After nearly two years in the making, my new book, Rise to the Occasion – Lessons from the Manefay Slide is to be released in the middle of January 2017. This book documents the largest mining landslide in history that took place at the Bingham Canyon Mine near Salt Lake City, Utah in April of 2013.

This extraordinary event was named the Manefay Slide and it created a crisis of massive proportion for the mine and its employees. At 144 million tons, the Manefay was not only incredibly large – it was fast. The solid rock literally burst out of the wall and in 90 seconds, tens of millions of tons of material dropped over 2,000 feet into the pit and flowed like water for nearly 1 ½ miles. The energy of this enormous mass, moving an average of 60 miles per hour, was unbelievable. Huge mining equipment and buildings in its path were damaged and destroyed.

However, no lives were lost because we knew it was coming and had time to implement a disaster plan. The real story of the Manefay Slide is told through a firsthand account with detailed descriptions and 160 photos and figures, many of which have never been released before. The book describes the day of the event, how the mine personnel were able to predict and prepare for the slide as well as the heroic efforts to recover from the landslide. Additional information includes how the mine prevented a second landslide that was potentially more devastating than the Manefay, why the Manefay failed and examples of the company’s cultural changes that were made to recover from the event.

This is a story of leadership, innovation, and teamwork. But most of all it is a story of culture change – where a hundred-year-old company transformed almost overnight to increase communications, eliminate bureaucracy, and allow people to rise to the occasion so they could keep everyone safe and ultimately return the mine to full production in an amazingly short period of time.

You are invited to find out more about the Manefay and the lessons learned by visiting my website, risetotheoccasion.net. Here you can find more information about the book, join in on blog to tell your own story and lessons learned or order your own copy of the book.

Contact me through the website or at
brad.ross@risetotheoccasion.net for a discount if pre-ordering before January 12th, 2017.