Wyo-Ben and bentonite industry on solid footing as new year unfolds

In February of 2016 the bentonite production company Wyo-Ben announced that it would be closing the Sage Creek plant just west of Lovell. Nine years later, business is booming, and the plant recently added a second production shift.

This news came at the January 20 Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon where Wyo-Ben Vice President of Operations Jamey Tippetts was the guest speaker and provided an update on the bentonite industry in general with a focus on Wyo-Ben operations.

Tippetts said the major players in the Wyoming bentonite industry are American Colloid, Bentonite Performance Minerals, Black Hills Bentonite and Wyo-Ben, which purchased M-I Swaco in 2023 and now operates both plants in the Greybull area, along with the Thermopolis Lucerne plant and Lovell plant. He said Wyo-Ben has claims on deposits along the eastern flank of the Big Horn Basin.

In the Basin, bentonite is found in the Frontier, Mowry Shale and Thermopolis Shale formations and is a clay formed by many years of volcanic ash being deposited on an ancient inland sea some 150 million years ago, Tippetts said. The deposits are 2,500 to 3,000 feet deep and are like layers in a cake.

“We mine 14 different beds of bentonite, and we focus on what’s near the surface,” Tippetts said, noting that millions of years of geologic folding have resulted in some beds much closer to the surface than they would be otherwise.

He said roughly 4.3 million tons of bentonite is mined annually in Wyoming, about half of it in the Big Horn Basin and the rest near the Black Hills.

“We mine more than 2 million tons locally, most of it in Big Horn County,” he added.

The industry is great for the economy, Tippetts said, noting that around 770 direct jobs are produced by the bentonite industry, about 460 in the Big Horn Basin including primary contractors. 

“They’re good paying jobs, he said, around $60,000 per year,” he noted. “We’re very competitive in the market. Around $30 million flows into the market locally (in wages), and severance tax, ad valorem tax and others help support what we have available in the community. I take pride in that.”

Plus, other companies work directly with the bentonite industry in supporting roles, and Wyo-Ben works to source materials, parts and ancillary work in the immediate area whenever possible.

“We try to source locally to the extent possible,” he said. “For example, Miller’s Fabrication does work for the three producers in Big Horn County, and that helps build camaraderie.”

The market

Bentonite has been called “the clay of 1,000 uses,” Tippetts said. Not only is it used in the oil and gas drilling business, but pet litter is a huge component of the market, as well. He also said bentonite is used in environmental work, as an industrial binder for fertilizer and other products, in pharmaceuticals, in cosmetics, in industrial pelletizing, in drilling fluids and in the foundry business, helping hold sand together in molds for casting metals in the process of resisting high heat.

Tippetts is optimistic that the new Republican administration will jump start projects that had been postponed in the oil and gas industry and, thus, give a spark to the bentonite industry, as well.

“It won’t happen right away, but we’ll see more rigs in the future,” he said, though adding that technological streamlining has allowed companies to operate with fewer employees. He said in 2010 there were some 1,100 to 1,200 drilling rigs operating in the U.S., and now there are 500 to 600, even though more oil and gas is being produced.

But, as he said, the fortunes of the bentonite industry are not as dependent on the petroleum and gas industry as it used to be.

“When we were tied to oil and gas, there were always spikes, and that’s very challenging to operate in,” Tippetts said. “Now, most of us have diversified enough to create a more stable environment. We’re able to sustain reliable jobs. We mine year around, even on days like this (a cold January day) when it’s hard to get equipment going. We can mine pretty much all year around, depending on the weather.”

Turning back to pet litter, Tippetts said the demand for pet litter saw a huge spike during COVID as people stayed home with pets, and the demand hasn’t tapered off.

“Cats are easy to take care of,” he noted, adding that with its clumping action and odor control ability, bentonite is perfect for litter and has a growing international market, especially for Wyoming’s “premium clay.”

In particular, the smallish Sage Creek plant at Lovell produces specialty products such as industrial wastewater treatment products, specialty industrial binders and environmental service products such as landfill remediation products. As for the Greybull facilities, the Stucco plant focuses on packaged goods while the Magnet Cove plant produces mostly bulk products that are shipped by rail. The Lucerne plant near Thermopolis produces bulk products, as well, especially for pet litter and oil and gas, shipped by rail.

“We rely on the railroad a lot,” Tippetts said. “They’re our partner. If we can’t ship it, it’s a lost industry.”

Lovell plant comeback

The Sage Creek plant was slated to be mothballed in February of 2016 due to a precipitous downturn in the U.S. oil and gas industry, with plans made to “gradually step down production at our Sage Creek plant in Lovell and eventually place it into a hibernation state.”

But even at that time, the company announced that the Lovell plant might stay open if markets improve and indeed, that is what happened. Sage Creek was able to continue to operate for eight years with a single shift but now has even added a second shift, which he called “positive news for Lovell” in the form of an additional 13 to 14 jobs. There are now 23 employees at the Sage Creek plant, he said, with one or two more to come.

“We’re very excited,” Tippetts said, noting that there are enough claims locally to support the uptick in production.

Wyo-Ben added a packaging facility in Billings in 2020 to produce private label cat litter and has gone into a joint venture with a company in Toronto for a major packaging facility to supply product to the eastern U.S. and Europe.

“There’s a lot of positive momentum for Wyo-Ben,” Tippetts said.

Environmental work

Environmental compliance is a large component of the bentonite mining industry, Tippetts said, noting that the company strives to return mined lands in as good or better condition than before mining began.

The company has adopted a process known as cast back mining. The process involves a series of four small pits in various stages of production and at the fourth stage as reclamation takes place, live soils are placed at the site to speed revegetation. The company even helps the ecosystem by installing guzzlers to provide water for sage grouse and other animals, and at the mine sites the population of animals like pronghorn is booming.

“We’re seeing antelope in places we didn’t see them before,” Tippetts said.

The permitting process involves the company working in areas like hydrology, soils, cultural resources and more, and the company works closely with agencies as part of the process. He said it is unfortunate that, at the national level, environmental policies have been weaponized, throwing up roadblocks to development.

Tippetts said he is hopeful that there will soon be permitting reform to tighten timelines that under the current National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) are subjective and undefined, with permitting carrying on “for years and years and years” without defined deadlines.

Though the industry has a good working relationship with the Wyoming Dept. of Environmental Quality, there are stipulations in place in some areas for sage grouse and other issues that increase costs that must be passed on. He said again that it will be interesting to “see where the (new) administration goes.” He said the bentonite industry also actively monitors bills coming out of the Wyoming Legislature through the Wyoming Mining Association.

Housing

Tippetts addressed one more area of concern with the chamber of commerce members: housing.

“It’s really tough right now to attract people to this area because of housing. There’s nowhere for them to live,” he said. “It’s tough. We’re all going to have to put our heads together to figure this out and resolve this. We can supply the people, but what about the housing?”

Responding to questions following his presentation, Tippetts said there is easily 50 more years of bentonite to be mined locally and keep the area plants going, perhaps even 100 years.

As for the kind of people the company is hiring, he said there is more automation now, so it’s “not just throwing bags anymore.” He said Wyo-Ben is hiring people who know how to run equipment and understand electronics.