Anaconda's Carr Fork Project
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Tooele Valley Railway
Operations on the Tooele Valley Railway continued after the International smelter was closed in late January 1972. Until about 1975, the railroad was used to ship outgoing scrap from the dismantling of the smelter, and until 1981, the railroad was used to accept inbound shipments of construction materials for the development of the new Carr Fork Mine. (Mining, Smelting and Railroading in Tooele County, page 118)
Tooele Valley Railway was finally shut down and abandoned when Anaconda's Carr Fork Project mine and mill shut down, with the railroad's last day of operation being on August 28, 1982.
(Read more about the Tooele Valley Railway)
Carr Fork Project
The following comes from Ken Krahulec's "History And Production Of The West Mountain (Bingham) Mining District, Salt Lake County, Utah," published in 1998.
The 1970s also brought a reappraisal of Bingham Canyon's deep copper-gold skarn potential. This resulted in Anaconda's decision to develop the Carr Fork copper skarn, on the down-dip projection of the old Highland Boy-Apex mines, which had closed in 1947. By 1974 Anaconda had tested the deposit with 17 deep surface holes from their property on the northwest flank of the open pit copper mine. After five years of development, the Carr Fork mine began production in August 1979. The mine only operated for slightly over two years, however, before high operating costs, dilution, shaft problems, and low copper prices forced its closure.
Similarly, Kennecott Copper re-examined the North Ore Shoot copper-gold skarn to the northeast of the pit. The deposit was discovered in 1957 and initially delineated by 24 surface holes drilled over the next 15 years. A 20-foot diameter shaft was completed to a depth of 3,089 feet in 1983. The deposit was further explored by 12,300 feet of drifting, three test stopes, and 72,848 feet of drilling in 124 underground holes. The North Ore Shoot has yet to begin production, and both the Carr Fork and the North Ore Shoot mines are now flooded.
July 22, 1972
The Carr Fork Project was planned as early as July 1972. "Anaconda is developing its Carr Fork Project which may need the T.V. [Tooele Valley Railway] to haul ore. (Deseret News, July 22, 1972)
September 6, 1974
Anaconda started project development at its Carr Fork Project.
(Monument at the site of the portal and mill in Pine Canyon)
September 6, 1974
"With an expected work force of approximately 800 and an annual payroll of $15 million, a proposed new Anaconda copper mine and mill at Carr Fork announced today will significantly impact Tooele and Salt Lake counties. The announcement was made in the Governor's Board Room at the Utah state capitol building. The announcement was made in a news conference by Anaconda president and CEO, John B.M. Place, with Utah governor Calvin Rampton in attendance. Development and construction of the $135 million-plus project will begin immediately and production is expected to begin in 1979. Exploration work has been under way at the site astride the Oquirrh Mountain summit since 1969 when the discovery of the deep ore body was announced." (Deseret News, September 6, 1974)
"The ore will be processed in a concentrator to be constructed on the site of the old Tooele Smelter which has been partially dismantled. The smelter site, owned by Anaconda, is a short distance downhill from the mine. The smelter site has rail service, roads, electric power lines and telephone service already in place. Existing waste disposal areas will be utilized by the new concentrator. The concentrator will have the benefit of the smelter's water supply." (Deseret News, September 6, 1974)
September 7, 1974
Anaconda announced a new project to begin mining copper from a new underground mine to be located about two miles west of Kennecott's Bingham open pit mine. The project was to cost $136 million, and the new mine would produce 56,000 pounds of copper per year, beginning in 1979. Development work was to begin immediately, with the new mine to be 2,000 to 5,000 feet below the surface. Concentrates from the 10,000-tons-per-day concentrator mill would be shipped to Anaconda's copper smelter in Anaconda, Montana. Anaconda had been exploring the potential mine since 1969, when the ore body was first discovered. The ore body would be mined using the room-and-pillar method, using heavy machinery and methods similar to those being used in many coal mines. Waste rock would be removed from the mine and dumped at the site of the now-retired International smelter site, and existing road and railroad facilities would also be used. (Ogden Standard Examiner, September 7, 1974)
December 13, 1974
Contractors for the Carr Fork Project had completed head frames, 244 feet high, for the two service shafts and were preparing to sink the shafts themselves, 20 foot diameter holes 4000 feet straight down. Plans included removal of an estimated 3000 tons of waste material per day, which would represent only about 20 percent of the material mined. "By contrast, waste materials removed by Kennecott Copper's open pit operation is three times greater than the usable ore." (Salt Lake Tribune, December 13, 1974)
August 12, 1975
Anaconda announced that it would halt work on shafts No. 1 and No. 3, two of the four shafts it was excavating as part of its Carr Fork underground mine. Although the mine was still planned to be in operation in 1979, its capacity would be reduced from 10,000 tons per day, to 5,000 tons per day. (Provo Daily Herald, August 12, 1975)
August 15, 1975
Due to changing financial conditions and the current market conditions, Anaconda announced that it would suspend the sinking of two of the planned four shafts that were originally part of the Carr Fork Project. Work would continue on the service and exhaust shafts but would be halted on the production shaft and the fresh air shaft. The production shaft, to be nearly 4000 feet deep, was being drilled by the Peter Kiewit Sons of Omaha, while Thyssen Mining Co. of Lakewood, California, was sinking the fresh air shaft, also to be 4000 feet deep. (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, August 15, 1975)
(Photos taken in August 1975 show the headframe of the exhaust shaft for its Carr Fork mine on Anaconda property on the north side of what was formerly Carr Fork canyon, but by that time was simply the north slope of the Bingham open pit mine. The headframe and hoist building were about 1,000 feet up-canyon from the Kennecott observation platform, which is visible in the photos. The headframe was removed when the vertical shaft reached the desired depth, and replaced by a large exhaust fan.)
January 1977
In January 1977, Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) purchased the all interests of Anaconda Copper Mining Company.
March 7, 1977
Anaconda filed its intention to resume mining operations of its Carr Fork properties with the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.
(These properties were the mining claims in the Carr Fork area of Bingham Canyon that Anaconda had owned since 1948, not what would later become known as the Carr Fork Project at the top of Pine Canyon.)
March 21, 1978
Work resumed on Anaconda's Carr Fork underground mine. Work resumed on the drilling and excavation of a ventilation shaft following work being suspended earlier in the month due to the deaths of two workmen. Work on the ventilation shaft had begun a year earlier, and was to be completed in two months. (Deseret News, March 21, 1978, "today")
April 11, 1978
Construction of surface buildings at Anaconda's Carr Fork Project, and sinking of shafts had been completed. (Tooele Bulletin, April 11, 1978)
September 19, 1978
"Second North Street residents voiced strong opposition to a proposed truck route from Carr Fork at Thursday's city council meeting, and emphasized it would create a safety hazard to children. Anaconda plans to truck ore concentrates from the Carr Fork Project to the Warner train station west of Tooele, where it will be transported by rail to Montana. The concentrates will be trucked from the mine site west on 2nd North (today's Utah Avenue) to Main Street, then south to 1st North and east to the Warner station. Three trucks would each make eight trips every eight hours. That means 72 trucks will pass a given point every 24 hour period." (Tooele Bulletin, September 19, 1978)
(There was no connection between Main Street and 1st North. The route was likely in error, with Vine street being the direct route between Main Street and Warner Station. The route of the existing Tooele Valley Railway was along Vine Street from Warner all the way east to 900 East where it entered its private right of way. Why the plans did not simply include the use of the existing railroad is a mystery.)
(By December 1978, the truck route was changed to be west from the mine and mill to Droubay Road, then north to a new loading site adjacent to the Union Pacific tracks. - Tooele Bulletin, December 15, 1978)
October 17, 1978
The Carr Fork Project had been given the permission by the board of directors of Atlantic Richfield, owner of Anaconda since January 1977, to continue the project. Other mining projects in which Anaconda was part owner, were being idled.
(Salt Lake Tribune, October 17, 1978)
December 18, 1978
Anaconda announced that its Carr Fork underground mine would begin production in September 1979. In Mid December 1979, the crews driving the underground service tunnel, 9600 feet long, connected with the vertical service shafts. A total of 560 people were employed at the mine, where new buildings had been completed for use by administrative, geological and engineering personnel, as well as a change house for the miners to begin and end their shifts. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 17, 1978)
March 13, 1979
The Utah legislature passed a bill to allow $500,000 of taxpayers' money to be spent to build the Anaconda haulage road between the mine and the Union Pacific tracks. The original bill allowed $866,000 for the Anaconda road, but failed. Other provisions of the failed bill included $350,000 for a haulage road for Southern Utah Fuel near Levan, and $2.7 million for a haulage road Swisher Coal near Price. (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, March 13, 1979)
(Construction on the road started in July 1979, with a completion date of 45 days. -- Tooele Transcript Bulletin, July 26, 1979)
June 5, 1979
"The Anaconda Carr Fork Project has invested $60 million in buildings, equipment, and manpower to complete the surface complex which includes a crusher, a mill, a dryer- concentrator, several thousand feet of conveyor belt, and processes to dispose of tailings. The surface work has been completed on schedule. The target date being June 1. Minor adjustments to equipment and painting will be completed, before the mining operation goes into steady operation around the middle of August or the first of September." On-site engineering by Anaconda personnel had started in July 1974, and was completed by September 1974. The engineering of the entire project was then passed to Bechtel Engineering of San Francisco but was paused from August 1974 to September 1976 due to a drop in the price of copper. When the price of copper rose again in September 1976, Bechtel was notified to resume the engineering of the project, which was completed by mid-1977. From June to August 1979, the mill was run occasionally to develop and fine-tune the milling process. (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, June 5, 1979)
June-July 1979
Anaconda's Carr Fork mine took delivery of five new 30-ton electric mining locomotives from General Electric in June and July 1979. These were intended to be used in the underground operations, but information provided during their sale at auction in 1984 stated that all five locomotive had never been used. (email correspondence with Robert Lehmuth, May 27 to May 30, 2011, citing GE builder records, and a sales brochure from the D'Angelo auction house)
August 30, 1979
"Mine Production Ceremony Set - The Anaconda Carr Fork project will kickoff full production Friday at 1 p.m. when the first carload of ore will be loaded at railroad dock northeast of Tooele. The ceremony was originally scheduled for two weeks ago, but was postponed until the mine loading dock was completed. Carr Fork presently employs 750 people, and is the largest private employer in Tooele County." (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, August 30, 1979)
(The first car, a UP hopper car, was loaded at what Union Pacific had named "Shields." A photo in the September 1, 1979 issue of the Salt Lake Tribune shows the loading being using a portable conveyor system. The loading site today is where 2400 North meets the UP tracks, at UP mile post 752.6)
August 31, 1979
Production began from Anaconda's Carr Fork Project. (Monument at the site of the portal and mill in Pine Canyon)
October 1979
Anaconda began production from its Carr Fork underground mine. (Deseret News, November 2, 1984)
February 21, 1980
"Now that most of the bugs are out of the system, Anaconda Carr Fork project is gearing up for full production. Manager Art Ditto said that full production of 10,000 tons of ore per day is expected within a year." The plant had been unable to hoist material because of its water content. "Anaconda had been using a temporary system bypassing its underground crusher while it was being constructed. With the crusher and with ore storage facilities, the plant will now have no problem handling oversize ore or high water content. Since the fall when the Carr Fork plant began hauling ore, it has shipped approximately 1000 tons of ore concentrate to the company's refinery in Anaconda, Montana. He said only 20,000 tons of ore were milled last month although rated capacity is 10,000 tons per day." (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, February 21, 1980)
(1000 tons = about 10 loaded rail cars)
June 22, 1980
"Anaconda, hemorrhaging from expropriation of its valuable Chilean properties... By the time the $218 million [Carr Fork] project began operations last year... And handsome it was. An underground mine capped by an enormous headframe overlooked by comfortable office and change house at the head of the canyon, and linked by conveyor belt to a concentrator down canyon. Earlier this year, it [Anaconda] was on the verge of turning a profit. However, in one cataclysmic moment, a hoist dropped with full load of ore more than a half mile to the bottom of the shaft. There were no injuries. However, the result was $2 million in damage and $10 million in lost production." (Salt Lake Tribune, June 22, 1980)
October 2, 1980
"The Carr Fork project will not be directly affected by Anaconda's decision to suspend operations at its copper smelter in Montana. The closing of the Anaconda smelter and the Great Falls refinery will affect 1,500 employees, but not halt or slow down operations at the Anaconda mine east of Tooele. Anaconda, which is a unit of Atlantic Richfield Company, is making alternate arrangements for processing the Carr Fork ore concentrates. With the present mining plans and continuing productivity improvements, Tooele's Carr Fork project should be an active mining property for many years to come. Arrangements are being made for processing Tooele concentrates elsewhere." (Tooele Transcript-Bulletin, October 2, 1980)
November 14, 1980
The Anaconda copper smelter in Montana ceased operations on November 14, 1980, due to outdated equipment, pollution control issues, and foreign competition.
November 19, 1981
"Roughly 100 workers at the Carr Fork mine will be laid off because of the low value of copper on the open market, Atlantic Richfield and Anaconda officials in Los Angeles and Denver announced Wednesday. Half of those to leave will be salaried employees. The remainder will be hourly wage earners. Hardest hit by the decision will be those who work in the mill portion of the Carr Fork project. According to Anaconda, the layoff will be for a year, by which time the company hopes the price of copper will be at a profitable level. Copper has been selling at 83-1/2 cents a pound. This compares poorly for Anaconda which in December 1979 was looking at copper prices of $1.05 a pound. All areas of the project will be affected by the decision which was made Friday but only announced on Wednesday. The mine is divided into three sections: plant, mill and mine. The mill will see the most changes. For the next year, Anaconda will concentrate its efforts on development of the ore veins in its Oquirrh Mountain mine, with the work designed to allow the Carr Fork mine to operate at full capacity throughout the life of the mine." (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, November 19, 1981)
November 1981
The Carr Fork mine stopped production in November 1981, while Anaconda waited for copper prices to rise. When this did not happen, the processing facilities were torn down, sold, and removed from the property in late 1984.
February 23, 1982
The development contractor at the Carr Fork Project laid off 40 of its 70 employees, as Anaconda continued to reduce its costs as it waited for an improved price of copper. Mine development would continue but by using company miners instead of contractors. (Tooele Bulletin, February 23, 1982)
March 16, 1982
The price of copper on the open market was 70 cents per pound. Several companies had investigated purchasing the Carr Fork project, including Kennecott Copper. Anaconda and Kennecott had discussed the option of selling outright to Kennecott, or to enter into a joint venture. One or the other must take place because the two companies were "cutting away the earth toward each other and the boundary of the properties is being approached." (Tooele Bulletin, March 16, 1982)
October 7, 1982
"Officials announced that 120 more workers would be laid off. The layoff was the third within the last 12 months and trims the worker force at the copper mine east of Tooele from nearly 900 workers a year ago to a staff of about 50. The layoff means that the mine will suspend production and development activities. The remaining workers will be strictly used for pumping water from the mine shafts and maintenance of equipment." (Tooele Transcript-Bulletin, October 7, 1982)
May 14, 1984
A large mudslide hit the surface works of Anaconda's Carr Fork mine in Pine canyon, killing one worker who was operating a bulldozer at the time. The slide also filled the service shaft located the the top of the canyon, the major access to the underground workings. Three days later, Anaconda shut down all operations and laid off all but eight workers, essentially closing the project permanently. The worker was clearing the debris from an earlier slide. The slide also cut off power to the service shaft and other buildings in the vicinity. (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, May 17, 1984; May 29, 1984)
November 1, 1984
Kennecott and Anaconda announced a joint venture that would resume production from Anaconda's Carr Fork underground mine. Kennecott was to be the operator and would receive 96 percent of the production, with Anaconda receiving the remaining four percent. The Carr Fork concentrator had a 10,000 tons per day capacity, but the mine never reached that number in its production. (Deseret News, November 2, 1984)
Late 1984
"The Carr Fork mine stopped production in November 1981, while Anaconda waited for copper prices to rise. When this did not happen, the processing facilities were torn down, sold, and removed from the property in late 1984. The Carr Fork operations property was sold to Kennecott Copper in October 1985. This included the mine and mill along with several acres of land east of the smelter site." (Tooele County Department of Health; TooeleHealth.org)
February 1985
The dewatering pumps were turned off. Slumping continues in the area (Baltimore Gulch) associated with May 1984 mudslide. The mud slide area in upper Pine Canyon remains unstable. Carr Fork operations were curtailed in 1981 and mine dewatering ceased in February of 1985. No new surface disturbances or reclamation associated with active mining occurred in 1985. (Documents on file with Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, Acct #M0450004, January 1986 Annual Report)
June 1985
In 1985, Anaconda sold the last of its copper and molybdenum properties and operations and became solely a coal mining company. Beaver Creek Coal Co., was shown as its only operation in Utah. (Coal Age, Volume 90, Number 6, June 1985, page 24)
September 12, 1985
Kennecott purchased the Carr Fork mine, mill site and ore reserves from Anaconda. "All facilities except the Pine Canyon Tunnel portal, production shaft headframe, access road to the warehouse/shop, culinary water system, water supply wells, power line to the wells, and the fresh
water tank will be demolished and the sites cleaned of debris prior to final reclamation." (Documents on file with Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, Acct #M0450004, Kennecott Reclamation Plan dated July 5, 1988)
Before Kennecott purchased the Anaconda property in 1985, the north west corner of the mine levels on the Bingham Canyon side were so tight it was hard to get locomotives and cars around the levels. From about 5940 elevation up to 6240 elevation, there were daily derailments due to the tight clearances and sharp curves on the rail lines, which were necessary to avoid the Anaconda property lines. (Gary C. Curtis, posted to Bingham Canyon History group on Facebook, May 22, 2018)
"New York -- Kennecott, Salt Lake City, has purchased a portion of the Carr Fork, Utah, copper mine from Anaconda Minerals Co., Denver. The deal alters an original plan announced late last year between the two producers to jointly operate their Utah copper mining properties. "The purpose of the direct purchase was to give us flexibility in any future mining of the ore reserves which lie along the western boundary of our property," a Kennecott spokesman said." (American Metal Markets, October 3, 1985)
Specifically, in addition to the facilities stretching along Pine Canyon on the Tooele side, the Anaconda interests that were purchased by Kennecott included the controlling 86 percent ownership of New Bingham Mary Mining Company, which adjoined Kennecott's property. New Bingham Mary had been organized in 1929, but very little activity took place until August 1978 when Anaconda was able to purchase its 86 percent ownership of New Bingham Mary stock. Through its majority ownership, Anaconda caused a lease to be assigned to itself, and the ore body was developed and worked from August 1979 to November 1981, solely by underground methods. In September 1985, Kennecott bought all of Anaconda's shares of New Bingham Mary. In November 1987, Kennecott assigned the previous Anaconda lease to itself, and began stripping overburden from the ore body, and mining the ore body by open pit methods. In 1997, the Kennecott-controlled management proposed to merge New Bingham Mary into Bingham Consolidation Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kennecott. The merger of the two companies into a new Bingham Consolidated Company was completed on January 1, 1998. (Bingham Consolidation Company vs. Groesbeck, Utah Court of Appeals, November 26, 2004)
January 13, 1987
"As you are well aware, we were very active at the Carr Fork site during the Summer and Fall of 1986 conducting active reclamation. Phase I of this work, which included all of the earth moving, grading, seeding, and surface water diversion, was completed in mid-December. All that remains to be completed is the planting of the containerized stock. This work is scheduled to begin in the early Spring of 1987 and should be completed by June of 1987." (Kennecott Copper comments, in documents on file with Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, Acct #M0450004, January 1987)
July 1988
"All facilities except the Pine Canyon Tunnel portal, production shaft headframe, access road to the warehouse/shop, culinary water system, water supply wells, power line to the wells, and the fresh
water tank will be demolished and the sites cleaned of debris prior to final reclamation." (Documents on file with Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, Acct #M0450004, Kennecott Reclamation Plan dated July 5, 1988)
Since the purchase [in September 1985], most of the buildings and structures in the canyon have been removed with the exception of certain mining facilities. These mining facilities have potential future uses for our underground development and will be retained in a usable condition. All buildings not intended for future mining uses will be demolished and their foundations and basements covered. The balance of the disturbed area will be reclaimed to a stable condition. We intend to restore the surface runoff patterns in the canyon to near natural conditions and we will regrade and revegetate the other surfaces. It is our intention to commence reclamation of the property this summer. We would like to begin this work in August and have the work essentially completed in November of this year.
At the present, all of the original mine facilities on the upper and production shaft pads remain, or are in some stage of salvage or demolition.
The Pine Canyon Tunnel portal and the shafts have been closed. The tunnel will continue to be used as a means of access for a water and electrical service connection from Pine Canyon to Bingham Canyon and the warehouse shop has been leased to a third party as a truck shop and warehouse.
Shaft and Portal Closures -- The Pine Canyon Tunnel will be maintained in an operational condition for an undetermined period of time. To provide for public safety and allow for ventilation of the tunnel, the portal has been closed with a double-hinged steel-framed door covered with heavy gauge wire mesh. This door will normally be locked to prevent unauthorized access.
The service and production shafts have been sealed at the sub-collars with poured-in-place, three-foot-thick concrete slabs. The service shaft will be backfilled with earth on top of the concrete slab. The production shaft headframe doors will be securely locked and the shaft preserved for future use.
All portals for conveyor and pipe tunnels throughout the property will be closed with concrete block stopings placed inside of the portals. The portals outside of the stopings will then be filled with earth graded to conform with the adjacent reclaimed slopes and revegetated. The portals to be closed in this manner include the conveyor portals at the production shaft, conveyor portals above and below the crusher building; conveyor portal above the mill building; pipeline tunnel below the mill building; pipeline tunnel below the concentrate thickener, and pipeline tunnels below the tailings thickeners.
November 1, 1988
"Significant progress has been made, particularly in the upper reaches of the canyon and on the upper pad where the main office, shop and warehouse buildings were located. All these structures have been removed and regrading work was being conducted. Most of the structures and concrete foundations, which remained from Anaconda Minerals Company's previous mining operation, have now been knocked down and buried as part of the reclamation process."
(Documents on file with Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, Acct #M0450004, Site Inspection dated November 1, 1988)
Spring 1989
After all of the structures, foundations, and pads had been removed by late 1988, the final regrading, revegetation, and improved drainage was completed in spring 1989.
(Documents on file with Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining, Acct #M0450004, Annual report dated February 2, 1990)
Anaconda's reclamation plan for the Pine Canyon area was approved in 1980. After the mud slide and formal closure of the mine and mill in 1984, Arco (as successor to Anaconda) completed its reclamation of the area, as put forth in the 1980 reclamation plan.
After the sale to Kennecott in 1985, Kennecott (as successor to Arco) remains as the responsible party for the reclamation and monitoring of vegetation, surface runoff and groundwater. Kennecott retains ownership of the property down to the mouth of Pine Canyon, where a gate has been installed across the access road.
At the time of the sale in 1985, although Anaconda had completed the demolition of the mill and flotation buildings, and conveyors in Pine Canyon, as well as the regrading, revegetation and reclamation of the Pine Canyon area, the shaft and warehouse buildings, foundations and pads remained on the upper parts of Pine Canyon. After the sale, Kennecott demolished the structures, and made the area safe, then completed the needed regrading and revegetation of the area. All that remains is the Pine Canyon tunnel, the production shaft headframe and the necessary environmental monitoring equipment.
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