RMS-AAPG: Continental Pit Mine and Mill Tour

**Offered as part of the 2026 Annual RMS-AAPG Annual Conference

The Continental Pit field trip, scheduled for Tuesday, October 27 from 8:30 – 11:30 am, visits Montana Resources current mining operations. The mine area consists of a thick leached cap and overburden, 160 to 200 feet, draped over a massive copper-molybdenum orebody bounded on the west by the Continental Fault and on the east by the Klepper Fault. Continental Primary Zone copper occurs as chalcopyrite in interlacing veinlet swarms and as disseminations in the Butte Quartz Monzonite while Continental Primary Zone molybdenum occurs in younger subparallel veinlet swarms and slicks that offset the early copper veinlets. Participants will be able to examine oxidized, supergene, and hypogene ores in situ.

The tour covers the mining process from drilling and assaying cores through extracting the metal sulfides in flotation cells. The extracted metal sulfide concentrates are then transported to offsite roasting facilities or smelters for final processing.

Notes:

• In case of inclement weather, this tour will be cancelled.
• Steel toed shoes/boots and hard hats are required for touring the Continental Pit mine.
• It is possible that Montana Resources has hard hats to borrow for the tour.

Questions? Contact 2026 RMS-AAPG field trip co-chairs Mary Bitney and Jake Thacker (rmsaapgmeeting@gmail.com)