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Berkeley Copper Pit - In Butte, Montana, the ACM Company is rapidly digging itself a hole which will cop all the glory for size. Open pit mining has replaced drift mining - less labor, more copper. The Butte mines, first staked by Humphreys and Allison in 1864, have produced 7,777,981 tons of copper. They are outproduced by only Bingham, Utah and Morenci, Arizona in the U. S. In 1962 the Berkeley Pit produced 46,686 tons of copper, 9933 ounces of gold, plus lead, silver, zinc. this yield meant that 35,128 tons if gross material were lifted from the pit each working day. |
