Total Station Surveying at Bingham Canyon

Through the early 1980s, surveying at Bingham Canyon required a great deal of repetitive and manual work. The advent of total station surveying equipment provided an opportunity to improve the speed and accuracy of surveying work while reducing manpower needs. An evaluation was made of total station systems and their ability to meet the surveying requirements of Bingham Canyon. This culminated in the purchase of a total station system as the mine reopened in 1986. The surveying department at Bingham Canyon during the early 1980s consisted of three, four-man crews using theodolites and self-leveling levels to perform the majority of the field work. Office work involved data reduction and hand plotting. Although hand-held programmable calculators were used, a great deal of time was spent manually transferring field notes to final calculations. After shutting down in early 1985, plans for start-up of mining operations in 1986 included a review of all aspects of the operation for cost and productivity improvement. Applying total station survey capabilities offered the potential to improve surveying accuracy and speed while reducing manpower needs.