I recently had the opportunity to spend a day exploring around Butte, Montana and was amazed by the amount of mining that has taken place there. The old-timers called Butte “the richest hill on earth” and had pretty good reasons for doing so.

“We feel that we can clean up an area that has been abandoned after 100 years of mining,” Lyon said.

The metal is expensive, not because it is rare but because of the expense to produce and work it. The minerals mined for titanium are all oxides, unlike many base metals that are mostly mined as sulfide minerals.

Knowing how and when to deduct the cost and expenses of the vehicles used in the prospecting or mining operation can have significant tax implications.