HELENA — Montana environmental regulators are seeking public comment on a company’s proposal to expand a storage facility for mining waste above the city of Butte.
Montana Resources wants to raise the height of its Yankee Doodle tailings pond — a repository for waste rock from the company’s open-pit Continental mine.
The copper and molybdenum mine produces about 50,000 tons of waste rock daily, causing the tailings pond to rise.
The proposed expansion would increase the height of the embankment that contains the pond by at least 45 feet, over an area of several hundred acres.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality is hosting a meeting in Butte on Oct. 4 to discuss the proposal and take public testimony.