Item Detail
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27481
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0
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0
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English
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History and Production of the West Mountain (Bingham) Mining District, Utah
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Geology and Ore Deposits of the Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountains, Utah
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Society of Economic Geologists
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189-217
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Erastus Bingham discovered precious metals in the Oquirrh Mountains in 1848. Brigham Young advised his followers to focus on farming, and a copper mine in the region was completed in 1864. Mining in the area was influenced by the arrival of the railroad in 1871 which connected the mine at Bingham Canyon to Salt Lake City. More innovations expanded the mining industry at the turn of the century, and multiple companies tried to develop disseminated copper ore in Bingham Canyon. Demand for copper slipped during the Great Depression, and increased during World War II. However, the mining industry declined during the environmental movement of the late 1960s, and some of the mines in Bingham Canyon were closed. The Bingham mining industry gradually improved its capital investment as it modernized in the 1980s and early 1990s.