In compare to the other tour days, today is the worst, and the story started already in the morning...
In the morning, we prepared to go at 6.15 AM, but there was a problem again with the starter. Yesterday we used another bus because the AC was not functioning properly. Luckily we could at least had a breakfast (scramble egg and sliced ham) at the hotel while waiting. At 8.15 finally we went from Pocatello to Salt Lake City. But only after 45 minutes driving, it had another problem with one of the back tire, so we had to stop again for an hour in a gas station shop. Crazy, they should have had a better maintained bus for this kind of long-trip-tour.
Pocatello was inhabited by indians, the Shoshoni and Bannock peoples for several centuries before the arrival of Europeans into the area in the early 19th century. The name comes from Chief Pocatello, a chief of the Shoshoni who granted the right-of-way for the railroad across the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The discovery of gold in Idaho in 1860 brought the first large wave of U.S. settlers to the region. With 83.000 inhabitants, nowadays it is Idaho's second largest city. [Wikipedia]
Our first stop was Mormon's Temple Square, the center of Mormon organization. We basically just saw a kind of cathedral from outside, and some "sisters" showed us around the visitor center and told us the story about the first priest that translated the book of Mormon. It was not interesting for me, since the explanation was more for a mission purpose and I believe that the Book of Mormon was a fake.
Afterward we went to Bingham Canyon Mine, world's largest open-pit mine. It was so big, that an astrounout could see it from the moon. It is located in southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, in the Oquirrh Mountains. It is owned by Rio Tinto plc through Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation which operates the mine, a concentrator and a smelter. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles (1.2 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres (7.7 km²).
Over its life, Bingham Canyon has proven to be one of the world's most productive mines. As of 2004, ore from the mine has yielded more than 17 million tons (15.4 Mt) of copper, 23 million ounces (652 t) of gold, 190 million ounces (5386 t) of silver, and 850 million pounds (386 kt) of molybdenum. The value of these resources is greater than the Comstock Lode, Klondike, and California gold rush mining regions combined. Cumulatively, Bingham Canyon has produced more copper than any other mine in the world, although mines in Chile, Arizona, and New Mexico now exceed Bingham Canyon's annual production rate.
The infrastructure required for an operation this size is impressive. 450,000 tons (408 kt) of material are removed from the mine daily. Electric shovels can carry up to 56 cubic yards (43 m³) or 98 tons (89 t) of ore in a single scoop. Ore is loaded into a fleet of 64 very large dump trucks which each carry 255 tons (231 t) of ore at a time, at a cost of approximately US$3 million per truck. There is a five mile (8 km) series of conveyors that take ore to the Copperton concentrator and flotation plant. The longest conveyor is 2.5 miles (4 km) long and passes through an existing railroad tunnel inside the mine.[Wikipedia]
Kennecott had a video on the making of copper plates and it was very interesting.
We then continued our bus trip to Las Vegas without AC and it was a quite hot day. Since the temperature outside was approx. 37 degree. Then we stopped at McD somewhere otw. to have dinner and to wait for the replacing bus. At this place I met a big-truck driver (and owner) who let me took a picture inside the truck. He told me, that he and his wife lived most of the time in his truck, which had a cozy bed behind the driving compartment. His wife was also driving the truck. I enjoyed the short conversation with him, and time passed by as we finally got the new bus at 8 PM, horrahhh...
That night I stayed at Stratosphere hotel, which had the highest tower in Vegas. I went up to the 350 m tower, where I could see the view of Vegas at 1 AM. However, in my own opinion, Paris Tower's view was better.
No comments:
Post a Comment