KENNECOTT COPPER MINE — The average person uses nearly 30 pounds of copper every year, and Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more than 19 million tons of the metal, or more than any other mine in history.

Visiting the mine

The mine is a must-see for kids of any age. The giant equipment — the trucks that haul the ore are more than 23 feet tall and carry between 255 and 360 tons of rock — is a sight of its own, but the view from the visitor's center within the working mine is incredible.

"We came out here because (we wanted to) show them something that is pretty unique," said mine visitor, Keri Haynie.

And it's impossible to go through the tour of the mine without learning things as well.

School groups and scout troops are welcome for free. And families can enjoy the mine on Kennecott's dime for the rest of May. Kennecott donates all proceeds from visitors back into the community. Last year, they gave back nearly $200,000 to local charities.

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History of the mine and mining townThe mine is a big part of Utah's history and its economy. Copper ore was first discovered on the site in the late 1800's and mining began in 1906.

In the 1930's, the Utah Copper Company built a mining town near Kennecott. No longer a company town, Copperton is small enough that everybody knows each other, and the size, as 58-year resident of the town Gwen Crump says, "it's easy to be a good neighbor."

She and her husband Cal Crump came to Copperton in 1954. Cal had been teaching at Bingham High School, and at the time, the tiny town served as a hub between the small communities in west Salt Lake Valley.

"That's too far for us to go to go to school, and they thought there was renegades up here from a mining town," Gwen Crump said.

A center piece of the community from the early days is the town's park.

"I treated it as my back yard," Cal Crump said.

Cal took care of the park in the summer to supplement his teacher's income and 52 years later, he's still taking care of it. He has a helper, and they maintain the park and take care of events.

Their son wrote a book about Copperton's history documenting the early years when the town's lifeblood was mining. The company sold the homes in the 1960's to families, but mining is still a big part of the small town.

The mine's future

Last year 237,000 tons of copper, 379,000 ounces of gold and 3.2 million ounces of silver were mined from Kennecott. The mine has been producing for more than a century, and has permits to continue operating for at least the next 16 years.

Rio Tinto hopes to extend the life of the mine into 2025 or 2027.

Over the next six years the open pit will become 800 feet deeper than its current three-quarters of a mile. But beyond the precious metals, Rio Tinto owns a large amount of land in the southwest area of Salt Lake County and is trying to diversify its investment. The Daybreak Community in South Jordan is one such example.

"We took some land that was impacted by historic mining activities before Rio Tinto took Kennecott over, and we thought, what better way to put this back to a benefit for the community than to meet the demand of growth in the valley than to build some houses and a well thought-out area," said Rio Tinto sustainable development advisor Mike Lewis.

Rio Tinto says it is making efforts to be more environmentally conscious. For example, converting many vehicles to natural gas and working to reduce emissions. "Our anti-idling efforts have been extreme successful we've saved approximately $6 million with those and reduced thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions," Lewis said.

And with the demand for copper higher than it has ever been around the world, Rio Tinto says that it is working to make its Kennecott operation as efficient as possible to meet that demand.

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