Berkeley Pit

Mm.

The, the Berkeley Pit is now this toxic waste site.

So I actually start the book, the first chapter, in Butte and talk about the legacy of this, this leftover, you know, relic of capitalism's past that's still plaguing Montana today, and connecting that to what's happening all over now, uh, for critical minerals all over the world.

Um, but here in the United States right now, we're opening up Oak Flat, which is outside of Phoenix.

But then, as always, came the bust

In 1982, about 300 jobs were eliminated when Anaconda shut down its mining operation in the cavernous Berkeley Pit

The mining companies had exhausted the mineral-rich deposits deep under Butte, so they turned to massive open-pit digs, which is essentially a method of excavating close-to-the-surface ore that is usually of lesser quality.

It's also a great way to create massive open-air toxic sludge pits.

Yeah.

You know, I open up the first chapter after the prologue in Butte, Montana, where this huge pit called the Berkeley Pit is filled with this toxic waste that has killed birds, and it's a Superfund site, and people in Butte have higher levels of cancer than other, higher rates of cancer than other parts of the state.

I mean, it's, it's a toxic zone.

Um, and that, that open pit mine once produced copper.

Yeah.

Being in Montana, all we have here is the Berkeley pit, which is a giant lake of acid.

That is true.

That is not much