Latest news with #Butte
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
JD Vance flew to Montana for secret meeting with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News executives
JD Vance took a quick day trip to Montana on Tuesday afternoon to speak to right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who is the chief of both Fox News and its sister corporation News Corp., which publishes the New York Post and Wall Street Journal. According to the Associated Press, the vice president's secret meeting also included several executives from Fox News, the conservative cable giant that has largely carried Donald Trump's water and helped staff up the president's current administration. A source familiar with the trip also confirmed to The Independent that the vice president spoke to both Murdochs and a group of executives from the right-wing network at the Murdoch family ranch near Dillon, Montana. According to NBC Montana, Air Force Two landed in Butte – which is about 70 miles away from the Murdoch ranch – around 2:30 p.m. MT, resulting in a temporary flight restriction in the area. Politico Playbook would later report that the vice president's plane would take off again shortly after nightfall, meaning Vance was only in the area for a matter of hours. During his brief visit to Montana, though, Vance and his wife Usha did manage to find time to take a short hike while at the Matador Ranch. It's still not clear what the meeting between Vance and the Fox executives was about, though the vice president is the Republican National Committee's finance chair and is therefore leading the GOP's midterm fundraising campaign. The Murdochs are worth tens of billions of dollars, and they have long been heavily involved in the Republican political machine. The Independent has reached out to representatives for Fox and the Murdochs for comment. While Fox News' coverage has been almost entirely sympathetic to the president and sycophantic, especially since his return to the White House, the Wall Street Journal has been an altogether different beast. Throughout the first few months of Trump's second term, the paper's editorial board has repeatedly criticized the president's economic policies and chaotic governing style, prompting Trump to rage at both the outlet and the elder Murdoch, with whom he's had an on-again/off-again friendly relationship. 'So the Wall Street Journal is wrong because, very simply, every single country that you're writing about right now is dying to make a deal because the deals they have right now are so good, and so good for them, and so profitable for them,' Trump griped in February about a Journal op-ed with Rupert Murdoch standing right next to him in the Oval Office. 'I'm gonna have to talk to him about that.' Trump has continued to blast the Wall Street Journal in recent weeks as the publication's criticism has remained strident, calling it a 'rotten newspaper' that has 'truly gone to hell' while raging at one of the outlet's reporters last month. 'The Wall Street Journal is China-oriented. And they're really bad for this country,' Trump added. The face-to-face with the Murdochs and other Fox executives comes shortly after Vance apparently helped to broker the peace between Trump and his one-time 'first buddy' Elon Musk, whose bromance splintered in spectacular fashion last week over the president's 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' After the simmering tensions erupted publicly last Wednesday, which included Musk accusing the president of being in the so-called Epstein Files while calling for his impeachment, Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles called the world's richest man and urged him to end the feud and try to repair the relationship. Musk would later back away from some of his most incendiary attacks and speak to Trump over the phone on Monday. The Tesla CEO then completed the de-escalation on Wednesday, tweeting: 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.'
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
JD Vance flew to Montana for secret meeting with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News executives
JD Vance took a quick day trip to Montana on Tuesday afternoon to speak to right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who is the chief of both Fox News and its sister corporation News Corp., which publishes the New York Post and Wall Street Journal. According to the Associated Press, the vice president's secret meeting also included several executives from Fox News, the conservative cable giant that has largely carried Donald Trump's water and helped staff up the president's current administration. A source familiar with the trip also confirmed to The Independent that the vice president spoke to both Murdochs and a group of executives from the right-wing network at the Murdoch family ranch near Dillon, Montana. According to NBC Montana, Air Force Two landed in Butte – which is about 70 miles away from the Murdoch ranch – around 2:30 p.m. MT, resulting in a temporary flight restriction in the area. Politico Playbook would later report that the vice president's plane would take off again shortly after nightfall, meaning Vance was only in the area for a matter of hours. During his brief visit to Montana, though, Vance and his wife Usha did manage to find time to take a short hike while at the Matador Ranch. It's still not clear what the meeting between Vance and the Fox executives was about, though the vice president is the Republican National Committee's finance chair and is therefore leading the GOP's midterm fundraising campaign. The Murdochs are worth tens of billions of dollars, and they have long been heavily involved in the Republican political machine. The Independent has reached out to representatives for Fox and the Murdochs for comment. While Fox News' coverage has been almost entirely sympathetic to the president and sycophantic, especially since his return to the White House, the Wall Street Journal has been an altogether different beast. Throughout the first few months of Trump's second term, the paper's editorial board has repeatedly criticized the president's economic policies and chaotic governing style, prompting Trump to rage at both the outlet and the elder Murdoch, with whom he's had an on-again / off-again friendly relationship. 'So the Wall Street Journal is wrong because, very simply, every single country that you're writing about right now is dying to make a deal because the deals they have right now are so good, and so good for them, and so profitable for them,' Trump griped in February about a Journal op-ed with Rupert Murdoch standing right next to him in the Oval Office. 'I'm gonna have to talk to him about that.' Trump has continued to blast the Wall Street Journal in recent weeks as the publication's criticism has remained strident, calling it a 'rotten newspaper' that has 'truly gone to hell' while raging at one of the outlet's reporters last month. 'The Wall Street Journal is China-oriented. And they're really bad for this country,' Trump added. The face-to-face with the Murdochs and other Fox executives comes shortly after Vance apparently helped to broker the peace between Trump and his one-time 'first buddy' Elon Musk, whose bromance splintered in spectacular fashion last week over the president's 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' After the simmering tensions erupted publicly last Wednesday, which included Musk accusing the president of being in the so-called Epstein Files while calling for his impeachment, Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles called the world's richest man and urged him to end the feud and try to repair the relationship. Musk would later back away from some of his most incendiary attacks and speak to Trump over the phone on Monday. The Tesla CEO then completed the de-escalation on Wednesday, tweeting: 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.'
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Vance made a brief trip to Montana to speak to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, AP sources say
Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday made a brief trip to Montana, where he spoke to media mogul Rupert Murdoch; his son Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox News and News Corp.; and a group of other Fox News executives, according to two people familiar with the trip. Vance met with the group at the Murdoch family ranch in southwest Montana near Dillon, according to the people. They confirmed the visit to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. It's not clear why the vice president addressed the group or what they spoke about. A spokesperson for Fox News Channel did not respond to a message seeking comment. The vice president's office does not release a schedule for Vance and did not offer advance notice of the trip, so the surprise arrival of Air Force Two in Butte, Montana, set off local speculation as his motorcade was seen driving away. The Murdoch ranch near Dillon is roughly 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Butte. The ranch, which Murdoch purchased in 2021, is spread across two valleys and a mountain range and has some 12,000 cattle. It sits near Yellowstone National Park along the Montana-Idaho border. According to flight restrictions issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, the vice presidential aircraft was only on the ground for a matter of hours. Vance was scheduled to have lunch with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, according to the president's publicly released schedule, meaning the vice president presumably returned to Washington shortly after meeting the Murdochs 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) away on Tuesday night. Rupert Murdoch and his media organization have long been friendly with Republicans and have, for the most part, had a friendly relationship with Trump. He appeared at Trump's inauguration and was spotted earlier this year in the Oval Office. Rupert Murdoch, 94, stepped down as the head of Fox News and News Corp. in 2023 and handed control over to son Lachlan. Montana state Auditor James Brown told the Montana Talks radio show that he helped Vance's staff arrange the trip. Brown, who did not respond to a message Wednesday from the AP, said he met the vice president when Vance landed at the airport and then helped escort Vance's entourage on an hourlong drive by driving second lady Usha Vance's staff. ___ Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Vance made a brief trip to Montana to speak to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, AP sources say
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday made a brief trip to Montana, where he spoke to media mogul Rupert Murdoch; his son Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox News and News Corp.; and a group of other Fox News executives, according to two people familiar with the trip. Vance met with the group at the Murdoch family ranch in southwest Montana near Dillon, according to the people. They confirmed the visit to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. It's not clear why the vice president addressed the group or what they spoke about. A spokesperson for Fox News Channel did not respond to a message seeking comment. The vice president's office does not release a schedule for Vance and did not offer advance notice of the trip, so the surprise arrival of Air Force Two in Butte, Montana, set off local speculation as his motorcade was seen driving away. The Murdoch ranch near Dillon is roughly 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Butte. The ranch, which Murdoch purchased in 2021, is spread across two valleys and a mountain range and has some 12,000 cattle. It sits near Yellowstone National Park along the Montana-Idaho border. According to flight restrictions issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, the vice presidential aircraft was only on the ground for a matter of hours. Vance was scheduled to have lunch with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, according to the president's publicly released schedule, meaning the vice president presumably returned to Washington shortly after meeting the Murdochs 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) away on Tuesday night. Rupert Murdoch and his media organization have long been friendly with Republicans and have, for the most part, had a friendly relationship with Trump. He appeared at Trump's inauguration and was spotted earlier this year in the Oval Office. Rupert Murdoch, 94, stepped down as the head of Fox News and News Corp. in 2023 and handed control over to son Lachlan. Montana state Auditor James Brown told the Montana Talks radio show that he helped Vance's staff arrange the trip. Brown, who did not respond to a message Wednesday from the AP, said he met the vice president when Vance landed at the airport and then helped escort Vance's entourage on an hourlong drive by driving second lady Usha Vance's staff. ___ Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Science
- New York Times
A Toxic Pit Could Be a Gold Mine for Rare-Earth Elements
There's a tale told about a miner who found copper cans in his garbage dump in the early days of mining. Wastewater from copper mining had flowed through his land, he said, and turned steel cans into copper. The story might be apocryphal, but the process is real, and it's called cementation. Montana Resources, the mining company that took over from the Anaconda Copper Company, still uses this alchemical trick in a process at its Continental Pit mine in Butte, Mont. Next to the mine is the Berkeley Pit, which is filled with 50 billion gallons of a highly acidic, toxic brew. Montana Resources pipes liquid from the pit, enabling it to cascade onto piles of scrap iron. The iron becomes copper and is gathered for production. While methods to remove metals from water have been around a long time, in recent years the global scramble for metals critical to manufacturing and technology advances has given birth to a new generation of extraction technologies and processes. One of the mineral-rich sources researchers are focused on is wastewater, including the brine from desalination plants, oil and gas fracking water and wastewater from mining. Researchers at Oregon State University estimate the brine from desalination plants alone contains metals valued at about $2.2 trillion. 'Water is the ore body of the 21st century,' said Peter S. Fiske, director of the National Alliance for Water Innovation at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab California. 'Technology now is allowing us to pick through the garbage piles of wastewater and pick out the high-value items.' Research on the extraction of rare earths, a set of metallic elements, from waste is widespread as the need for them increases significantly. Researchers at Indiana Geological and Water Survey at Indiana University, for example, are studying the potential for mining rare earths in coal waste, including fly ash and coal tailings. And researchers at University of Texas at Austin have created membranes that mimic natural ones to separate rare earths from waste. Not only is mining wastewater more economical and faster than starting new mines, it is also cleaner. Among the big waterborne prizes in the pit next to Butte are two light rare-earth elements (REEs), neodymium and praseodymium. They are vital for small, powerful magnets in electric vehicles, for medical technology and for defense purposes, such as precision-guided missiles and satellites. A single F-35 fighter jet uses 900 pounds of rare-earth metals. 'We're turning a giant liability into something that's contributing to defense,' said Mark Thompson, vice president for environmental affairs at Montana Resources. 'There's some high-level metallurgy going on here. Real egghead stuff.' This is a critical time for research into domestic production of rare earths. Not only does the United States lag far behind China, but President Trump's trade war has spurred China to threaten to further restrict rare-earth mineral exports as a result of the Trump tariffs. Experts with the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies say the large gap would enable China to expand its defense capabilities far more quickly than the United States could. Both Greenland and Ukraine are the focus of the Trump administration's attention in large part because the countries have significant deposits of rare earths. Mr. Trump also just ordered the government to move toward mining large portions of the ocean floor, including in international waters, for its mineral riches. There are 17 types of metals known as rare earths, all of which have been found in the Berkeley Pit. They aren't rare in prevalence, but they are called that because they are often scattered in small concentrations. Rare earths are sorted into two kinds: heavy and light. Heavy rare earths — such as dysprosium, terbium and yttrium — have a greater atomic weight and are typically more rare, meaning they sell in smaller quantities and are prone to shortages. Light metals, by contrast, have a lower atomic weight. Acid mine drainage is a highly toxic pollutant created when sulfur-bearing pyrite in rock is exposed to oxygen and water during mining. The drainage then oxidizes and creates sulfuric acid and poisons waterways. It's one of the country's biggest environmental problems, and tens of thousands of abandoned mines have contaminated 12,000 miles of streams. However, the acid also dissolves zinc, copper, rare earths and other minerals out of the rock and into the water, providing an opportunity for the right technology to extract them — which didn't exist until recently. Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the water research institute at West Virginia University, has researched the pit water in Butte for 25 years. He and a team of researchers from Virginia Tech and L3 Process Development, a chemical engineering firm, developed a method to extract critical metals from acid mine drainage in West Virginia's coal mines, the same process used in Butte. Large, densely woven plastic bags are filled with a mudlike sludge from the water treatment plant. The water slowly percolates out, leaving a preconcentrate of about 1 to 2 percent rare earths that need further refinement, with chemical processes. The final step in the patented process is an extraction with solvents that creates pure rare-earth elements. 'One of the nice things about acid mine drainage is the concentrates we get are particularly enriched in heavy rare earths,' Dr. Ziemkiewicz said. 'The light ones aren't as valuable.' The Butte project is awaiting word on a Department of Defense grant of $75 million to build a concentrator, the last step needed to refine the preconcentrate to rare earths and begin full-scale production. Zinc is also plentiful in the acid-mine-drainage mix here and, because it fetches a higher price, is important as a way to pay for the process. Nickel and cobalt are also extracted. While rare-earth elements are much in demand, China produces a majority and manipulates prices to keep them low, which forces out competition. That's why the Defense Department is funding much of the work on rare-earth elements and other metals. The United States has just one operational rare-earths mine, in Mountain Pass, Calif., which produces around 15 percent of the global supply of rare earths. The Berkeley Pit has been a festering sore since 1982, when, the Anaconda Copper Company closed the open-pit mine, turned off the pumps and let water fill it. The water is so acidic from acid mine drainage that when tens of thousands of snow geese flew over it on their migration in 2016, many landed on the surface and were quickly poisoned. About 3,000 birds died. The Atlantic Richfield Company and Montana Resources are required to treat the pit water in perpetuity to keep it from reaching levels that could contaminate the area groundwater. (Montana Resources mines the Continental Pit, next to the Berkeley Pit.) The Clean Water Act requires that companies treat acid mine drainage, an expensive process. Adding another level of treatment to the Horseshoe Bend plant here is less costly than building a new one and can offset the costs of treatment or even turn a profit. There have been dozens of research efforts to liberate the suspended metals from the water. Mr. Thompson displayed a map with lines radiating out from Butte, showing where water samples had been sent to research facilities across the country. But the metal-producing process that's going on now is the first one that's proven economical. While the riches in the mineral soup here have been known for decades, a way to extract them was elusive, until Dr. Ziemkiewicz's team developed the new method. He has been producing rare earths at two coal mines in West Virginia where acid mine drainage is a problem. Each mine produces four tons of rare earths a year. The Berkeley Pit, however, has a much richer concentration of rare earths in solution and a higher volume of water and is expected to produce 40 tons a year. Dr. Ziemkiewicz believes this process if used at other mines could eventually provide nearly all of the U.S. imports of rare-earth elements needed for defense purposes, which, he said, currently amount to about 1,400 tons. But demand for rare earths could increase by as much as 600 percent in the coming decades, according to some estimates. In the global effort to clean water and produce critical minerals, the lab at Lawrence Berkeley researches an array of water-filter-related technology, especially experiments to improve membranes. It operates a particle accelerator called Advanced Light Source, which creates very bright X-ray light that enables scientists to study various membranes at the atomic scale. The lab has worked with outside researchers to create a new generation of filters, called nanosponges, that are designed to trap a single target molecule, such as lithium. 'It's an atomic catcher's mitt,' said Adam Uliana, the chief executive of ChemFinity, a Brooklyn company studying the use of nanosponges for cleaning many different types of waste. 'It catches one and only one type of metal.' Lithium, cobalt and magnesium are critical minerals, in addition to rare earths, that have attracted considerable attention from researchers. Ion exchange, a proven technique for removing metals and pollution from water, is gaining interest. Lilac Solutions, a start-up in Oakland, Calif., has developed the specialized resin beads needed to extract lithium from brine with ion exchange and plans to start its first production facility at the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The company's technology pumps brine through ion exchange filters, extracts the mineral and returns the water to its source, a process David Snydacker, the company's president, said caused very little environmental disturbance. If it proves to work at scale, it could revolutionize lithium extraction and reduce or eliminate the need for underground mines and open pits. Magrathea Metals is a start-up in Oakland that makes magnesium ingots from salty brines left over after seawater has been desalinated. The company allows the brines to dry, which leaves behind magnesium chloride salts. An electrical current — which can utilize off-peak renewable energy — heats the solution and separates the salts from the molten magnesium, which is cast into ingots. Its chief executive, Alex Grant, said this process is extremely clean, though it has yet to be used to manufacture magnesium at a large scale. The Department of Defense has funded much of its work. China produces 90 percent of the world's magnesium. The metal is smelted with something called the Pidgeon process — . heated with coal-fired kilns to around 2,000 degrees, which is highly polluting and carbon-intensive. Dr. Fiske expects a lot more innovation. 'Three vectors are converging,' he said. 'The value of some of these critical materials is going up. The cost of conventional mining and extraction is going up, and the security of international suppliers, especially Russia and China, is going down.'
