How deep is the Pit in Butte Montana?
1,780 feet deep
The pit is one mile long by half a mile wide, and over 1,780 feet deep, 1,000 of which are filled with acidic water with high concentrations of heavy metals and toxic chemicals, including copper, iron, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid.
How toxic is the Berkeley Pit in Butte Montana?
It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet (270 m) with water that is heavily acidic (2.5 pH level), about the acidity of Coca-Cola, lemon juice, or gastric acid. As a result, the pit is laden with heavy metals and dangerous chemicals that leach from the rock, including copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid.
How deep is the Butte Copper Mine?
1,800-foot deep
Once home to a bustling open-pit mining operation, Berkeley Pit is now a nearly 1,800-foot deep crater filled with various heavy metals and “unique microscopic lifeforms.” The more than 40 billion liquid gallons in this pit include acidic water, copper, iron, arsenic, zinc, sulfuric acid and more.
How toxic is Butte Montana?
In Butte’s peak mining days, many miners would get silicosis or “miners consumption” from inhaling silica particles. Today people can still be affected by exposure to the heavy metals. To much copper, cobalt, and arsenic can cause inflammatory diseases and cardiac functional disorders.
Is copper still mined in Butte MT?
As Butte’s population and economy tanked, the struggle over cleanup began. About 370 people still work pulling copper and the metal molybdenum out of the area’s only remaining active mine, the Continental Pit.
Can you swim in the Berkeley Pit?
The Berkeley Pit Strip Mine in Butte And no, the water is extremely hazardous to your health – so don’t drink or swim in it. The Berkeley Pit has been filling up with water ever since the former owner of it, Arco, stopped pumping out the water.
Is Butte a Superfund site?
In 1983, the Butte Area was declared a Federal Superfund Site. The Superfund designation paved the way for remediation and restoration of the environment throughout western Montana damaged by a century of mining and smelting in Butte and Anaconda, Montana.
Who owns the Butte copper mine?
businessman Dennis Washington
Montana Resources LLP is an American mining company with headquarters in Butte, Montana. The company is owned by businessman Dennis Washington as a unit of The Washington Companies. The company employs about 350 people, and operates the Continental mine, an open pit copper and molybdenum mine at Butte.
Where are gold nuggets in Montana?
Gold panning on Montana’s Rivers will still produce gold nuggets and fine gold….Below are 7 Montana Rivers that are worth checking out.
- Missouri River.
- Big Hole River.
- Boulder River.
- Blackfoot River.
- Yaak River.
- Clark Fork River.
- Bitterroot River.
Why is Butte so valuable?
The Butte mining district encompasses an area of approximately 2 by 4 miles which has produced huge commercial quantities of not only copper (21.5 billion pounds) but also significant amounts silver, gold, manganese, zinc, lead and molybdenum (table 1).
What is the main problem with the Berkeley Pit?
“The water in the pit has elevated concentrations of copper, like you would expect it was a copper mine,” Duiame said. “We have high concentrations of copper, high concentrations of zinc.” Slowly that water has dissolved many of the metals the miners were after, making the pit extremely toxic.
Who owns the mine in Butte Montana?
The company is owned by businessman Dennis Washington as a unit of The Washington Companies. The company employs about 350 people, and operates the Continental mine, an open pit copper and molybdenum mine at Butte. The Continental pit is the only active mining operation at Butte.
Do you need a permit to pan for gold in Montana?
To summarize, panning doesn’t require any permits. Small sluices are allowed, but suction dreding is heavily regulated. A detailed breakdown of Montana’s gold mining laws can be found on the USDA’s official PDF guide for prospecting.
Can you swim in Berkeley Pit?
Where is the most gold found in Montana?
Most gold in Montana has been found in the western part of the state near the border of Idaho. This part is filled with difficult terrain of rugged mountains along the Continental Divide; almost all the remaining parts of the state are flat land areas.