World's Largest Mine

Depending upon the factors used to measure the dimensions, the designations of the worlds largest mine can change.

Worlds largest Open pit mine:

If it's the type of mine or classification according to the type of mining activity which is the criterion, then Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah, in the United States of America, Oquirrh Mountains, is indisputably the worlds largest open pit mine.

Also more popularly known as Kennecott Bingham Canyon mine, it is owned by the Rio Tinto group. The pit or opening created by the mine is so wide and huge that it can be seen distinctly from space.

Mining operations being initiated since 1906, has led to the deepening of the mine to 1.2 km and a width of 4 km, extending over a gigantic area of 1900 acres.

It has been officially declared to be a National Historical Landmark in the year 1966

With more than 1400 people employed over here, the annual production in 2006 of all metals combined together was more than $1.8billion USD.

The main activity is Copper mining, but it produces gold and silver as by products during the refining process of copper. The copper itself though of low quality called as Porphyry copper creates valuable by products like silver and gold.

Molybdenum is also produced with amounts exceeding 850 million ponds in total production, in 2006.

World largest Diamond Mine:

The world's largest diamond mine by size is the Orapa Mine of Botswana. The name is a synonym for the resting place of the lions in the local language. The mine is under joint ownership of DeBeers Company and the Botswana government. It covers more than 1.18 square kilometers of surface on the earth. The data last updated in 2003 reveals a production of 16.3 million carats of diamonds.

Worlds largest Gold Mine:

Grasberg Mine in Indonesia is the world's largest gold mine. In addition to producing gold, it is also the world's third largest producer of copper. It is owned jointly by the Indonesian government, Rio Tinto group, Freeport -McMoRan, and the PT Indocopper Investama, which are all companies based in the United States of America. The financial reports of 2006 reveal a whopping production of 58,474,392 grams of gold, 610,800 tonnes of copper and 174,458,971 grams of silver.

World's largest Uranium mine:

The largest Uranium mine of the world is in South Australia, and named as Olympic dam mine. Australia is the world's largest producer of Uranium, accounting for about 23% of the total uranium reserves in the world.

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