Hva er framtidsutsiktene for Butte? Fant denne artikkelen i [Montana Standard](https://mtstandard.com/news/local/economic-outlook-montana-connections-park-is-a-hive-of-economic-development/article_179cfa13-107a-532e-a3e6-b1307fca689a.html) som tar for seg den økonomiske utviklingen i Montana Connections hvor blant annet Butte-fabrikken ligger. Her er et utdrag fra artikkelen hvor de skriver om REC:

REC Silicon has come through a really tough period, and now, things look considerably brighter at the company, which produces specialty gases and polysilicon for the semiconductor industry.

"We are going strong," said DeAnna Worley, vice president supervising human resources, health, safety and environmental concerns at the plant. "We're basically running full out."

She said that as challenging and detrimental as COVID-19 has been, one aspect of the fact more people are working from home is that they "continue to buy computers, flat-screen TVs and cell phones," and that means increased demand for REC's products.

A trade war with China, crippling the solar-panel industry, has meant that the company's Moses Lake, Washington plant has been idled. While nothing's official, Worley said there are high hopes for improvement there.

In Butte, the improved financial picture means the plant is actually able to consider expanding.

"Our engineers haven't come up with the full package yet, but when they do we'll send a proposal to our board of directors. We hope that's in 2021, even though it may not actually happen" this year, she said. "We've been in a financial struggle for so long that we had to put any thought of expansion on hold. But now we're reinvigorating the project, doing the work to get a proposal together for what an expansion would look like."

The company's Butte workforce as of the end of January was 205, Worley said.

"Things are good out here, and we're optimistic for many reasons," Worley said. "We're focusing on running a safe, reliable operation and giving good products to our customers."