A landslide at Rio Tinto-owned Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah on May 31 has disrupted operations, stated the company. There were, however, no casualties in the accident.
After the alert for the landslide, the company had cleared personnel safety. The company, however, has not shared the probable production loss or information about the loss of equipment, if any.
In 2013, a landslide had damaged equipment, building structure, thus affecting the mine’s copper concentrate production. Rio Tinto announced that the production at Kennecott is unaffected.
Kennecott produced 140,000mt of copper in 2020.
Rio Tinto had approved a $1.5bn investment to continue production at its Kennecott copper operation in the United States.