mining

It's time to ramp up rare earth mining in America, especially if you want electric vehicles or so-called green energy. That's what Dr. Courtney Young, a professor of metallurgical and materials engineering at Montana Tech in Butte, argued in a recent guest opinion column.

As Evelyn Pyburn reports in the Big Sky Business Journal Hot Sheet, there's apparently a big opportunity for a rare earth mine in Western Montana being talked about right now.

Montana has every right to be proud of the sapphires that can be found here. Why are these sapphires so special and are they actually rare? Yes, and we learned all the 'dirt' about these incredibly popular gemstones.

Nope, it's not Butte. But we discovered a pile of historical facts that all originated in this other important Montana town. When the town in question was to be platted, it's founder wanted to call it "Copperopolis".

Cool rocks and gemstones have been my jam since I was a little kid. Every family road trip would have me scouring the roadsides for "Rock Shop" signs or anything of the like.

We've all heard the stores about the Gold Rush and how hundreds of thousands moved west to try and prosper. What was Montana's role? Maybe bigger than you think.

The history of Montana is a rich one. Both figuratively and literally. With some colorful characters helping shape the history of the state, one of the most influential was Marcus Daly.

The coal industry was already hurting before the coronavirus, and the pandemic has made things much worse.

What separates the huddled masses yearning to breathe free from the movers and shakers of the world is a vision of how they could improve things.

The Montana Supreme Court has removed a big obstacle for a mining company seeking to explore a silver and copper deposit potentially worth billions.