mining

I remember when I got to attend a press conference and chat with Elon Musk in Butte, Montana back in 2013. This was the line that stood out to me after he was asked about rare earth elements and developing those resources here in America instead of China.

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.

The tallest brick structure in the world was built over 100 years ago in Montana.

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".

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.

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.

Filmed in the Tobacco Root mountains of Southwestern Montana, the new series debuted this week on the Fox Business channel.