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Nevada Mining

Digging for Careers: Mining is in Megan Tibbals blood – by Marianne Kobak McKown (Elko Daily Free Press – May 14, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

CARLIN – The mining industry may run in Megan Tibbals DNA. She has worked at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Gold Quarry Mine for 14 years, but she has been around the industry all her life.

Tibbals said five people in her family have been miners — her great-grandfather, grandfather, father, uncle and herself. Her father moved the family around while he worked for mining companies in several states, and he still works in the industry. Most of his career was spent working for smaller mining companies

“I think when we were young he moved to Goldfield and my mom said she wasn’t moving there,” Tibbals said. “So we stayed in Denver a little while longer.” After her father got a job working for a mine near Winnemucca the family moved, and that’s where Tibbals grew up.

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Grace under pressure: Nevada Turquoise Ridge miners recognized for rescue operation after rock failure traps colleagues (Barrick Beyond Borders – May 4, 2016)

http://barrickbeyondborders.com/

Leo Sanchez has worked at the Turquoise Ridge mine for 11 years, but he won’t soon forget the night of February 3, 2016. The shift started like any other. Sanchez, North Zone Supervisor at the Nevada-based underground mine, was reviewing survey maps with John Conklin, South Zone Supervisor. At 10:30 p.m., Sanchez’s radio sounded. It was Jonathon Long.

“I need you guys down here,” Sanchez recalls Long saying in a calm but urgent voice.

It was highly unusual to request both supervisors so Sanchez knew immediately something wasn’t right. When he arrived in Zone 4, the area in the north zone where Long was working with colleagues Gerald Hinz and David Reed, he understood why. A rock failure had occurred. The three miners were unhurt but partially cut off by more than 30 tons of downed rock. The ventilation system was damaged but still functional.

Sanchez and Conklin quickly but calmly assessed the situation to determine how best to safely extract the men.

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Is This The Hottest Acreage In The Lithium Rush? – by James Burgess (Oil Price.com – April 27, 2016)

http://oilprice.com/

As our lithium-dependent energy revolution unfolds, prices soar and supply remains euphorically tight, a savvy newcomer is the first to cast a much wider exploration net over America’s ground-zero lithium state of Nevada, hedging smart geological bets that there’s lithium beyond Clayton Valley.

The lithium space is becoming a frantic game of who can get their hands on the choicest new mining acreage and who can launch new production fastest. And in North America, it’s all going down in the state of Nevada, which is the staging ground for a U.S. lithium boom that will feed the manufacturing beasts for everything from EVs, battery gigafactories, powerwalls and energy storage solutions to the long and growing list of consumer electronics that we use every day.

Lithium demand just for electric vehicles is set to rise by 70,000 tons every time EV market share jumps only 1 percent. And this fails to account for the brilliant launch of Tesla’s Model 3 EV on 31 March, which saw 325,000 advance sales worth $14 million in only one week, definitively bringing the electric car into our mainstream.

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Editorial: Mines prepare for impact of earthquakes (Elko Daily Free Press – April 27, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

Nevada’s gold mines have taken steps to prepare for the effects of earthquakes, at a time when technology is also making advances in how to predict them.

Earthquakes pose a serious threat to miners, both underground and open pit, as our report in the latest Weekend Edition of the Elko Daily Free Press pointed out. Mines have shut down operations and evacuated miners in response to earthquakes as a safety precaution.

Everyone remembers when a copper-gold mine in Chile collapsed in 2010 a few months after a major earthquake, trapping 33 miners. Efforts to save the miners stretched out for a record 69 days, resulting in their miraculous survival. The drama drew global attention and prompted the motion picture titled “The 33.”

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Mining group latest to sue government over sage-grouse land use plans (Elko Daily – April 20, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

ELKO – The American Exploration & Mining Association has joined in the fight over federal land use plans and sage-grouse.

The group filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to overturn the Sage-Grouse Great Basin and Rocky Mountain Records of Decision and underlying land use plan amendments in seven western states. The lawsuit is against the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service and several federal employees.

AEMA becomes the latest to challenge the plans following lawsuits lodged by the states of Idaho, Utah, nine Nevada counties, the Wyoming Coalition of Local Governments, ranchers, miners and various industry groups. Elko and Eureka counties, a few mining companies, and the Nevada Attorney General were among the first groups to file.

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For The Navajo Nation, Uranium Mining’s Deadly Legacy Lingers – by Laurel Morales(Nevada Public Radio – April 10, 2016)

http://knpr.org/

The federal government is cleaning up a long legacy of uranium mining within the Navajo Nation — some 27,000 square miles spread across Utah, New Mexico and Arizona that is home to more than 250,000 people.

Many Navajo people have died of kidney failure and cancer, conditions linked to uranium contamination. And new research from the CDC shows uranium in babies born now.

Mining companies blasted 4 million tons of uranium out of Navajo land between 1944 and 1986. The federal government purchased the ore to make atomic weapons. As the Cold War threat petered out the companies left, abandoning more than 500 mines.

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Nevada backs priority Superfund status for toxic mine – by Scott Sonner (Elko Daily Free Press – March 31, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

Associated Press – RENO (AP) — Nevada is dropping its long-held opposition to having a World War II-era copper mine added to the priority list of the nation’s most polluted Superfund sites, Gov. Brian Sandoval said in a letter Tuesday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Sandoval said he was reluctantly agreeing with the agency’s latest proposal, which would make $31 million available to help clean up the abandoned Anaconda mine.

The mine in Yerington, about 80 miles southeast of Reno, already is a federal Superfund site, a designation that brought federal help with containing pollution — some of it radioactive — and pinpointing its source.

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A Lithium Gamble That Could Win Big for Tesla – by Katie Fehrenbacher (Fortune Magazine – March 29, 2016)

http://fortune.com/

Will lithium sucked out of the middle of Nevada be a breakthrough source for batteries?

About half way between Reno and Las Vegas, in a barren, sun-scorched valley, sits a region that’s straddling the past and the future of humanity’s centuries-old hunt for valuable metals.

It’s a quest that recently caught the attention of a handful of high flying speculators, mining entrepreneurs, risk-embracing investors—and electric car maker Tesla Motors.

These upstarts are drawn to this desolate landscape called Clayton Valley looking for a new American source of lithium, a white metal that’s a key ingredient in batteries that power cell phones, laptops, and increasingly cars. The demand for lithium is increasing dramatically worldwide, as are lithium prices, and much of the global lithium supply comes from huge conglomerates in Chile, Argentina, and Australia.

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Dispatch from Nevada: The town that gold saved – by Jeff Simon (CNN Politics – February 23, 2016)

http://www.cnn.com/

Battle Mountain, Nevada (CNN)Many Americans listened to the sales pitch of the nation’s most powerful conservative voices during the last recession. And then they acted: They bought and stockpiled gold.

This small town roughly half way between Reno and Salt Lake City would like to thank them for that.

“Without the mines, we probably wouldn’t even be here,” says Jodi Moore, a local insurance agent and the vice president of the local Chamber of Commerce. “That’s what keeps us going.”

As many towns this size grew dilapidated in the face of overwhelming economic hardship, Battle Mountain, Nevada — population, 3,635 — thrived.

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Barrick Gold wants to show it’s a ‘discerning buyer’ with focus on value – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – February 23, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

After a year in which it sold off assets at a furious pace to cope with massive debt, Barrick Gold Corp. is once again talking about possible acquisitions.

John Thornton, chairman of the Toronto-based gold producer, told attendees at the company’s first investor day in five years that he wants to show Barrick can make purchases that create value, not just debt.

“We will, over time, prove to you that we are not only discerning sellers. … We will demonstrate that we are also discerning buyers, capable of consistently creating per-share value for our owners,” Mr. Thornton told his audience in New York. He did not provide details on what type of potential acquisitions might be attractive.

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Nevada might get huge investment from Barrick Gold – by Jennifer Robison (Las Vegas Review-Journal – February 23, 2016)

http://www.reviewjournal.com/

Nevada’s largest mining company is eyeing plans to invest big in its operations. Barrick Gold Corp. said Monday that it could spend $2.1 billion through 2020 expanding gold mines in Nevada and Peru, with about $1.4 billion of the investments set for the Silver State.

The biggest chunk — $1 billion — would go toward building an underground mine at Goldrush, a new deposit about 4 miles southeast of Barrick’s Cortez Hills operation near Elko. Once it starts producing in 2021, Goldrush could yield 440,000 ounces of gold each year. The deposit has an estimated 8.6 million ounces in gold resources.

Barrick is also evaluating expansion of underground mining at Turquoise Ridge, northeast of Winnemucca. The company would build a third production shaft at the site to nearly double annual gold production from 280,000 ounces to 500,000 ounces.

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Barrick estimates $2 billion costs if Nevada, Peru projects proceed (Reuters U.S. – February 22, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) (ABX.N), the world’s largest gold miner, estimated spending of about $2 billion if it decides to proceed with projects in Nevada and Peru.

Barrick, releasing updated pre-feasibility and feasibility studies on the projects, also said on Monday it would redeem up to $750 million of notes to help cut debt by at least $2 billion this year.

The company’s U.S.-listed shares were down about 3 percent at $12.18 in premarket trading on Monday.

Barrick said a pre-feasibility study estimated $1 billion in initial capital spending on its Goldrush project in Nevada, based on a start of construction in 2020.

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[Nevada mining] Editorial: Governor puts Jewell’s credibility on the line (Elko Daily – February 9, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

Gov. Brian Sandoval has thrown down the gauntlet in the battle over hardrock mining’s future in Nevada, taking the bold step of calling out Sally Jewell over management of agencies she oversees as Secretary of the Interior.

Their response will reveal whether the proposed mineral withdrawal is more about helping the sage grouse or harming the state’s mining industry.

The Bureau of Land Management’s comment period closed three weeks ago, and Nevadans could learn by the end of the month whether the current two-year ban will be extended to 20 years. If it is, there will be no exploration along the northern edge of our state, nor in much of Idaho and southeastern Oregon.

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Fast-growing mining and oil & gas industries, and the huge number of supply-chain jobs they create – by Joshua Wright (New Geography – September 18, 2013)

http://www.newgeography.com/

Please note this is a dated article, but very interesting – Stan Sudol

The fastest-growing industry in the U.S since 2010 isn’t large or well-known. In fact, nearly half of the estimated 5,100 jobs in support activities for metal mining are located in one state: Nevada. Nonetheless, employment in this niche mining industry has ballooned 53% since 2010, and it creates a huge number of supply-chain jobs in other parts of the economy.

Four of the five fastest-growing industries from 2010-2013, based on EMSI’s 2013.2 employment dataset, are related in some form to mining and oil & gas. These industries (e.g., oil & gas pipeline construction and support activities for oil & gas operations) have been carried by the boom in oil and natural gas production in pockets of the U.S., from North Dakota to Pennsylvania to Texas. And their growth has sparked new jobs in other sectors.

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Slow Suffocation of the US Mining Space – by Christopher Ecclestone (Investorintel – January 19, 2016)

http://investorintel.com/

The old adage about the frog in the boiling water slowly getting cooked without jumping out is a good metaphor for the mining industry in the US over the last 12 months.

While the big story in commodity circles has been the oil price decline, a far more potent force has been the currency moves. The rampant US dollar has “saved” the bacon of many a miner in Australia, Canada, South Africa and elsewhere while brutally pressure-cooking those that are focused on the mining space in the US.

The chart above sourced from US Global Investors shows the last twelve months’ move in the gold price in various currencies. The USD gold price is clearly the laggard while Brazil has been stellar. It’s a pity there are not more Brazilian gold mining opportunities on offer. Ironically the strength of the Real for the preceding five years meant that Brazil was not such a good place for junior explorers to spend their drilling dollar.

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