Billion Dollar Mega Mine

It’s 200 pounds of every Tesla, six percent of every iPhone, and 9,000 pounds of every 747. Copper is the ‘it’ metal of the digital age, and on Billion Dollar Mega Mine we reveal the jaw-dropping industrial complex that feeds our insatiable demand.

Featuring unprecedented access, this one-hour mega-engineering documentary explores two open-pit mines in Kazakhstan where, every year, 3,000 miners transform 55 million tons of ore into 250 kilotons of pure copper—worth nearly one billion dollars.

The larger-than-life process begins with a bang as liquid explosives lift the earth 20 feet in the air, leaving a pulverized bed of ore that’s first shovelled, crushed, and blended. And then aerated, smelted, and superheated to produce pure molten copper.

But the spectacular story is about more than just machines and processing. These massive mines are living, breathing cities, powered by an army of workers from all over the world. It’s a well-oiled machine where the stakes are high, and where even a momentary snag can cost millions of dollars.