A good exercise for speech and debate students could require rapidly repeating “molybdenum” three consecutive times.
One pronunciation guide suggests: muh-lib-duh-nuhm
Miners avoid the tongue twister by referring to the solid, shiny, silvery metallic element as “moly.”
Montana Resources’ sprawling open pit mine has more than one revenue source.
Even though copper ore typically remains the greatest revenue producer for the mine, moly and even silver are in the mix too in the same chunk of rock.
The price of moly rose sharply in December. The average price in November was $17.35 a pound. On Jan. 3, the price was $32.20 a pound.
“The moly price is much more volatile than the copper price,” said Mark Thompson, vice president of environmental affairs for Montana Resources.
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The price of copper Wednesday was about $3.72 per pound. Thompson said the mine typically produces 10 times more copper than moly in pounds.
“We’re still a copper mine,” he said.
Copper leaves the mine by rail for smelting. Moly departs via truck for additional processing.
Molybdenum can withstand extremely high temperatures and is highly resistant to corrosion. Its applications include as an alloying agent in stainless steel.
Its tolerance of extreme heat makes it useful in missiles, military armor, aircraft parts, electrical contacts, industrial motors and support for light bulb filaments.
Separately, molybdenum is a mineral needed by the human body to process proteins and genetic material like DNA, according to the National Institutes of Health. It also helps break down drugs and toxic substances that enter the body.
A wide variety of foods contain molybdenum and most people in the U.S. get sufficient moly from the foods they eat, NIH says.
According to Trading Economics, the largest producers of the metal are China, the United States, Chile, Peru and Mexico.
After 30-years of operation Montana Resources retires a giant shovel. Its final resting spot is above the Berkeley Pit Visitors Center in Butte.
