(dramatic music) - [Sam] Silver and copper mining near Libby, Montana is a big step closer to restarting.

- Mining's huge for this town.

It'll bring industry back to this town.

- [Sam] Critics say, "Not so fast."

- Some places just aren't acceptable for mining.

And beneath the wilderness area is not a place to build a large mine.

- [Sam] Plus, Montana farmers are reeling with uncertain trade markets and climbing costs.

We talked to some navigating the economic storms ahead.

- And it's really tough to plan and forecast when there's constant change happening with trade issues, or inflation, or inputs, or commodity prices.

- From the campuses of Montana State University Bozeman and the University of Montana Missoula, you're watching "Impact," from Montana PBS Reports.

And those stories are straight ahead.

Stay with us.

- [Announcer] Major funding for "Impact" comes from the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

Funding also comes from viewers like you, who are friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you.

"Impact" is an editorially-independent production of Montana PBS Reports.

Coverage decisions are made by our team of Montana-based journalists.

For feedback, questions, or ideas, email us, impact@montanapbs.org.

- Welcome to "Impact."

I'm Sam Wilson.

The country's largest silver producer has won federal approval to explore vast metal reserves under the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in Northwest Montana.

Montana PBS's Matt Standal was in Libby, meeting with the folks who support the exploration and those who have some deep concerns.

Matt, people who follow Montana's mining industry have probably heard of this project up in Libby.

It's been held up for years.

What's different about this decision from the other fights we've seen in the past?

- A good question, Sam.

Two words, President Trump.

The Trump administration's been putting its political weight behind this exploration project, helping to speed it up through some approval processes with agencies like the Forest Service.

But critics say the process is going too fast, and drilling could damage streams and mountain lakes in the federal wilderness.

High school buddies Chris Marshall and George Williams make this drive all the time, the road up to Swede Mountain Lookout, just far enough to escape for a day in the mountains and some much needed time off.

- Times you just need to get out and clear your head, this is a great place to come.

You know, 20 minutes, you can be up here looking at this.

(machinery rumbling) - [Matt] Chris and George are hard rock miners and started their careers close to home.

- We've known each other for a long time, worked together for a long time.

Probably the funnest work I ever had.

- I was just gonna say that.

(Chris and George laughing) - [Matt] But when Libby's last working mine shut down in 2015, they began a very long commute.

- I fly out to Alaska.

I work for Hecla Greens Creek up in Alaska,.

- 14 on 14 off, but I'm only home for 12 days, two days of travel.

- [Matt] Today, they're among the dozens of Northwest Montana miners who regularly travel to industrial gold mines in Alaska for work.

The two men have wives, children, and grandchildren.

Life would be better, they say, if Libby's mines opened back up.

- My life would change huge.

I'd be home with my wife every day.

We make a sacrifice to stay living here in Libby, 'cause we have the option to move, but we stay here in hopes that the mine here will open up.

We can all come back home and go to work.

- [Matt] Marshall is talking about the old Montanore mine just south of Libby.

Work started here in the 1980s, but the mine never opened up.

Its location directly beneath federally protected wilderness means environmentalists have been fighting this mining project the entire way.

- Some places just aren't acceptable for mining.

And beneath the wilderness area is not a place to build a large mine.

- [Matt] Environmental groups have been filing lawsuits to stop this mine for decades.

- The damage that would be done would be irreversible and it would be long-term.

- [Matt] They say the area's pristine waterways, small population of grizzly bears, and spawning grounds for threatened bull trout are all reasons why mining should not happen here.

- Mining, breaking rock underground is the easiest thing we do.

- [Matt] Mining companies for their part have consistently fought back.

- Protecting the environment around our operations is the toughest thing we do.

And we spend a lot of money and we have great people that are doing it.

- [Matt] Mike Satre is a geologist and mining executive at Hecla, the company that plans to restart the Montanore mine.

- [Mike] The white area is our private lands that we have, so patented ground.

- [Matt] Hecla thinks there might be 183 million ounces of silver and 1.5 billion pounds of copper here.

The value?

More than $16 billion.

(machinery rumbling) But first, miners have to drill and sample to see if all that mineral wealth is really there, which means a smaller exploratory project.

- There's a lot of hope that this will turn into something more, but right now we're looking at a fairly narrow scope.

When we hit its peak, there should be 30 to 35 jobs.

- [Matt] Satre says if it turns into a full scale mine after additional environmental review, that would mean many more jobs, the kind of jobs that have always been important for Libby for better or for worse.

Prospectors found gold in Libby Creek in the 1860s.

And by 1900, miners were digging up a fortune from the nearby mountains.

(chainsaw whirring) Logging came next, and several large sawmills processed millions of board feet of lumber from the Kootenai National Forest.

But mining and logging left a troubling legacy.

Libby's mines became the nation's leading source of vermiculite insulation, later discovered to be contaminated with asbestos.

Thousands of people here developed asbestos-related lung disease, and hundreds died.

Libby's economy crashed in the 1990s when a mix of tragedy, policy, and economic bad luck caused most of the mills and mines to close.

Within a year, more than 800 people were out of work.

But a lot can change over 30 years, including a national shift in power to the Republican Party, whose leaders believe mining is critical to the economy and national security.

- And moments ago, I also signed an executive order to dramatically increase production of critical minerals and rare earths.

It's a big thing in this country.

- In March of 2025, the Trump administration fast-tracked the Libby exploration, adding it to a short list of projects handpicked for streamlined federal review.

The US Forest Service completed its review of the Libby Exploration Project during the 2025 government shutdown.

They issued this finding of no significant impact to the environment.

And legally, that means the project can move forward.

Forest Service officials declined an interview for this story.

They referred many of our questions to an environmental consulting group that did the analysis.

That company hasn't responded to our calls or emails.

- [Receptionist] Thank you for calling Nexus Environmental Consulting.

- [Executive] Good morning, sir.

- Good morning.

Well, first off, thank you very much for the opportunity.

- [Matt] Satre presented Hecla's plans to the Lincoln County Commission in late October, saying there's one very cold, dark, and wet issue standing in the way of exploration.

- We have to again dewater, right?

Before we can do anything, we have to start pumping water.

- [Matt] The Libby exploration is more than 14,000 feet in length, traveling from the headwaters of Libby Creek to a rich pocket of metals deep underneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.

Geologists believe much of the tunnel is now underwater after sitting unused for decades.

That means Hecla needs to pump out all that water before mine workers can repair and extend the tunnel another 4,000 feet.

(water babbling) But it's that process of pumping out water and what it might do to the environment that has critics like Mary Costello of Save Our Cabinets worried.

- I'm thinking it was maybe 1994 or 1995, and I hiked up to Rock Lake, this beautiful wilderness lake, and I saw mining claims.

At the time, I didn't understand how there could be mining claims in a wilderness area.

- [Matt] So Costello did some digging, and she learned that mining claims filed before the 1964 Wilderness Act allow companies to do just that, as long as they don't damage what's on the surface.

She's worried that's exactly what will happen.

- That water that normally feeds lakes like Rock Lake will end up flowing away from Rock Lake.

And over time, this lake could become dewatered.

- [Matt] Costello says she's concerned that drilling underneath the mountains will essentially pull the plug on the area's pristine lakes and streams.

The Forest Service says that outcome is very unlikely and the Libby Exploration would cause no change in groundwater levels.

But Costello says Hecla just can't be trusted.

- The mining company is gonna tell you that everything's gonna be fine, that they've studied everything carefully, that they've put all these mitigation measures in place, nothing bad is ever gonna happen, but the history of mining and the history of the mining company tells a completely different story.

- [Matt] Hecla has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the US and Canada over the last three years, accused of violating both the Clean Water Act and hazardous waste laws.

Hecla has paid those fines and agreed to clean up efforts.

Silver is an interesting metal because it has both industrial- - [Matt] What's more, the company's former CEO was accused of being a "bad actor" by the Bullock administration after failing to clean up mining waste near the Fort Belknap Reservation in the '90s, something Hecla has been trying to move past.

- The allegations were after our former CEO, related to some of his prior activities in Montana.

So this was never a Hecla issue.

This was an individual issue.

And so historically here and in this process, you know, the focus has been on endangered species.

It's been on the grizzly bear and the bull trout.

And then it's been concerns about the water itself.

There is no significant impact from our limited scope of operations and we are able to proceed.

- The environmental assessment doesn't leave me or any objective reader significant confidence this mine's not gonna have dire impacts to the lakes and ecosystems in the Cabinet Mountains.

- [Matt] Shiloh Hernandez is a senior attorney for Earthjustice, a law firm dedicated to protecting the environment.

He says the Forest Service rushed its approval of the Libby exploration and ignored scientists, including a University of Montana professor who raised questions.

- There is, quote, unquote, "large uncertainty" about whether or not this operation will affect waters on the surface in the Cabinet Mountains."

That's technical jargon for there are serious concerns here.

The writing was very clear.

They wanted to move this forward fast.

- [Matt] Hernandez says if the science isn't in agreement and the government moved too fast, Earthjustice could sue the Forest Service and put the project back on hold.

- Mining's huge for this town.

It'll bring industry back to this town.

It'll bring jobs.

- [Matt] Chris Marshall and George Williams say modern miners work to prevent mining waste and environmental disasters because their way of life depends on it.

- Why would you wanna destroy any of this?

I mean, it's beautiful.

It's God's creation.

We love it here.

We wanna keep it this way.

- [Matt] But for Mary Costello, who has fought against this mine for decades, the stakes are just too high, the wilderness too valuable to risk.

- People come here to recreate, to get close to nature, to enjoy the solitude.

They don't come here for industrial mining.

- [Matt] For "Impact," I'm Matt Standal in Libby.

- Before any work gets done on that flooded tunnel, Hecla will need to renew its water discharge permit with the state.

If this exploration is successful, it could still be another decade before they build a larger mine.

Farmers in Montana are used to adapting to unpredictable conditions.

Recent trade tensions have only added to that uncertainty.

Montana PBS's Hannah Kearse visited farmers in Northeast Montana to see how they're planning for the future.

Hannah, how does the global trade war Hannah, how does the global trade war affect folks up in Flaxville?

- So, to start, Montana is a net exporter, so global trade really matters.

And I wanted to speak with pulse crop farmers because it is a quickly growing part of Montana's ag economy and people see a lot of potential in it.

and people see a lot of potential in it.

But the trade war is casting a shadow over that potential and is leaving farmers with a lot of questions about the future.

Jens Winge-Peterson came to Montana in 2004 as an agriculture exchange student from Denmark.

He fell in love with his now wife of 18 years and put roots down on a little over 500 acres in Daniels County.

Now he grows crops on thousands of acres as an American citizen.

- [Jens] I just thought this country over here fit me better, so we made a life.

You make a life where you are.

- [Hannah] Like many dry land farmers in Montana's northeastern corner, he harvested a pulse crop this year.

You probably know pulse crops by their specific names, dry peas, lentils, chickpeas, and dry beans.

Farmers here are putting these dry, edible seeds in rotation with other crops to bolster their bottom line and to boost soil health.

Last year, prices on pulses were good.

But when Winge-Peterson planted green peas and lentils at the beginning of this year, he wasn't sure if those good prices would prevail another harvest.

- Last year we were selling lentils from anywhere 38 to 45.

Some of it even touched 50 cents a pound.

Right now we're down to about half of what it was last year, right?

So that's a pretty gnarly hit on the market in one year.

- In 1998, there were around 11,000 acres in the state.

And today, there are more than 1.5 million acres.

But pulse crops haven't been as much help in 2025.

Prices are down, costs are up, and farmers are feeling the pinch.

- I think it would be very challenging to try and start from the ground up now, simply because of the higher input cost, equipment costs.

Since I got here, land prices has almost tripled, land rent has at least doubled, and our commodity markets has not followed.

- [Hannah] Down the road, third generation farmer Toby Tade is reeling with higher costs too.

And now another expense, tariffs.

- Then we had to go get a windshield (indistinct) for that sprayer back there and got hit with a 30% tariff 'cause the windshield was made in China.

You know, when you look at it like a piece of equipment, it's, yeah, they're not cheap and then you get hit tariffs on some of that stuff.

No one's gonna buy because too much of it is gonna go to tariffs.

- [Hannah] Tractor and combine sales were below average again in 2025.

And as the Trump administration wields tariffs, commodity prices for US crops have fallen in the uncertainty.

Some of the nation's top trading partners retaliated with tariffs on US goods, and many countries have reduced their imports from the US.

And Montana farmers say cuts to food aid programs like USAID have eroded a reliable domestic buyer.

Montana Pulse Crop Committee chairman Paul Kanning, another fourth generation farmer operating outside of Flaxville, says it's making business harder.

- It's frustrating that we don't have trade deals, long-term trade deals.

It's frustrating that things seem to change, you know, quickly and all the time.

All of us, we're business owners.

And every business owner wants to be able to project what's gonna happen, and plan, and forecast.

And it's really tough to plan and forecast when there's constant change happening with trade issues, or inflation, or inputs, or commodity prices.

- [Hannah] Farmers are planting more crops than ever before, but their profit margins are trending down.

- I think that it may be difficult to turn a profit next year on pulse crop.

There's things that can change in the next few months, but it'll be difficult.

The margins aren't what they were a year ago.

But it's not just in pulses, it's that way with oil seeds and cereal grains also.

- [Hannah] Ag markets are naturally volatile.

That's why there's government insurances to help farmers survive when prices drop or something like a hailstorm wipes out production.

But Eric Belasco, a professor of agriculture and economics at Montana State University, says trade war risks don't neatly fit into the traditional revenue protections.

- The timing is a bit different than what most risk management tools are used to hedging against.

- [Hannah] And how do you manage that risk then?

- Yeah, I mean, that's the tough question.

It's not as easy to manage that kind of risk.

And that's why you've seen calls for like disaster aid because it's really a frustration of farmers, where there's all these risk management tools and none of them really quite fit that well.

- [Hannah] That's why on December 8th, President Trump announced a $12 billion aid package for American farmers.

- One more billion dollar figure.

- We did, yeah.

We looked at how they were hurt, to what extent they were hurt.

We did a very, you know, steady progression of charts and we figured out a very exact number, and it was about $12 billion.

- [Hannah] The US Department of Agriculture says most of that money will go toward one time bridge payments to American farmers in response to temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs.

It provides some short-term relief for farmers amid shifting trade policies this year.

The administration attributes these revenue losses to foreign competitors engaging in unfair trade practices that impede exports.

- The tariffs are taking in, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we're giving some up to the farmers because they were mistreated by other countries for, I don't know, maybe right reasons, maybe wrong reasons.

They were trying to show us something and it's really worked out really well.

But because of the tariffs, this is possible.

- [Hannah] But Montana Farmers Union estimates that American farmers are facing more than $40 billion in losses because of tariffs.

Even with aid available for those growing major Montana crops, many farmers say their confidence in the market is wavering, some even raising concerns that political rhetoric may be adding to market volatility.

- We could talk markets all day long and then a tweet could come out and it could change the whole market plan.

It's not supply and demand action, it's just words right now.

My recommendation for you to weather that storm isn't the best recommendation, but start putting steel in the air and start filling it.

Sell what you need to, pay your bills, and just hold onto it as long as you can.

- [Hannah] Putting steel in the air means grain bins for long-term storage, but tariffs are impacting steel prices too.

For short-term storage, many farmers put their crops in these long plastic sleeves.

But this comes with additional risks from weather and wildlife.

And beyond storage costs, many farmers are operating with loans.

And interest rates are high.

- Putting off that revenue, you know, potentially for another year, you're also taking on some additional risks of, you know, the crop going bad while it's being stored.

And even though prices aren't great, they could decrease from that.

But there is this sort of, you know, cyclical effect where, you know, you kind of need the revenue to pay off the loans to get ready for the next year.

That happens, you know, every year in agriculture.

- [Hannah] So what about next year or the year after that?

Economists and farmers say good relationships with trade partners are the foundation of a reliable market.

- Creating these overseas relationships takes many years.

It's a very competitive environment.

And if the US reveals itself to be somewhat of an uncertain provider of those commodities, then countries will look elsewhere, so that even when the US, you know, goes back to being a stable trading partner, those other trade relationships have already been established.

And, you know, the US is a very competitive producer of most ag products, but there are also other countries that are trying to, you know, compete with us every day.

- [Hannah] And in Montana, Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit is also looking for new opportunities for the state.

- You are watching "Montana Ag Live," originating today.

- That's why we were doing the trade missions to Tokyo and Japan.

It was very timely.

And going to those marketplaces and showing them that, you know, Montana is still here.

Going to Panama, going to Columbia, going to Peru.

We're working on creating new marketplaces.

And so while it is difficult, we really wanna push the business-to-business relationship because the government sometimes can get in the way.

But business-to-business and that long-term, long lasting consistency matters.

- [Hannah] Consistency in ag communities like Flaxville grows in the fields.

These stately grain elevators have stood for more than a century.

And all along Montana Highway 5, the ebbs and flows of the ag business are on display, the relics of a different era and the investments in a new one, which now sometimes looks like a pulse crop.

- Every operation has to figure out what works for them.

I think we have learned over the last 30 years that integrating pulses into your crop rotation is good for your farm.

It helps out with the finances generally, diversifies your risk on your market, does great things for soil health, and has done great things for local communities, right?

Because now we have pulse processors all along the Hi-Line.

Most of them are family-owned operations and they've brought jobs to small towns and led to some rural economic investment.

- [Hannah] But this potential solution to improve farmers' bottom lines and their fields can only be successful if there are buyers for US pulses.

- That'd be my biggest fear now, that with the pulses, if there's so much going on on the tariff side that it's shocking our market, is our importers really gonna wanna work with us continuously to figure this problem out or are they just gonna say, "Well, then we'll just go somewhere else."

- [Hannah] For "Impact," I'm Hannah Kearse.

- In November, the US and China agreed to stop adding new tariffs for at least a year, though negotiations continue to interrupt global markets.

That's all we have for this episode of "Impact."

You can find all our previous shows on our website or on the PBS app for your phone or Smart TV.

If you have feedback, questions, or story ideas, we'd love to hear from you at impact@montanapbs.org.

I'm Sam Wilson.

And from all of us here at Montana PBS, thanks for tuning in.

(rhythmic music) (rhythmic music continues) (rhythmic music continues) - [Announcer] Major funding for "Impact" comes from the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

Funding also comes from viewers like you, who are friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you.

(lighthearted music)