Copper Mine

I should mention that the morning we left Ely had become stormy, but we still swung by the operating copper mine west of town--the mine is huge, and these monstrous loaders sidecast the mining tailings over the side of an enormous pile of debris.  The colors of the various sidecasting rivulets (which avalanche all the way to the bottom after being sidecast) are remarkable:

 The size of the loaders make sawmill Laterno's look small.  These gigantic haulers take the material that is no longer needed and haul it up steep earthen roads to the top of the earthen pile to release over the side.  The picture below is the open pit from which the soil is removed.