MISSOULA — Legislators are asking for federal funding to mine rare earth metals and critical elements in Montana, but some want to limit the funding to specific types of projects.
On Tuesday, the interim Environmental Quality Council (EQC) met online to approve a letter asking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to include additional money in the Department of Defense budget for the Montana Mining Association’s Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Extraction Demonstration project.
The funding would be allocated to the Army Research, Development, Test and Evaluation account. Legislative aide Jason Mohr said the letter would also be sent to Montana’s Congressional delegation, the National Energy Dominance Council and the U.S. Army.
The EQC voted to draft the letter in October after a presentation from Matt Vincent, Montana Mining Association executive director, and John Metesh, Critical Minerals Initiative executive director. The two men highlighted the opportunities for rare-earth and critical minerals provided by Montana’s legacy mines and their waste.
“There’s billions of gallons of metals lying in the water in the Berkeley Pit and hundreds of millions of tons of smelter waste (near Anaconda) all bearing appreciable levels of metals with many of those being critical in those two sites,” Vincent said during the October meeting.
Mohr said the requested federal funding would go toward extraction projects in five existing mines or waste sites: the Berkeley Pit, the Anaconda smelter tailings and the Antonioli, Black Butte and Sibanye-Stillwater mines. But to keep the letter succinct, Mohr said he hadn’t included the specific sites in the letter.
But leaving the sites out of the letter caused some to suspect alternative motives. During public comment, Vincent clarified for the committee that the only sites to be funded are mines that are already operating or those that have closed.
“I was informed that there might have been some misunderstanding that this letter had something to do with projects that we have not discussed,” Vincent said. “The misunderstanding might be in reference to an early-stage exploration project, the Sheep Creek project in the Bitterroot. That is not included in any way, shape or form in this letter.”
Watch related coverage: Sheep Creek mine public meeting draws comments, concerns in Hamilton
Three other commenters all emphasized their opposition to the Sheep Creek exploration and expressed relief that the letter was supporting only legacy sites.
“It might be useful to change a little bit of the language in the letter. Because when you list out these minerals, it’s quite easy to leap to conclusions about what sorts of projects you might be pointing toward. The Sheep Creek project seems almost referenced there by inference,” said Ben Catton of the Montana Environmental Information Center. “The letter could be drafted in a way that is more specific.”
Rep. Joshua Seckinger, D-Bozeman, suggested that the letter list the five intended projects so there’d be no misunderstanding. Seckinger said he’d previously proposed that change to Vincent but got nowhere.
A few of the Republican committee members, including committee chair Rep. Paul Fielder, said they didn’t want to put limits on the projects that could receive the funding. But a few Democrats said they wouldn’t support a letter without the mine sites listed. Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Bozeman, said the letter would carry more weight if it had unanimous support.
Sen. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, said he’d attended the Ravalli County commission meeting in Hamilton on the Sheep Creek rare-earth minerals exploration and the public comments were resoundingly against allowing mining in the headwaters of the Bitterroot River. Curdy urged the committee to consider Seckinger’s suggestion, because it’s important that there be no confusion about what kind of mining the EQC is supporting.
After listening to around 100 of the more than 500 attendees, the Ravalli County Commissioners voted unanimously on Monday to send a letter to the Trump administration asking that the Sheep Creek mine not be added to the federal FAST-41 list. The FAST Act was originally passed in 2015 to streamline the approval of transportation projects. In April, the Trump administration started using the Act to fast-track critical mineral production by limiting environmental review and reducing permitting requirements as part of his American Energy Dominance program.
Vincent told the committee he could agree to listing the five sites in the letter if he could add the phrase “and future legacy sites.”
“We’re trying to answer the call for increased domestic critical minerals production in acknowledgment of how long the permitting takes and how many extra steps there are in assuring you do things right on an undeveloped site. The only way for us to meet these critical needs right now is to focus on legacy sites and sites that already have permits. We can’t ask for the moon in one year’s funding request,” Vincent said. “The first phase of priority projects are those five that were included in what we submitted to the federal government.”
The committee voted 14-1 to send the letter with a sentence that listed the five sites and “future legacy sites.” The committee had some confusion on the vote because some thought there would first be a vote on the motion to change the letter and then a vote on sending the letter. Rep. Tom France, D-Missoula, cast the one “No” vote because he wanted the committee to approve any additional sites beyond the first five to be funded.
Montana can also turn to Colstrip for rare earth elements rather than relying on new mines. In a 2024 paper, geoscientists at the University of Texas at Austin calculated that the waste ash from coal burnt in power plants may contain as much as $165 billion worth of rare earth elements – and up to $97 billion may be feasibly extractable.
According to the Montana Mining Association, Montana has 62 active exploration permits for critical minerals. Silver and copper weren’t originally defined as critical elements, but that’s recently changed.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.
