Rio Tinto spending millions on cleanup

Rio Tinto spent $3.2 million last year on reclaiming and restoring sites at its Bingham Canyon Mine, including seeding 124 acres and moving mounds upon of mounds of waste rocks churned up in the mining process.

An annual report detailing reclamation activities at Bingham Canyon Mine was presented Wednesday to members of the Utah Board of Oil, Gas and Mining, part of a contractual requirement the corporation has with the state.

Among the work accomplished last year was the demolition of the Bonneville Crusher and the Magna Concentrator and subsequent revegetation, said Glenn Eurick, Rio Tinto's senior engineer for health, safety and environment.

Another component at the mine — the precipitation plant — was demolished, with the soil regraded and revegetated afterward.

The pricetag also includes a variety of soil characteristic tests and other studies that aim to "reclaim" as much of the active mine as possible.

This year the company, which owns Kennecott, is overseeing the regrading and seeding of multiple sections within the mining areas as part of a years-long cleanup process costing millions.

The cleanup costs released Wednesday do not include expenditures for groundwater contamination and other areas demanding attention.

Overall, about $400 million has been spent on cleaning up mining waste that pre-dates Kennecott's involvement in mining in the Oquirrhs in the early 1900s. More than 25 million tons of mining waste have been removed from the surface of the South Zone, which at one point was on the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed list as a Superfund site.

The report detailed that a $15 million surety was posted with the EPA last year to guarantee groundwater cleanup will be completed, although it is expected to last several decades.

Jim Springer, a spokesman with the state Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, said a lot of the cleanup undertaken by Rio Tinto is in areas that predate mining laws that require reclamation.

"From the sense of why this is important — it is important to note that there is no requirement for them to do this in these areas, and they are not choosing to walk away," Springer said. "They are not going to leave a big mess for the citizens of Utah to deal with later."

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