History of Power at Magna

The expansion of electrical service was a critically important technological step in Utah and mining in the Oquirrhs. During the late nineteenth century, most of Utah’s power came from small, locally owned hydro-electric plants. By the 1890s, however, this began to change as power companies started to consolidate into larger businesses that could supply more power. While electricity was important for lights and heat, it was also vital in copper production. Electricity was needed in every step of the copper process; it was in the lights, on the rails, and in the refinery. In 1898, power to the Bingham Mine was supplied by the Salt Lake Water and Electric Company. Using hydro-electric power meant that the power plant needed to be located on a water source. The Jordan River, which traverses the Salt Lake Valley, was just the place for expanding electrical needs. However, the need for self-supplied electricity was such that, by 1906, the Utah Copper Company (UCC) began plans for a new Magna steam electric generating plant to power the mine and the new Magna Mill. 

Figure 1. Jordan Electric Plant, The Salt Lake Herald, (Salt Lake City) November 29, 1898.

Construction on the steam-powered electric generating plant started below the Magna complex in 1906. The new plant generated 8.5 megawatts (MW) and supplied electric power to the Magna Mill and the Bingham Mine. Following the merger with Boston Consolidated Mining Company in 1910 and an increase in copper production, UCC “required much more power than could be economically generated by the original power plant; consequently, this plant was abandoned in favor of purchased hydro-electric power” which was purchased from the Telluride Power Company (Strack 2021).

Following this shift to hydro-electric power sources, UCC converted its mills and the mine from steam power to electric power, but the equipment at the Magna power plant was retained in case of emergency. This occurred at a time when multiple power companies were merging to create larger businesses (McCormick 1994). In September of 1912, it was rumored that UCC merged with Telluride Power Company; however, Daniel C. Jackling, then the president of both companies, denied that the merger had taken place (Ogden Standard-Examiner 1912). Utah Power & Light (UP&L) eventually purchased Telluride Power Company and subsequently took over the contract to provide power to the Magna Mill and the Bingham Mine (Salt Lake Telegram 1912). In November of 1912, UCC announced that it would shut down the Magna power plant. “The contemplated extension of our Magna steam power plant to take care of the growth of our business has not become unnecessary…” (Salt Lake Telegram 1912). By 1927, all electric power used at Bingham was supplied by UP&L (Strack 2021). 

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Figure 3. “Utah Copper Power Will be Furnished by Telluride Co.” Salt Lake Telegram. September 13, 1912.

Figure 4. Utah Copper Co., Old Pumping Plant and Canal by Old Powerhouse, Magna. (Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1920a).

Figure 5. “Utah Copper Co., Gen. View of Proposed Site for Power Plant Looking Down, Magna” (Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1920b). 

The Great Depression hit Utah and the Utah mining industry particularly hard; however, UCC was able to avoid laying off employees for a time. Unfortunately, in 1939, as the Great Depression neared its end, copper production was cut back by 10 percent, requiring UCC to lay off employees at a time when unemployment rates were at an all-time high (Salt Lake Tribune 19 January 1939).

Figure 6. Utah Copper Cuts Output, The Salt Lake Tribune, January 19, 1939.

The United States’ entry into World War II increased the demands for metals, including a rise in the need for copper. Copper was an essential metal, found in virtually everything from automobiles and ammunition to electrical and telephone wiring. Copper is malleable, conducts thermal energy and electricity, and has an ability to withstand water, making it a valuable commodity. Federal, state, and local governments sponsored scrap metal drives and encouraged citizens to reduce and recycle the amounts of metals used (Fishman 2015). Following this rise in demand for copper, the Bingham Mine quickly shifted to almost full production levels. 

Figure 7. Scrap for Victory, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Utah stood at the epicenter of copper mining and production during World War II and the Bingham Mine became the focal point of a booming business, supplying nearly one third of the nation’s copper needs (Hansen 1963). Between 1912 and 1943, all power for the Bingham Mine was purchased from UP&L. The continued increase in power consumption of the mine due to increased copper production, however, soon exceeded the capacity of UP&L. A report by Kennecott Copper Corporation (KCC) to stockholders reported that the demands on the power company “under present emergency conditions become such that a continuation of contractual relations appeared not to be in the best interest of either party” (Salt Lake Tribune 1942). A new power plant was therefore needed. 

Construction of the new power plant was the result of a larger infrastructure project to convert the company to a vertically integrated system. A company with vertical integration has taken ownership over multiple key points in its supply chain. This included three projects: “the construction of a new central steam-electric generating plant, an electrolytic refinery, and replacing the B&G (Bingham and Garfield) railway” (Hawley 2014: 266). Construction on the Utah Power Plant (UPP) started in February 1942 and was completed by 1944. 

KCC spent $8 million on the construction of the steam power plant located near Magna (Salt Lake Tribune 1942). The power plant was anticipated to have a 100,000-kilowatt (kW) capacity (Salt Lake Tribune 1942), and the boilers could use either natural gas or coal (Strack 2021). It was expected that the plant would have three generating units that would be constructed in three phases: the first to be operational in February 1942, the second in April 1942, and the third in July 1943 (Salt Lake Tribune 1942). The construction of the plant, however, suffered from at least a six-month delay as of May 1943 and some of the plans were adjusted due to wartime shortages (Garfield County News 1947). 

UPP continued to grow and expand throughout the Cold War. In 1957, KCC announced an expansion project that would improve expenditures and production (Bingham Bulletin 1958). KCC awarded the contract to the Rust Engineering Company. The work was expected to take 2.5 to 3 years and cost $16 million (Bingham Bulletin 1957). This work included the installation of a “75,000 kW turbine generator, new boiler, cooling towers, electrical switch equipment and a 20-foot concrete and brick extension to the present building” (Bingham Bulletin 1957:1). Installation of the new generator “required one of the largest cribbing operations in local building history” (Magna Times 1959:1). It took 429 pieces of 12 by 12-inch lumber ranging from 4 to 24 feet in length and 875 railroad ties to raise the generator 30 feet to the main floor of the power plant. The project was completed in 1960 at a cost of $16 million (Magna Times 1959).

Figure 8. Central Power Station 75000 KW Addition, 1958. (Courtesy Rio Tinto Kennecott). 

Testing of the new operation began in June 1960 (Strack 2021c). In 1961, an electric tie-in line was completed between UPP and the Garfield smelter (Magna Times 1962). That same year, Kennecott signed a contract with the Fluor Corporation to update the housing on the cooling towers (Bingham Bulletin 1961). This included the main cooling tower, which had 48 cells, and the station service cooling tower, which had 3 cells (Bingham Bulletin 1961). The cooling towers were a critical component of the overall plant as they circulated 100,000 gallons of water a minute (Bingham Bulletin 1961). It was anticipated that the updates to the cooling towers would be completed in early 1962 (Magna Times 1962). 

Figure 9. The 75,000-kW generator (right) being installed at the UPP expansion (Reproduced from the Magna Times 1959).

By the 1980’s, KCC was suffering from financial losses and decided to temporarily shut down the UPP in 1983. To power the entire operation, KCC turned to UP&L for their electric needs, which totaled 135,000 kW of power for two cents per kW hour (Salt Lake Tribune 1983). When KCC announced its plan to suspend operations at the UPP, they also stated that the one hundred employees working at the plant would retain their jobs (Strack 2021). In 1989, Rio Tinto purchased KCC and continued to expand the company. In December 2010, Rio Tinto Kennecott (RTK) proposed to replace three of the four coal-fired boilers (one completed in 1944 and two completed in 1947) at the power plant with a single natural gas-fired turbine and generator. The fourth, and largest, coal-fired boiler (completed in 1960) would remain in use to give the power plant an alternate source of fuel. By 2016, RTK and Rocky Mountain Power reached a power agreement which resulted in three units being shut down; RTK indicated there were no plans to shut off the fourth unit at that time (Strack 2021). In May of 2019, however, RTK shut down the power plant entirely. Rocky Mountain Power was contracted to provide 175 MW of electricity for Kennecott, effectively reducing 3,500 tons of emissions as the company transitioned to solar and wind energy sources.