Berkeley Pit open-pit mine
— — a man-made lake the colour of rust and copper.
Not only on a wall.
“A former open-pit copper mine on the east side of Butte, worked by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company from 1955 until 1982. When the pumps were shut off the pit filled with groundwater that turned acidic as it moved through the exposed rock, and the result is a lake more than 900 feet deep, coloured a deep rust and copper. The pit is part of one of the largest Superfund sites in the United States. A public viewing stand operates seasonally above the rim. It is not beautiful in the ordinary way; it is the kind of place that asks to be looked at carefully. — from the studio
Berkeley Pit open-pit mine, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Berkeley Pit is a former open-pit copper mine on the east edge of Butte, Montana, operated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company from 1955 until its closure in 1982. The pit measures roughly one mile long by half a mile wide and reaches about 1,780 feet below the original ground surface. Groundwater began flooding the workings when pumps were turned off in 1982. The pit and the broader Butte mining district form part of the Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund site, one of the largest in the United States, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The pit lake holds more than 40 billion gallons of water with a pH near 2.5, comparable to vinegar, and high concentrations of dissolved copper, iron, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc. The colour, a deep rust and copper, comes from those metal salts. Atlantic Richfield and Montana Resources operate a treatment plant under EPA oversight to manage rising water levels and prevent the lake from reaching the critical groundwater elevation. Researchers from Montana Tech, in Butte, have isolated novel acidophilic microorganisms from the water that have drawn interest from pharmaceutical screening.
A public viewing stand operates above the pit's rim, off Continental Drive on the east side of Butte. The platform is open seasonally, typically March through November, with a small admission fee that funds the site. Interpretive panels cover the mine's history and the ongoing Superfund work. The viewing stand is operated by the Butte Chamber of Commerce. The Anselmo Mine Yard, the World Museum of Mining, and other sites of the Butte National Historic Landmark District lie within a short drive and together give the fuller context of the city's copper history.