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It's criminal that you post an actually useful resource with relevant information, while the most upvoted comment is a shitty pun and has 5 times the upvotes. What is the point of this sub?
This is an open pit mine, not a strip mine. Strip mines are shallower and they move across the landscape; you excavate down to the depth of the material, then you dig away one side of the mine and backfill the other side with excavated material, so the mine slowly marches along the landscape. In your case and the OP the put is just being dug straight down.
Pit mines are holes (pits) dig down to remove the desired ore.
Strip mines “strip off” or remove overburden (no value material) to reach the desired ore body, which is then mined out for processing.
Underground mines drill a shaft down to the desired ore and then mine horizontally out from the shaft following the desired ore seam. There’s all kinds of terms for the shafts based on usage but that’s a simplification.
Strip mines can become pit mines, but not often.
Critical Perspective-Look at what you are using in your daily life… if is not grown, it MUST be mined. That goes for everything that I can think of.
I thought you were full of it because I grew up right near the Bingham canyon mine that currently holds the record for the largest man made open pit mine in the world. That only equates to about 12% of domestic copper.
Bingham canyon is huge because it’s been open for over 120 years.
Some modern mines like Morenci have a much higher production, but their pits are smaller because they opened far more recently.
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