Robinson Mine, Nevada

The area around Ruth has been mined since 1868, when an early prospector named Thomas Robinson, found gold. The main mine, which still bears his name, evolved into a massive underground operation, run by Kennecott Copper, which became an open pit around 1950. Ore was hauled by rail 13 miles away to the smelter at McGill. Kennecott idled the mine, also known as the Liberty Pit, and closed the smelter in the early 1980s. The mine was bought and reopened by BHP in the 1990s, though by then the railway and the smelter at McGill were gone. Copper from this mine is now processed in an in-pit refinery to around 70% ore, then is trucked on the highways by a continuous convoy of oversized dumptrucks running 24/7/365, 130 miles to Wendover, where it is placed onto rail cars, and taken to Vancouver, Washington, then across the Pacific by ship to China, where it is further refined into copper to help wire up that country. The Robinson mine has moved a lot of terrain over the years, and is now a pit around five miles long, with a two-mile wide empoundment dam for the tailings pond.

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