THE LANDSCAPE OF COPPER
The
Landscape of Copper is a layer of land use that runs throughout
the United States (and the rest of the world), emerging in places
where the mineral is extracted, processed, and used. This industry
forms some of the most dramatic "anthropogenic" landscapes
on earth, and is therefore a special focus area for the CLUI,
which has been cataloguing copper-related sites in its database
and photographic archives since the inception of the organization.
Recently, two public programs focussed on the Landscape of Copper,
in the form of an exhibit at the Center’s Los Angeles exhibition
hall, and presentations by two individuals who, unknown to each
other, have been working independently on sites on separate
ends of the industry: at the source, and at the finishing end
of copper production
Copper was the first metal
to be used by humans, as much as 10,000 years ago. Though prized
for its properties (and in associated alloys such as bronze),
it wasn't until the industrial age that the landscape itself
began to be significantly transformed by this metal. In the
1870Ùs, copper became the metal of choice for the emerging electrical
and telegraph cable industries, which became the largest market
for copper.
The 1960's were the peak of copper production
in the United States, a time when the US generated (and consumed)
more copper than anyone else. Huge pits, like Utah's Bingham
mine, formed quickly throughout the west, aided by the invention
of giant haul trucks in the 1950's that move the overburden
and the ore of the generally low grade deposits much more quickly.
Smelters created factory towns in remote corners of many western
states. Processing and finishing plants were built closer to
population centers in the West and back east.
After the 1960's, production had globalized.
American copper companies had spread their operations to other
countries, especially South America. The Bingham Pit was no
longer the "largest open pit copper mine in the world," instead
it was an American-owned mine in Chile (that is now controlled
by the Chilean government), a country that now produces nearly
a quarter of the worldÙs copper. So much copper has been produced
in the world that the existing copper that is reused and recycled,
as industrial applications change, accounts for more of the
raw stock than what is generated out of all the worldÙs mines
put together.
The industry remains strong in the US, the world's
second largest producer (around 18% of world production). Though
some big pits are idle (like Ruth, Nevada and Bisbee, Arizona),
many are still being worked. And though some of the massive
refining and finishing plants are gone, some of the largest
ones are still being upgraded and modernized.
The Landscape of
Copper: Curtis Cravens, Laurel Hill Works
The Landscape of Copper: Todd Trigsted,
Views from the Pit
