The truth about Berkeley, a huge poison hole in the United States

The Berkeley Hole is an abandoned open-cast copper mine located in Butte, Montana, USA, 1 mile long (1 mile = 1.6 km), 1/2 mile wide and 1/3 mile deep.

At the time of golden age, Berkeley was once the sixth largest copper reserve in the world. For 27 years, the mine has provided about 320 million tons of ore 'enough to cover a 10cm copper layer on a four-lane highway from Butte to Salt Lake City and more than 30 miles away. ' Strong growth here has helped Butte achieve the title of 'the richest hill in the world'.

Berkeley poison hole from above

Currently, this abandoned copper mine has been filled by nearly 30 billion gallons, equivalent to more than 110 million cubic meters of highly acidic water containing toxic substances such as arsenic, cadmium, zinc and sulfuric acid, threatening the environment and Water supply of nearby area.

The rich copper mine in Butte has been popular since the early 1870s, although development has been delayed due to difficulty in transporting ore to the kilns. Lack of necessary rail lines and copper factories and ore in Butte were sent to Swansea, Wales for processing. At the end of 1880, the newly completed Butte railway line with Union Pacific in Ogden, Utah. At the time when the world invented the power source, Butte had all the infrastructure components needed to meet the need to develop the amount of copper needed to form the electricity grid for cities.

From 1892 until 1903, the Anaconda mines were the world's largest copper-producing mine, accounting for 20% of total US copper production. For nearly 70 years, copper ore mining has been done by dropping axes into the ground or digging tunnels in the hills. When copper prices skyrocketed, Butte needed more efficient extraction techniques, and in 1955, Hole Berkeley area adopted copper ore mining in the form of open mines.

In the first year of operation, Berkeley hole extracted 17,000 tons of ore per day at 0.75% copper. This means that with about 1 billion tons of material exploited from the Berkeley Pit, copper accounts for one third. Other metals such as silver and gold are also extracted from here. But then, the continuous fall in copper prices led to Berkeley having to shut down operations in 1982.

More and more people come to Berkeley poison pit to learn and explore

When mining ore in Butte, people use pumps to remove surface water as well as groundwater in the mine. When the mining process and pumping water stopped, the Berkeley pit began flooding at about 0.3 meters per month. And until today, this flooded area is about 270 meters deep.

This area has posed a serious environmental problem because water with dissolved oxygen allows minerals such as pyrite and sulfide in the ore rock to be available here to decompose and release acid. It is estimated that by the year 2020, when the water level reaches the level of the natural underground water level, the water in the pit will reverse the flow and enter the groundwater flows in the surrounding area polluting the watershed of the river. Clark Fork. The true picture of this disaster occurred in 1955, when a flock of snow geese landed in Berkeley Hole and at least 342 of them were killed by the poison in the water here.

. and become one of the tourist attractions

But also in 1955, a chemist studying the water components of the poison hole discovered a powerful single-celled algae called Euglena mutabilis thriving in the toxic waste environment of Berkeley Pit. . Over the next few years, more than 40 different species of organisms were discovered in this area. The fierce struggle to get a small source of life has made the species here produce highly toxic substances that improve survival. Some compounds extracted from these organisms have been shown to be able to fight cancer cells.

Currently, the Berkeley poison pit is a tourist attraction. There is a small museum, souvenir shop and water view area.