Mining Again in a Montana Town That's Fallen on Hard Times

New York Times ^ | November 8, 2003 | JIM ROBBINS

[RightWingAtheist]

I say we convert all the unused mines into neutrino observatories.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Logging - Sierra Club style: Explore, enjoy, protect the planet

Mining - Sierra Club style: Explore, enjoy protect the planet

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Creative!

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

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[Consort]

[ASOC]

Thanks for posting
I lived in Butte many moons ago (early 70s) when the town was still alive - even saw Bobby K. Lots of fun things to do - but I'll have to admit all involved drinking or watching others drink.

The area is lovely, the people friendly and as for the giant open pit - maybe Calif will pay to haul thier trash up there - fill the pit and bring in some recycle business/jobs.....

[wideminded]

I say we convert all the unused mines into neutrino observatories.

A few months ago I went on a tour of the Soudan Mine in Minnesota. They have a neutrino detector there but the amazing thing is that the neutrinos they are detecting are being generated at Fermilab and are sent to Soudan through over 400 miles of solid earth. Another interesting thing about the mine is that although mining there was terminated in the mid-1960's the mine is still full of incredibly rich iron ore.

[FormerlyAnotherLurker]

Montana Power's failure was the trigger/cause for a lot of problems.
IMHO the local people got screwed royally.
Some background info;

Montana Resources says it will reopen idled mine - FreeRepublic thread

As Power Prices Surge, Montana, Too, Asks Why - FreeRepublic 2001

Who Killed Montana Power? - 60 Minutes

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Mines, mansions and museums

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Berkeley Pit Entrance located off Continental Drive. Once the largest truck-operated open pit copper mine in the U.S. Open during daylight hours, March - November. Free Admission. 1.800.735.6814

[eeman]

The picture looks like it was taken from the visitor's stand near the south rim of the pit. No picture however, can do justice to wierd, eerie surreal color of the water in the pit

[RightWingAtheist]

I just read about that; there was a front-page feature article on it in one of the local "alternative" newspapers. Last year, the National Post had as a front page photo a picture of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. It was this incredible, huge spherical silver thing.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It certainly is BIG. We're Americans, certainly someone can develop this into a money-making proposition.

[demsux]

Great post...

My family came from "mining country", lead not copper, but I've wondered about buying property in the area for investment purposes.

It's farming or nothing there right now...and the "rocky ground" sells alot cheaper.

Thanks for the post.

[eeman]

Actually the pit has served some purpose since they turned off the pumps 20+ yrs ago. The pit acts like a big sinkhole so that all the toxic metals (from 100 yrs of mine tailings) flow into the pit rather than the water table for Butte. Eventually, however they will have to start pumping the water out, since the water level will rise high enough to seep into the water table. They mave already started that.

[eeman]

Oops, time for bed: "mave"= may have

[wideminded]

BTW the Soudan Mine is underground, not an open pit mine. The tour takes you 2341 feet underground in an elevator that appears to be held by a single cable and is driven by a machine built in 1925. (The cable is fairly new.) There are two tours for the public, one that describes iron mining and one that visits the physics experiments. Sometimes there are former miners hanging around who are interesting to talk to. The development of large open-pit taconite mines destroyed the cost-effectiveness of Soudan despite the fact that it's ore contains around 4 times the density of iron compared with taconite. Some physicists are now lobbying to greatly deepen the mine.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

(The cable is fairly new.)

LOL - I'm glad to hear that!