Kennecott Utah Copper
Kennecott Utah Copper LLC (KUC), a division of Rio Tinto Group, is a mining, smelting, and refining company.
The same year, the Kennecott Mines Company was formed in Alaska, named after explorer and naturalist Robert Kennicott.
[3] These actions resulted in Kennecott taking possession of Braden's El Teniente,[2]: 108 the world's largest underground copper mine, located in the Chilean Andes.
In Utah, the Bingham and Garfield Railway opened in 1911 to transport local ore, replacing the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad's line.
Charles Cox, formerly head of Carnegie-Illinois Steel, was hired shortly after to fill the executive vacuum at Kennecott.
By 1961, Kennecott's copper mines in the United States included four large open pits in Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
[9][10] Since Rio Tinto purchased Kennecott Utah Copper in 1989, it has invested about $2 billion in the modernization of KUC’s operations.
[13] Significant groundwater contamination exists in the aquifer downgradient of the Bingham Canyon mining operations.
Starting in the late 1980s, the State of Utah Natural Resource Damage Trustee has overseen the investigation of mining-influenced groundwater and the implementation of cleanup actions performed by Kennecott and the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District to address two groundwater plumes located in southwest Salt Lake County.
Because of the remediation efforts, which include more than a $100 million investment in a reverse osmosis facility, Kennecott's South End,[16] (location of the contaminated aquifer) was removed from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Priorities List (NPL).
Kennecott's copper mine concentrators, power plant and smelter is the leading facility for toxic releases in the state of Utah, according to a 2017 report by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
[19] Editorialists continue to criticize Kennecott for the amount of lead the smelter puts into the air each year: 6,250 pounds (2,830 kg).
[20] Environmental groups have lauded Rio Tinto’s decision to drop its requested permit for a new rock crushing plant at the copper mine.
[21] In January 2012, the Utah Department of Health's Environmental Epidemiology Program (EEP) received a report from a concerned citizen stating that berm dust from the mine's tailing evaporation ponds was blowing onto Interstate 80, causing them malaise and sore throat each time they drove through it.
Daybreak Community, the first part of the process, is situated on 4,126 acres (1,670 ha; 16.70 km2) in the city of South Jordan where 20,000 homes and up to 14,000,000 square feet (1,300,000 m2) of commercial space are planned.
Opened in 2009, Daybreak's first commercial center, SoDa Row, contains a boutique, restaurants, hair salon and more.
Company records reveal that, by 1918-19, large numbers of Spanish-surnamed individuals began to be employed at the mine, and additional Latinos were recruited during the labor shortages of WWII.
