Molybdenum News Center

Molybdenum Ore Spilled from a Truck, Causing $250,000 Losses

A truck was crashed Wednesday on Highway 43 Friday, causing a loss of $250,000 worth of molybdenum ore. Fish biologist from Fish, Wildlife & Parks was sent to the scene to check whether the environment was polluted and cleanup work was continuing.

About 48,000 pounds of molybdenum ore spilled Wednesday when a truck carrying the load from Montana Resources in Butte crashed at Thompson Corner on its way to Thompson Creek Mine in Idaho. There were no injuries.

Jim Olsen, FWP fish biologist, visited the site Friday afternoon and said the molybdenum that spilled off the truck did not go into the river. The area where the spill occurred is about 10 yards from the river’s edge.

“It’s a long ways from the river. Dust may have gotten into the river,” he said. Olsen said he could not say at this stage with any certainty if there is any potential risk to aquatic life.

The cleanup continued Friday with traffic at that particular spot on Highway 43 routed around the trucks and equipment. A backhoe, a dump truck, and a vacuum truck were on the scene Friday afternoon vacuuming up the spill. Montana Resources, who had already sold the “moly” to Thompson Creek Mine, responded immediately Wednesday with a pumper truck to start vacuuming up the ore.

“They had zero responsibility. So for them (Montana Resources) to step up and do what they did is pretty huge,” said Mark Thompson, president of the George Grant chapter of Trout Unlimited, Friday.

Thompson ventured along the roadway on Highway 43 between Dewey and Wise River Wednesday shortly after the crash occurred. He told The Montana Standard Thursday that when he saw the crash, the moly dust was “all over the road and all over the guardrail” and the truck was “halfway off the edge.”

A barrier called a straw waddle was put in place to prevent any movement of the material into the river should any rain come through before the cleanup is finished. 

The company responsible for the cleanup is Hadding Trucking. But both MR and Thompson Creek Mine have been overseeing the work. 

MR's vice president for environmental affairs, Mark Thompson (a different Mark Thompson from the Trout Unlimited president), said the cleanup will continue all weekend. MR is taking back the spilled moly. The Butte mining company is also taking the dirt, limbs, rocks, and broken guardrail that had moly dust on it.

Both MR and the Department of Environmental Quality called the moly “non-hazardous.” The material does not require a placard on a vehicle when it is trucked, and it can be shipped in bags because it’s not regulated, said Mike McGivern, MR vice president of human resources.

When the accident happened, Montana Disaster and Emergency Services, Beaverhead County Disaster and Emergency Services, the Beaverhead County Sanitarian, and the Montana Department of Transportation all responded to the scene.

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