The World's Biggest Manmade Hole

The Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah is the biggest hole that humans have ever dug. Copper was discovered in the area in 1848, and they've been digging it out ever since. An open-pit mine proved to be the easiest way to extract the massive seam of low-grade porphyry copper ore, which also yields some gold, silver, lead, molybdenum, platinum, and palladium. The key to reaching it was explosives. What could possibly go wrong? 

Let's count: the danger of the explosives, the sheer work put into the project, the extra work to extract copper and other metals from the 400,000 tons of material removed every day, toxic chemicals exposed (it's a Superfund site), displaced residents, contaminated groundwater, the threat of flooding, and the danger of collapse. There's probably more, but the mine is quite profitable, even after all this time, so they'll keep digging the world's biggest hole even bigger. The video is only 5:37; the rest is an ad.