Category: Amazing Excavations

“The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine located in Butte, Montana, United States. It is one mile long by half a mile wide with an approximate depth of 1,780 feet (540 m). It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet (270 m) with water that is heavily acidic (2.5 pH level), about…

Thornton Quarry is one of the largest aggregate quarries in the world, located in Thornton, Illinois just south of Chicago. Work at the quarry began in 1924 by Colonel Hodgkins, and since 1938 has been operated by the Material Service Corporation. The quarry is 1.5 miles (2.5 km) long, 0.5 miles (1 km) wide, and…

“Udachnaya pipe, literally lucky pipe, is a diamond deposit in the Daldyn-Alakit kimberlite field in Sakha Republic, Russia. It is an open-pit mine, and is located just outside the Arctic circle at 66°26′N 112°19′E. Udachnaya was discovered on June 15, 1955, just two days after the discovery of the diamond pipe Mir by Soviet geologist Vladimir…

“Minera Escondida, which means “hidden” in Spanish , is a mining company that operates two open pit mines in the Atacama Desert, 170 km southeast of Antofagasta in northern Chile. It is currently the highest producing copper mine in the world. Its 2007 production of 1.483 million tons of the metal was worth US$ 10.12 billion,…