BINGHAM CANYON, Utah – Kennecott Utah Copper evacuated about 100 people working in the Bingham Canyon Mine as a precaution on Wednesday after slight movement was detected near the top of the area where a massive landslide occurred earlier this year, but by Thursday night operations were back to normal.
According to information from Kyle Bennett of Kennecott, the movement was spotted visually and through the use of monitoring equipment.
On Thursday all who were scheduled to work at the mine were there, but some workers were reassigned to other parts of the mine as a precaution. Full operations at the mine resumed Thursday evening.
According to a press release from Kennecott, the movement size was about as wide as a football field and it moved about 5 feet.
Bennett told FOX 13 News over the phone Wednesday that the movement was nothing like the massive slide they experienced earlier this year.
"This was nothing like that," he said. "It was, what has been described to me to be about 400 feet long and it moved a couple hundred feet. So, it was relatively small amount of material. Certainly, nothing like the major slide we had on April 10th."
Bennett said the cause of the movement is unknown, but he said the heavy rainfall in recent days may be a factor.
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