Wyo-Ben celebrates 75 years with open house tour

The public was invited to an open house at Wyo-Ben’s Magnet Cove Plant in Greybull last Saturday. A VIP tour was held the day before. Family-owned since 1951, Wyo-Ben used the events to celebrate its 75th anniversary. 

Booths highlighted its history and growth. Lunch was served. Children were able to view the equipment up close and plant tours were given. “I was pleasantly surprised about how many people showed up on Saturday,” said Jared Mowery the mine production manager. 

HISTORY

It all began in the 1930s. Rockwood Brown Sr. acquired an unused stucco plaster manufacturing plant located on the Burlington Railroad Stucco rail siding north of Greybull along with several bentonite and gypsum mining claims. 

In 1949, the company purchased equipment from a shuttered bentonite plant in Montana and moved them to Greybull. After a remodel, Wyo-Ben converted the space from a stucco plant into a modern bentonite plant. 

Wyo-Ben Products Company was created in 1951 as a partnership consisting of Keith, Rockwood and Neal Brown, together with their sister, Barbara Brown Bixby and R.E. Dansby. In that first year of operation, the company processed 15,000 tons of bentonite which was sold for rotary oil and gas drilling and oil well cementing mud. 

They expanded to supply bentonite to a Steel pilot plant in Minnesota in 1954. A process was established resulting in the development of bentonite-bound iron ore pellets, and the technology was broadly and quickly adopted by the iron ore industry.  

In 1963, several large-scale taconite pelletizing plants were developed in the USA and Canada. Wyo-Ben negotiated a supply agreement and pioneered the method of shipping a semi-dried crude bentonite to markets requiring water transportation as a part of the delivery movement. At this time, the company also broadened its drilling activities and created warehouse distribution centers in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and two Canadian provinces. 

The company made significant improvements to the Greybull plant in 1964 to meet the demand for its products. Additional resources were acquired in Lovell and Thermopolis at that time. 

Wyo-Ben opened a second bentonite processing plant at the Sage Creek rail siding north of Lovell in 1971. The plant was designed specifically to produce a semi-dried crude bentonite for export shipment to the taconite pelletizing industry. This same year the company started shipping its product to a large iron ore pelletizing plant in Tasmania, Australia. 

The 1980s was significant for Wyo-Ben. The company opened a new plant at Lucerne siding north of Thermopolis to meet the substantial increase in demand for bentonite from the taconite pelletizing industry. That year, the total milling capacity reached 650,000 tons. They had a network of 45 North American warehouses located from the Gulf Coast to the Arctic Circle. But then, business declined dramatically and Wyo-Ben suffered tremendous losses. The company owners were forced to make a monumental decision: Fight to stay in business or fold like several of its competitors. Wyo-Ben chose to redirect its sales efforts and change the character of the company by diversifying into environmental industries. 

One of the markets was that of groundwater development. The company pioneered the creation of a new bentonite chip product, Enviroplug, for use in abandoning seismic shot-holes and water well drilling. 

In the 1990s Wyo-Ben responded to marketplace demand and expanded their products into other industries including: water and mineral exploration, horizontal directional drilling, oil and gas exploration, caisson drilling, tunneling, environmental sealants, industrial wastewater treatment and clumping animal litter. 

In 1995 they introduced Cleartreat, specifically designed for rapidly treating industrial wastewater to remove contaminates and allow the water to be legally discharged. 

Wyo-Ben Pet division was launched in 2020 to service the cat litter industry. “Wyoming Sodium Bentonite is responsible for cats becoming significant indoor pets,” said Jeri Lamerton. The beneficial properties of bentonite in cat litter includes adsorption, cohesion, odor control and its desiccant capabilities. 

In November of 2023 Wyo-Ben acquired the Greybull bentonite operation of M-I Swaco, a division of Schlumberger. It was renamed Magnet Cove. The demand for cat litter increased and the company reopened the Lucerne plant. The same year, the company was recognized by the Montana State Fund Workplace Safety for its unwavering commitment to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace and setting a remarkable standard for employers across the industry. 

It was 2024 when the company held the grand opening of Wyo-Ben Pet in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This expansion marked a milestone of delivering pet care solutions to customers worldwide. 

Future plans include expansion and workforce growth into international markets. Wyo-Ben president David Brown said, “In order to grow we need more people to work here and more places for them to live, our biggest challenge and it’s limiting our growth. We need to continue to grow Greybull.” 

Headquartered in Billings, Montana, Wyo-Ben continues to operate manufacturing facilities in Greybull, Thermopolis, and Lovell; Billings, Montana and Toronto, Canada. Products manufactured in the Big Horn Basin are shipped to customers across the United States and around the globe. The company serves global industries including oil and gas, water well drilling, environmental construction, hazardous wastewater treatment, cat litter, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other industrial and consumer markets. 

LOCAL WORKERS

At Friday’s event, employees shared positive experiences, noting improved working conditions and recognition since the company’s acquisition of the Greybull plant. 

Basin’s Alex Olsen, packer operator, shared that he has worked at the plant for 18 years with M-I Swaco and the last two at the plant with Wyo-Ben. “It feels like a career and pathway,” he said. “Before it was just a job and I was just a number. The boss knows you by your name and I’m now recognized for my work. I truly appreciate it.” 

Burlington’s Tony Nicholson, Stucco mill supervisor who has worked 32 years at the plant, shared that he started right out of college, “I didn’t really like what I was doing, that’s when I came down here. It was just a temporary job at first. I wasn’t going to stick around. I was going to go back to college and find something else. But then I really enjoyed work.” Nicholson also talked about how the company supported him through cancer and that he enjoys the work. “Even the hard days throwing 100 lb bags,” he added. 

PLANT OPERATIONS

Terry Cauffman, quality assurance supervisor, gave tours of Magnet Cove’s production area and explained the grinding and packaging steps of the process. Two rotary dryers are used to dry the bentonite to customer specifications. After being crushed, it is the consistency of flour. 

During the process, a sample is provided to the lab for testing before proceeding. When testing the product for cat litter customers, the lab uses a solution to replicate feline urine and excrement. Back in the day, the plant used to buy actual feline urine. 

The product then moves onto the packaging process and is then shipped via railroad or truck. 

The plant was hot, loud and dusty during Friday’s tour. Cauffman educated the group and explained bentonite, “Like shingles on a roof, with a tiny layer of bentonite, it creates a seal. Without bentonite we’d have problems.” 

MINING

Before the product makes it to the plant for processing and packaging, the company must mine it out of the ground. 

The complex process of mining bentonite begins with exploration and environmental studies. Permitting can take up to 24 months for federal lands, compared to 18 months for state lands. The company uses a cast-back system to reclaim land quickly, involving large Caterpillar tractors. It’s a surface mining technique where overburden (the waste rock and soil covering a target mineral) is directly excavated and immediately dumped into an adjacent, previously mined-out pit. 

They mine multiple different bentonite beds, each with varying thicknesses and qualities and then must reclaim the land. 

ABILITY TO SURVIVE

After the testimonials, Wyo-Ben president Brown said, “Hearing these folks I know this company is in great hands to go another 75 years. We pride ourselves on our ability to survive, which in large measure, has been due to our employees. So, we thank them for our ability to get where we are.”

 Greybull City Councilman Gerald Crist then presented a proclamation from Mayor Myles Foley to Wyo-Ben celebrating their milestone. It included the statement, “The Council of the Town of Greybull does herby declare 2026 as a year of recognition for Wyo-Ben’s 75 years as an innovative, environmentally responsible industry leader.” 

Sidebar

Products that contain bentonite

At the celebration an infographic listed 124 products that contain bentonite, here are 25.

 Asphalt roads

Beer clarifier

Buried fiber optic lines

Charcoal briquettes

Clumping cat litter

Chewing gum

Cosmetics

Crayons

Fire extinguishers

Golf green binder

Horticultural sprays

Irrigation ditch liners

Laundry detergents

Latex Paint

Livestock feed

Matches

Mechanic’s soap

Medical emulsions

Pottery

Roofing paper

Sewage lagoon liners 

Shoe polish

Spark plugs

Toothpaste

Watercolors

EMPLOYMENT NUMBERS

Wyo-Ben employs
210 people in Wyoming. 

Sage Creek (Lovell)  27

Stucco (Greybull)  52

Magnet Cove Plant (Greybull)  54

Magnet Cove Mine (Greybull)  47

Lucerne (Thermopolis)  30