Abstract: A low-level airborne radioactivity survey of parts of Beaverhead and Madison Counties in southwestern Montana was undertaken from June 6 to October 14, 1955. Flying centered around the Ruby Range-Sweetwater Basin area and concentrated on the Precambrian metamorphic complex and Tertiary lake-bed sediments. No commercial uranium deposits were discovered, and no extensions were found of the few known small occurrences. Five areas of high background detected through the survey were investigated on the ground.

From abstract: A mineral resource survey of the Ruby Mountains Wilderness Study Area (MT-076-001) was made in 1984- 85. Thirty-two million tons of subeconomic mineral resources that average 21 percent iron occur in the Kelly iron deposit and constitute an identified resource adjacent to the southeasternmost edge of the study area. Moderate and high mineral resource potential for talc deposits occur within a large body of Archean (see geologic time chart in appendix) marble in the central part of the study area (fig. 1). The study area has a low mineral resource potential for uranium and for oil and gas sources. No phosphate deposits exist in the study area.