Interest abounds in Southwest Montana for the prospects of mine silver and zinc, according to The Montana Standard. Plans that first were publicized about 12 months ago remain in development yet they have been reduced in size.
General manager Robin McCulloch with Butte Silver Mines told city officials in Butte earlier this summer that the project will create as many 230 jobs. Of those opportunities, 60 are forecast for miners and 20 are for draft miners. Butte Silver Mines is an arm of International Silver Inc., which is crafting the underground mining project.
The company still plans to conduct underground mining among the 1,000-acre parcel of land it purchased, which ranges from Big Butte to Rocker. But the plan has migrated eastward and the newly established points of reference range from Big Butte to the Badger mine and between the mine in Mountain Com and beyond Walkerville.
Already the owner of rights to the minerals in the ground of the land owned by the county, the geology services firm is working toward the acquisition of particular deed restrictions for mining sites it is eyeing. Mining operations will not spur damages or disturbances to the land in point, the general manager said.
But Butte’s mining lore is not necessarily only a modern-day occurrence.
Underground mining methods of yesteryear were exposed in Butte last month in the aftermath of a deluge of rain, NBC Montana reports.
The site from which miners draw minerals from the ground was exposed in a backyard in Butte after heavy rains as the month began. Reclamation manager Tom Malloy with Butte-Silver Bow said the geological traits are remnants of long mining history in the region.
“A lot of the shafts and the old working were bulkheaded with wooden bulkheads, and after 100 years they freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw,” the reclamation manager told the news source.
Latest posts by GEOVIA (see all)
- Join the GEOVIA User community - July 13, 2021
- GEMS Software Update - June 21, 2021
- Reducing Impacts on Water - May 25, 2021
