Bozeman Build #75

Hello and welcome to the 75th edition of the Bozeman Build Report covering Northern Rockies Trade and Business News, thanks for tuning back in! Today we covered a new $15m National Guard facility in Malta, Quantica Infrastructures Montana power development plans, Knife River summer snapshot, Montana home to the deepest caves in the States, $41/hr school bus driver wages, Microreactors being developed for Air Force Bases, solar clawbacks, yak herds, and Colorado trucking.

Enjoy,

Daniel

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Montana and Bozeman Trade Pulse

Montana trade pulse

July 23, 2025 Applied Materials celebrated the opening of its new facility in Heredia, Costa Rica. The company’s first-ever operation in Latin America, the new site is part of a strategy to expand the global footprint of critical functions that support Applied’s core semiconductor business. (Applied Materials)

Jul 31, 2025 A significant investment is underway in Malta as the Montana National Guard breaks ground on a new $14.6 million vehicle maintenance shop. The facility aims to enhance the Guard's readiness across Montana. (Montana Right Now)

Aug 4, 2025 A platform launched by Quantica Infrastructure LLC plans to develop a 5,000-acre energy, real estate and telecommunications campus in Montana that will be powered by up to 1 GW of renewables and batteries. The development platform called Big Sky Digital Infrastructure LLC (BSDI) intends to realise the project outside Billings, starting with an initial 500 MW of new renewable power and energy storage. The site will be connected to hundreds of miles of new fibre-ready underground conduit. Construction work on the campus is set to begin next year. (Renewables Now)

Aug 5, 2025 Knife River: Second-quarter results ‘below expectations’ Knife River says above-average precipitation in the quarter impacted its ability to get into the field while delaying projects in much of its footprint – particularly in the Central, Mountain and Energy Services segments. In the Mountain segment, Knife River had rain on nearly 40 percent of the second quarter’s workdays in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana. A $1.3 billion backlog gives Knife River reason for optimism. The backlog is nearly 30 percent higher than the same period last year. (Pit and Quarry)

Aug 06, 2025 Two families in the Flathead Valley have come together to create a blueberry patch just west of Kalispell. (KTVQ)

Aug 6, 2025 Some mussels are good mussels, and not just the kind you eat. Giant floaters, fatmuckets and western pearlshells are all native mussels to Montana waters. These natives contribute to their ecosystem by filtering water, removing toxins and reducing sediment. They also provide food for other native species like fish, birds, muskrats and otters. (FWP)

August 6, 2025 The federal government this week announced the approval of a massive expansion for the Westmoreland Rosebud Mine in southeast Montana, which supplies coal to Colstrip, the state’s largest coal-fired power plant. Under the modified mining plan approved by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on Monday, Westmoreland will be authorized to extract approximately 33.75 million tons of federal coal, and an additional 37 million tons of privately-owned coal, across more than 4,200 acres of surface land. (Daily Montanan)

Aug 8, 2025 Exxon Mobil cleared to put in test well to assess viability of Snowy River carbon sequestration project (MFP)

Aug 8, 2025 Missoula voters to decide on $1.8M infrastructure levy (Montana Right Now)

Montana calls itself home to the first and now second deepest cave in the continental United States. A team discovered Bobsled Cave in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and it’s now officially determined to be the second deepest cave. (FWP) and (ThePulp)

August 2025 Montanans for Hire? An Examination of the Non-Working Population in Montana (Montana DLI)

DNRC News

From DNRC News & Events Page

• 8/4/2025 2025 Third Quarter Oil & Gas Lease Sale – Notice 3

• 8/5/2025 Initial Proposal Cyclomoose Forest Management Project

Bozeman trade pulse

Aug 06, 2025 Bozeman schools in need of bus drivers as new school year approaches. The company needs 12 new staff members to transport nearly 2,100 students and will train applicants who don't have commercial driver's licenses. The company is offering $41 an hour for new bus drivers. (KBZK)

Aug. 07, 2025 Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc. reported record results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025. Record-setting revenue of $30.8 million, more than double last year’s Q2 revenue of $13.0 million. (Bridger Aerospace Press)

August 7, 2025 BOZEMAN — Montana State University researchers working to improve cybersecurity have won a major contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that aims to automate threat assessment. (MSU News)

August 7, 2025 Aperture Global Real Estate expands into Big Sky Montana. Agents joining Aperture in Montana recorded more than $500 million in 2024 sales. Spearheading the Montana launch is agent Martha Johnson, who recorded more than $346 million in 2024 closed sales. (Housing Wire)

August 8, 2025 Montana State to hold grand opening of new indoor athletic facility Aug. 18 (MSU News)

Northern Rockies

Aug 2, 2025 A powerful storm tore through Cheyenne and surrounding areas Friday afternoon, resulting in baseball-size hail and funnel clouds and causing widespread damage to vehicles, homes and trees. (Wyoming Tribune)

August 05, 2025 Kids On Speeding E-Bikes Making Jackson ‘Like A Literal Highway’ (Cowboy State Daily)

August 07, 2025 Microreactor manufacturer Radiant has signed a deal to mass-produce portable microreactors to power U.S. Air Force bases and promote energy independence. The company wants to make them in Natrona County, Wyoming. (Cowboy State Daily)

Aug. 7, 2025 A 916,000-acre cattle ranch in Wyoming—complete with a nine-bedroom lodge—hit the market Wednesday for $79.5 million. (Mansion Global)

August 10, 2025 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is drafting termination letters that would claw back $7 billion in Solar for All funding nationwide, including about $30 million designated for Wyoming. (Cowboy State Daily)

July 15, 2025 UW Researcher Receives NSF Grant to Protect Nuclear Reactors from Seismic Activity (UWYO)

Even though public land sales was removed from the Big Beautiful Bill in June, onX and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership unveil a first-of-its-kind interactive map showing 6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management lands identified for potential sale across 17 Western states. (Onx Maps)

Regionally Unique Herds

Last week, I was catching up with extended family in SW Colorado, on the way down we drove through Southpark/Fairplay Colorado situated 9,953 feet above sea level (its always cold and windy in that valley). Apparently, a popular animal to raise in that cold high valley is a yak. Ranchers including Pettee Ranch and PBJ Cattle are raising yak. Reminds me alot of the Helle Rambouillet sheep ranch near Dillon Montana taking advantage of their high grazing lands also known as duckworthco.com.

Colorado Unique Trucking Contracts

Family Owned D.G. Coleman of Commerce City Colorado, as of 2020 has a contract with Nestlé to transport water for its Arrowhead brand spring water. Nestlé has established easements with two spring properties located along the Arkansas river in Chaffee County Colorado where D.G. hauls 25 loaded trucks per day 135 miles to Denver to be bottled. (Heart of the Rockies Radio) D.G. also runs around 100 trucks per day from Fairplay to Denver hauling rock from old dredge tailings to Denver to and from Brannan Pits. (Kenworth)

Thank you for reading and have a great week,

Daniel Zavadil

bozemanbuild.com & blockbiome.com