Butte, Montana around 1900: brick blocks of the city with smoking mines and headframes crowding the hill above

Butte, Montana · Since 1864

The Richest
Hill on Earth

From 1881 to 2019, the Butte Mining District produced 11.2 Mt copper, 702 Moz silver, 2.2 Mt zinc and 2.9 Moz gold. This page tells the hill’s story, and where Silver Bow Mining fits in it.

Scroll through 160 years

Butte, c. 1900 · Wikimedia Commons

702 Moz

Silver produced, 1881–2019

Butte Mining District

11.2 Mt

Copper produced, 1881–2019

Butte Mining District

10,000 mi

Underground tunnels

across the complex

150 yrs

Of mining on the hill

1874 to today

The Hill's Story

Every great story starts small. This one begins at a creek in 1864, with a handful of prospectors panning gold from the gravel. Follow it up the hill: a camp becomes the richest silver ground in Montana Territory, then the copper capital of the world. Shafts go down a mile. A city rises, stands through fire and war, and watches the pit era remake its skyline. Five chapters carry you from those first pans on Silver Bow Creek to the drills turning on the hill today. Take your time. The hill has earned it.

1864 – 1893

The Early Camp

Start where the miners started: at a creek, with a pan of gravel. Twenty years on, the hill above the camp holds some of the richest silver mines in Montana Territory, and its biggest strike is still hiding underground.

1864

The camp on Silver Bow Creek

Placer gold is discovered along Silver Bow Creek. The camp that grows around the diggings becomes Butte.

1874

Silver on the hill

Small-scale silver mining begins in Butte. Within a decade the hill carries some of the richest silver mines in the territory.

Engraving looking down Main Street, Butte, in 1885 — wagons, riders and storefronts — Looking down Main Street, 1885West Shore, 1885 · Wikimedia Commons

1882

The copper strike

The Anaconda mine encounters massive copper mineralization at depth. Butte turns from a silver camp into the copper capital of the world.

A man in a bowler hat looks toward Anaconda Hill and its smoking works, 1904 stereograph — “Richest hill in the world” — Anaconda Hill, 1904Keystone View Co., 1904 · Library of Congress

◆ Bird’s-eye panorama of Butte, c. 1908

Haines Photo Co. · Library of Congress

1896 – 1915

Copper Capital of the World

Now the camp is a city. Five square miles of this hill produce more copper than any place on earth, and a hundred thousand people make their homes in the streets below the mines.

1896

26% of world supply

Five square miles of the Butte Mining District produce 210 million pounds of copper in a year: 26% of world supply and 51% of U.S. supply.

Close view of the Great Hill of Butte in 1905, headframes and hoist houses above an ore dump — Close view of the Great Hill, 1905E.W. Kelley, 1905 · Library of Congress

1910s

The silver-zinc vein era

Anaconda expands from the deep copper zones into the adjacent silver-zinc-lead veins, including those of the Rainbow Block.

Smelters smoking at the base of Anaconda Hill, ore trains in the foreground, c. 1905 — Smelters at the base of Anaconda Hill, c. 1905H.C. White Co. · Library of Congress

◆ From the archive · The copper peak

Walkerville in 1905, miners’ houses scattered across the hill among the workings — Walkerville, 1905William H. Rau · Library of Congress

Anaconda Hill, called the richest hill in the world, 1904 — “Richest hill in the world,” 1904Keystone View Co. · Library of Congress

The Great Hill of Butte, dense with headframes, 1905 — The Great Hill, 1905E.W. Kelley · Library of Congress

Looking down Main Street in 1885, twenty years before the copper peak — Main Street, twenty years earlierWest Shore, 1885 · Wikimedia Commons

Panorama of the Butte mines, c. 1914: headframes, smokestacks, ore bins and timber yards stretching along the hill

◆ The hill bristling with headframes — Butte mines, c. 1914

Todd Photographic Co. · Library of Congress

III

1917 – 1942

War, Labor & the Deep Mines

The shafts run a mile deep now, and the copper coming out of them powers two world wars. The men who ride the cages down build one of the strongest union towns in America, and a fire in 1917 teaches the country what that work can cost.

1917

Granite Mountain

A fire in the Granite Mountain and Speculator shafts kills 168 men, the deadliest hard-rock mining disaster in American history. The memorial above Walkerville overlooks the district today.

1942

Copper for the war

Butte supplies roughly a quarter of the copper used in American wartime manufacturing during World War II, after providing a third of U.S. copper in World War I.

An Anaconda copper miner in oilskins and carbide lamp, smiling, September 1942 — Anaconda copper miner, September 1942Russell Lee, OWI · Library of Congress

◆ From the archive · The men of the deep mines

Two copper miners talking in a Butte mine yard, 1939 — Copper miners, 1939Arthur Rothstein, FSA · Library of Congress

A crowded Butte miners’ union meeting beneath a United We Stand banner, October 1942 — Miners’ union meeting, 1942Russell Lee, OWI · Library of Congress

A copper miner’s home with laundry on the line, headframe behind the back fence, 1939 — A miner’s home beside the workings, 1939Arthur Rothstein, FSA · Library of Congress

Rail cars loaded with copper ore leaving a Butte mine, 1942 — Trainload of copper ore, 1942Russell Lee, OWI · Library of Congress

1955 – 1986

The Pit Era

Here the ground itself changes shape. Open-pit mining takes over from the cages and drifts, and once the pumps shut down the deep workings slip under the water. The headframes stay right where they are, standing guard over a national landmark.

1955

The Berkeley Pit

Open-pit mining begins at the Berkeley Pit and the district gradually shifts away from the underground workings.

1961

A national landmark

Uptown Butte is designated a National Historic Landmark district, among the largest in the United States. The surviving headframes still mark the skyline.

1982

The pumps shut down

Underground pumping ends and the deep workings below the water table flood. The underground era closes after a century.

1986

Mining continues

Montana Resources resumes open-pit mining at the Continental pit, which operates today adjacent to the Rainbow Block.

◆ From the archive · The steel that remains

The Mountain Con Mine headframe, “A Mile High, A Mile Deep” — Mountain Con — “A Mile High, A Mile Deep”HAER · Library of Congress

The Belmont Mine headframe against an open sky — Belmont MineHAER · Library of Congress

The Kelley Mine yard, Butte’s largest post-war shaft mine — Kelley MineHAER · Library of Congress

Machinery inside the Anselmo Mine hoist house — Inside the Anselmo hoist houseJet Lowe, HAER · Library of Congress

1989 – Today

The Next Chapter

This chapter is still being written. The story goes back underground, into the silver and zinc veins of the Rainbow Block, on the same hill where the first pans hit gravel.

1989

New Butte Mining

New Butte Mining Co. briefly operates the Rainbow Block between 1989 and 1991, mining 120,000 tonnes from the veins above the water table.

2025

The resource, restated

Silver Bow Mining publishes the inaugural 170 Moz AgEq inferred Mineral Resource Estimate for the Rainbow Block under S-K 1300 and NI 43-101.

2026

Drilling returns

Silver Bow Mining lists on the NYSE American as SBMT. Surface drilling and underground decline rehabilitation are underway on the hill.

1864 — Today

The hill’s story isn’t finished

Silver Bow Mining is writing the next chapter at the Rainbow Block, in the same silver-zinc veins the district first opened a century ago, this time with modern methods and modern standards.

The Rainbow Block Investors

What the Hill Produced

District production, 1881–2019

Copper	11.2 Mt
Silver	702 Moz
Zinc	2.2 Mt
Gold	2.9 Moz

Plus significant molybdenum and manganese.

Silver-zinc-lead mines, 1916–1967

Silver	67 Moz
Zinc	3,600 Mlb
Lead	470 Mlb

Plus significant copper and gold credits.

Part of Butte

Silver Bow Mining is headquartered on Idaho Street in Butte, on the hill it works. Butte has mined for 150 years. We aim to add the next chapter to that history: underground mining brought back to the hill, built on the district’s historic infrastructure with modern safety protocols and technologies.

For us, that chapter only counts if it benefits the community where we live and work. That means environmental protection and economic opportunity together: cleaner, safer methods underground, and lasting economic value created in Butte through responsible resource development.

That commitment starts with specifics. Exploration is authorized by the Montana DEQ under Exploration License No. 00857, with a $2.2 million surety bond posted with the state. Surface disturbance is limited to about 12 acres of previously disturbed private land. And the work is reported as it happens, on dated releases.

Work With Us Contact

Historic hoist houses and two headframes standing on a grassy hillside above Walkerville — ◆ Hoist houses still standing · Today

A copper miner's home with laundry on the line and a headframe behind the back fence, 1939 — ◆ A miner’s home beside the workings · 1939Arthur Rothstein, FSA · Library of Congress

Butte Mining History FAQ

Why is Butte called the Richest Hill on Earth?

The name dates to Butte’s copper era. Between 1881 and 2019 the Butte Mining District produced 11.2 million tonnes of copper, 702 million ounces of silver, 2.2 million tonnes of zinc and 2.9 million ounces of gold from a few square miles of ground, a concentration of metal production with few equals anywhere.

Is mining still active in Butte, Montana?

Yes. Montana Resources operates the Continental open pit, and Silver Bow Mining (NYSE American: SBMT) is drilling and rehabilitating underground workings at the adjacent Rainbow Block. Silver Bow is exploration-stage: it has an inferred mineral resource and no mineral reserves, and no production has been established.

How extensive are the underground workings beneath Butte?

The Butte mining complex holds over 10,000 miles of tunnels, developed across more than a century of underground mining. Silver Bow Mining has georeferenced and modeled the historical workings within the Rainbow Block.

Historical production figures are drawn from the Company’s technical disclosure; dates in the timeline are drawn from Butte-Silver Bow public historical records. Archival photographs are public domain or carry no known restrictions, courtesy of the Library of Congress (including the FSA/OWI collections and the Historic American Engineering Record), Wikimedia Commons, and NASA/JSC. This page is not a substitute for the Company’s official disclosure. See Important Notices.

The RichestHill on Earth