1 / 11

Berkeley Pit

Berkeley Pit. The Deadly Mine of Butte, Montana. Butte, Montana. The Pit. County Seat of Silver Bow County, Montana One of the largest and most notorious copper boomtowns. The advent of electricity was the reason Butte was hit so hard for the supply of copper. City attracted many workers.

nalanie-kyle
Download Presentation

Berkeley Pit

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Berkeley Pit The Deadly Mine of Butte, Montana

  2. Butte, Montana The Pit • County Seat of Silver Bow County, Montana • One of the largest and most notorious copper boomtowns. • The advent of electricity was the reason Butte was hit so hard for the supply of copper. • City attracted many workers. The Town

  3. Berkeley Pit…the beginning • Began in July, 1955 • Located on a prominent vein extending from the main Anaconda vein system. • Open-pit mining was more economical and less dangerous. • Low-grade ore could be recovered with simple tools.

  4. Beginning…continued • Within 1st year of operation, pit extracted more than 17,000 tons of ore/day. • About 127 tons of copper was produced from the ore. • 1 billion tons of material was mined from the pit.

  5. Taking Over the Land Meaderville McQueen • Two communities and much of Butte’s crowded east side was purchased for mining. • Two Cities: • Meaderville • McQueen

  6. The Pit • Mile and a half wide • 1780 feet deep • Contains 900 feet of water that is HIGHLY acidic • Aquifers filled the pit, allowing pyrite and sulphide minerals in the ore and rock walls to decay, releasing acid. • Has many dangerous chemicals • Arsenic • Cadmium • Zinc • Sulfur Acid Arsenic stained hands

  7. Hundreds Die

  8. Hundreds Die • In 1995, a large flock of snow geese, landed on the water and perished. • 342 carcasses were recovered. • ARCO, custodians of the pit, denied allegations that the toxic water caused the death of the geese. • Thought the cause of death was acute aspergillosis • Colorado State University tested the corpses and came up with this theory. • State of Montana disputed the results, as in their own labs the cause was different. The Geese

  9. The Fog • Residents were concerned the fog that was given off by the pit was a health hazard. • Most recent development in the “clean-up” process was a treatment plant on Horseshoe Bend. • Facility intended to treat and divert water coming from the Horseshow Bend Flow. • Would treat water in the Berkeley Pit in 2018, or whenever the critical water level point.

  10. Other Life • New fungal and bacterial species have been found to be able to adapt to the harsh environment of the pit. • Have been able to evolve because of intense competition for the limited resources in the pond. • Natural products have been isolated from these organisms and show signs of the ability to cure cancer.

  11. The End of the Hazard • Pit was closed in 1982, under the direction of Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). • Water pumps at the bottom of the pit were removed. • In 1990, plans were devised for solving the underwater ground problem. • Berkeley Pit has now become one of the largest sights for the Superfund sites.

More Related