierarchical_section_title: Copper mining in the United States / By state / Utah
caption_attribution_description: English: Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 66000736
context_page_description: Copper mining in the United States has been a major industry since the rise of the northern Michigan copper district in the 1840s. In 2017 the United States produced 1.27 million metric tonnes of copper, worth $8 billion, making it the world's fourth largest copper producer, after Chile, China, and Peru. Copper was produced from 23 mines in the US. Top copper producing states in 2014 were Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. Minor production also came from Idaho, and Missouri. As of 2014, the US had 45 million tonnes of known remaining reserves of copper, the fifth largest known copper reserves in the world, after Chile, Australia, Peru, and Mexico.
  Copper in the US is used mainly in construction and electric equipment. In 2014, the nation produced 69% of the copper it used, relying on imports from Chile, Canada, Peru, and Mexico for the remaining 31%.
  Copper mining activity increased in the early 2000s because of increased price: the price increased from an average of $0.76 per pound for the year 2002, to $3.02 per pound for 2007.
  A number of byproducts are recovered from American copper mining.
context_section_description: In 2006, Utah was the nation's number two producer of copper.
  The Bingham Canyon Mine southwest of Salt Lake City has been one of the world's largest copper producers for more than 100 years.  The mine, owned and operated by Kennecott Utah Copper (a division of Rio Tinto Group), is a large open pit in a porphyry copper deposit.  (The Bingham Canyon Mine and the Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile each claim to be the largest open-pit mine in the world.)  It continues to be a major source not only of copper, but also of molybdenum, gold, and silver.  The value of metals produced in the year 2006 alone was $1.8 billion. 
  Constellation Copper's Lisbon Valley copper mine in San Juan County, southeastern Utah began mining in 2005, and produced its first copper in 2006.  The copper deposit is in sandstones of the Dakota Sandstone and Burro Canyon Formation.  The primary copper mineral is chalcocite, which is thought to have been deposited from solutions ascending through the Lisbon Valley Fault.  Above the water table, chalcocite has been oxidized to malachite, azurite, tenorite, and cuprite. On November 30, 2007, Constellation announced that it would stop mining in 2008, because of unexpectedly low copper recovery.  The company will continue to recover copper by heap-leaching already-mined ore as long as profitable.
  Constellation officially declared bankruptcy and is currently insolvent, but copper mining efforts were resumed in August 2009 under new management with the help of financing from Renewal Capital, a subsidiary of PartnerRe, and has been producing approximately 35,000 pounds of copper a day since the restart. Mining occurs solely in one mid-sized open pit named the Centennial pit, and the primary ores are malachite, azurite, and chalcocite. The mine employs approximately 140 people as of February 2012.
  CS Mining purchased the assets of the bankrupt Western Utah Copper Company/Copper King Mining Corporation in 2011 and has applied for the required permits to restart the mining at various sites previously held by WUCC. After receipt of the permits, mining and milling activities are expected to start in the second half of 2012 with open-pit mining and flotation mill processing near Milford.  At the time the assets were acquired by CS, the measured, indicated and inferred resources were approximately 600 million pounds of copper; plus gold, silver, and magnetite.
caption: Bingham Canyon Mine, southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2005
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "CYBERSHOT", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2005:04:09 20:15:40", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "218", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "CYBERSHOT", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2005:04:09 20:15:40", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "851", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3561", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1250", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:04:09 20:15:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:04:09 20:15:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "8", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "642", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}