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Mines/United States

Butte copper district

Butte copper district, United States. Producing, underground, mining copper.

Why Butte copper district is famous

MBMG says underground mining at Butte ceased in 1975 after over 150 years of hard-rock mining, milling and smelting. More than 100 vertical shafts served the workings and many exceeded 1 km in depth. The Continental Pit has been worked for low-grade copper and molybdenum since early 1986. Closure year is for underground mining only; deepest_m is the "exceeded 1 km" statement rounded to 1000.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1917Granite Mountain shaft fire at Butte3
  2. 25 March 2002Berkeley Pit cleanup settlement4

Butte copper district today

Where copper is mined todayMining in United States

Where next

People

Founded byMarcus DalyA Walker Brothers foreman turned copper king.5

Mines

HereBerkeley PitThe pit mined the upper and central Butte ore body between 1955 and 1982.1

Events

Led toGranite Mountain shaft fire at ButteRead what happened near Butte copper district: Granite Mountain shaft fire at Butte.1Led toBerkeley Pit cleanup settlementRead what happened near Butte copper district: Berkeley Pit cleanup settlement.1

Places

Located inButteButte copper district sits at Butte.1

Sources

  1. The Berkeley Pit and surrounding mine waters of Butte (Gammons and Duaime, 2020), MBMG Special Publication 122 Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology
  2. Wikidata item Q137858537 (Butte (copper mine)) Wikidata (CC0)
  3. Fact Sheet 95-8: Historical Data on Mine Disasters in the United States US Mine Safety and Health Administration
  4. US and Montana reach agreement with mining companies to clean up Berkeley Pit (25 Mar 2002) US Environmental Protection Agency
  5. Marcus Daly family papers, 1883-1996 (Mss 619), Historical Note Archives West (Orbis Cascade Alliance); University of Montana Archives and Special Collections

Pictures on this page: MarcusDaly.jpg, not recorded on the file page (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.