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Nevada Mining

Mining 101: A brief history of the industry in Nevada – by Staff (Las Vegas Sun – February 1, 2016)

https://lasvegassun.com/

Less than 1 percent of Nevada’s land houses mining operations.
But the 167,000 acres that are being mined are spread across
almost the entire state. Only Carson City and Douglas County
have no mines. There are 110 mines in the state, and 2,230
companies connected to their operations.

Modern-day mining in Nevada is a high-tech business, not a get-rich-quick dream. Operators use drones to survey, monstrous trucks to haul and T-Rex-sized power shovels to chomp into the ground. Permits and environmental applications take years to approve.

Technology has transformed the business. But the first step remains the same: Stake a claim.

Unlike the old days, mining companies no longer can simply slam a post in the ground and own what’s below the surface dirt. To make a claim, mining companies must inform federal and state agencies that minerals are believed to be underground, pay a slate of fees, then begin a government application process that can last 10 years before a shovel hits the ground. There are two types of mining claims:

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How four Irishmen found the largest pot of silver ever known in Nevada – by Peter Garland M. A. (IrishCentral.com – June 12, 2017)

https://www.irishcentral.com/

Perhaps it was those millennia of experience that, in 1873, led four Irishmen – Mackay, Fair, Flood and O’Brien – to the Comstock Lode, the greatest pot of gold and silver the world has ever known. They located an enormous silver heart within Mount Davidson in Nevada.

The first to putter around above the great trove were a couple of surface gold miners named Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin. These men did not know about nor have the resources to mine down thousands of feet to the silver; they panned for gold and moved on, not realizing that a blue sand that clogged their simple wooden machinery, was in fact silver mixed with gold. Assayed later in 1859 by other men, this sand proved to be “almost a solid mass of silver,” and the silver rush was on.

Eventually it took stockholders, powerful machinery, new mining techniques, and millions of dollars to penetrate the pile and extract billions in silver and gold. Chief among those who pioneered and benefited from the lode were the four Irishmen.

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History of the Carlin Trend (Elko Daily Free Press – May 2, 2015)

http://m.elkodaily.com/

CARLIN — On May 4, 1965, with little fanfare, Newmont poured its first bar of gold from the Carlin Mine. The pomp and circumstance of the official commissioning of the mine would have to wait a few more weeks. That first bar marked the start of one of the largest and longest-lived mining districts in the world.

In summer 1961, geologists John Livermore and Alan Coope arrived in Carlin to visit the Blue Star mine and the Gold Quarry prospect. Livermore had recently heard a talk by U.S. Geological Survey geologist Ralph Roberts about an area in northern Eureka County that had the potential for hosting gold deposits. The type of deposit they were searching for was similar to Getchell, Gold Acres and Bootstrap, deposits in which the gold was dispersed as microscopic particles that could not be found using a gold pan.

After visiting and examining the local deposits, Livermore and Coope began exploring an area approximately 2¾ miles south of Blue Star on Popovich Hill. They postulated that gold would be found in the limestone rocks below a regional fault known as the Roberts Mountains Thrust.

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Nevada gold production increases in 2016 – by Adella Harding (Elko Daily Free Press – May 18, 2017)

http://elkodaily.com/

Gold production in Nevada rose 2.4 percent in 2016 to nearly 5.47 million ounces, while silver production was down 6.4 percent to a nearly 8.89 million ounces, show new figures from the Nevada Division of Minerals. Total gold production in 2015 was nearly 5.34 million ounces, and 2015 silver production totaled a little less than 9.5 million ounces.

“The value of production won’t be available until the Department of Taxation releases their Net Proceeds of Minerals bulletin,” however, said Michael Visher, deputy administrator for the minerals division, in an email in May.

The two largest gold producers were Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. Barrick produced nearly 2.64 million ounces of the total gold production and 200,757 ounces of silver from operations on the Carlin Trend, the Cortez operations near Crescent Valley and Turquoise Ridge in Humboldt County.

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OLD WEST LEGENDS: George Hearst – Father of a Mining & Publishing Empire (Legends of America – March 2014)

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/

Born near Sullivan, Missouri on September 3, 1820, to William and Elizabeth Collins Hearst, George was the oldest of three children. Two years later, his sister Martha (nicknamed Patsy,) was born and later a younger brother Philip arrived, who was unfortunately crippled from birth. From a young age, George worked on the family farm and received very little formal schooling.

Though Hearst was said to have had a lifelong interest in books, he had only rudimentary reading abilities. However, even without a formal education, Hearst was no dummy, as the world would soon see. When George was 26, his father William Hearst died owing some $10,000 to his creditors. George immediately took on the responsibility for caring for his mother, younger sister, and crippled brother.

Before long, George had improved on the farm’s profitability, opened a small store and leased a couple of prospective lead mines. The oldest economic endeavor in Missouri, lead had been mined in the area since 1715. Hearst had been interested in the mines since he was a child and once he bought the lead mines, he began to studying the mining business in earnest. His mines prospered, producing both lead and copper and within two years he was able to pay off his father’s debt.

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The Great Nevada Lithium Rush to Fuel the New Economy – by Paul Tullis (Bloomberg News – March 29, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The race is on to get the mineral out of Clayton Valley and into your iPhones, Bolts, and Powerwalls.

John Rud has been riding the peaks and valleys of the commodities markets around North America since he left the University of Oregon 55 years ago with a master’s degree in geology. “The valleys are real broad, and the peaks are real narrow,” he likes to say. Copper in Canada. Silver in Texas. Gold in Mexico.

Iron in Arizona. Uranium in Utah. In one 18-year stretch, Rud and his wife moved 27 times. “I got to where I could load up a house in a U-Haul truck starting at 4 p.m., be done by midnight, and be on the next job by morning,” he says. “I considered that quite a talent.” (His wife was rather less impressed and eventually left him.)

Rud—pronounced like the adjective—typically shows up in an area with abundant stores of a natural element that looks set for a price spike, puts his geology skills to work finding a lode, files a claim under the General Mining Act of 1872, and waits for the phone to ring.

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World’s 10 Top Producing Gold Mines – by Paul Ausick (247 Wallst.com – January 22, 2017)

http://247wallst.com/

From a peak of more than $1,900 in mid-2011, gold prices dropped below $1,100 in 2015 before rising to around $1,400 last summer. On Friday, the February delivery price settled at $1,210.20, up about $100 since mid-December. The price of gold generally rises in periods of inflation and periods of economic uncertainty.

This is certainly one of the latter and may be the beginning of one of the former. The consumer price index topped 2% last week, and November’s election of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S.

President has presented investors with plenty of uncertainty. A strong dollar also tends to weigh on the price of gold, and Trump has made clear his belief that the dollar is overvalued compared with the Chinese yuan. If the dollar sinks, interest in gold rises.

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Nevada Day: 152 years of mining in Silver State – by Dana Bennett (Reno Gazette-Journal – October 28, 2016)

http://www.rgj.com/

Dana Bennett is President of the Nevada Mining Association.

Mining played a central role in the Silver State’s heritage. In the decades following statehood, mining boom and busts would affect the state’s population and economy. Mining districts like the Comstock, Rochester and Tonopah helped build the very foundations of Nevada history.

Nevada Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate Nevada’s rich heritage – mining and otherwise – but also provides for us a great opportunity to take a step back and realize how much Nevada has changed in the last 152 years.

It goes without saying since then the world has changed immeasurably, and today’s Nevada is barely recognizable. Nevada has become a home for high-tech manufacturing with companies like Tesla and Faraday moving in, and Nevada firms like Switch help connect people all over the world.

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Nevada mine opponents take water battle to appeals court – by Benjamin Spillman (Reno Gazette Journal – October 17, 2016)

http://www.rgj.com/

The battle to block development of a molybdenum mine in Nevada’s rural Diamond Valley is scheduled to resume Tuesday in San Francisco.

That’s where lawyers on both sides of the fight over the proposed Mt. Hope mine near Eureka will make arguments about the project opponents say will have a devastating effect on local water supplies.

“We are having some serious water issues in Diamond Valley right now so adding that mine would just be a huge mistake,” said Carolyn Bailey, whose family has been ranching and farming near the proposed mine site since 1863.

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[Barrick/Kinross] Mine makes way for wildlife – by Adella Harding (Elko Daily Free Press – August 26, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

Bald Mountain Mine south of the Ruby Mountains has started expansion work now that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved an alternate plan that mitigates concerns about mule deer migration, including a major cut in the acreage that can be disturbed.

The plan also eases concerns about sage grouse habitat, wild horses and views from the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge. “Water also was one of those considerations,” said Jill Moore, Bristlecone Field Office manager for the Ely BLM district.

The chosen alternative will disturb 3,097 acres, compared with the original proposal for an expansion that would disturb 7,097 acres. “That’s a 56 percent reduction in proposed disturbance,” said Stephanie Trujillo, assistant field manager for the Ely BLM District’s Bristlecone Field Office. “A lot of it is environmental impact reduction.”

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Commentary: Western officials fear new EPA rules could cripple mining operations – by Thomas Mitchell (Elko Daily Free Press – August 24, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

There is growing fear among officials across the West that in the waning days of the Obama administration his Environmental Protection Agency may enact regulations that could cost the hard rock mining industry billions of dollars, jeopardizing jobs and entire communities.

Earlier this year, the EPA, as is its wont, settled a lawsuit from a passel of self-styled environmental groups by agreeing to write further regulations requiring additional financial assurances — in the form of expensive surety bonds — that mining sites will be adequately cleaned up and reclaimed at the end of operations.

The court gave the EPA until Dec. 1 to write these new rules. Lest we forget, it was the geniuses at the EPA who bungled the reclamation of the Gold King mine near Silverton, Colo., a year ago, dumping millions of gallons of toxic-metal-laced pollutants into the Animas River, turning it a bright yellow.

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Newmont’s Carlin team wins national mine rescue competition: Barrick’s Turquoise Ridge team won first in one of the technician portions (Elko Daily Free Press – August 8, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

RENO – Newmont Mining Corp.’s Carlin Team beat out 35 teams from 16 states nationwide to finish first at the 2016 National Metal and Nonmetal Mine Rescue Contest in Reno.

The Carlin team came in third in the field competition, first place for first aid and second for team tech (BG4) during the four-day event held July 25-28 in Reno. Barrick Gold’s “Turquoise Ridge Regulators” from Golconda, came in first in the bio technician team competition.

Co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Nevada Mining Association, mine rescue competitions gauge the readiness of teams and their individual members – sharpening skills and testing their knowledge in a series of simulated emergency scenarios, such as a mine fire, explosion or roof collapse.

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There is a race for lithium going on in Nevada – by Phil LeBeau (CNBC.com – July 25, 2016)

http://www.cnbc.com/

Ever since electric carmaker Tesla announced plans to build a battery plant outside Reno, Nevada, investors, fans of Elon Musk’s company and others around the world have started paying attention to the silver state’s large lithium deposits.

Lithium is a key component in the production of batteries used in cell phones and electric vehicles. As sales of electric vehicles, which topped 500,000 worldwide last year, increase, so is demand for lithium. “Every new mine that we can find needs to be brought online and it needs to be done as fast as possible,” said Patrick Highsmith, CEO of Pure Energy Minerals.

Highsmith’s company is exploring how much lithium is in the water tables deep below the Nevada desert in Clayton Valley. This valley, halfway between Las Vegas and Reno, is ringed by mountains and home to one of the largest lithium deposits in North America.

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Kinross eyes expansions at its new gold mines in Nevada – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 29, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Kinross (TSX:G) (NYSE:KGC), the world’s fifth largest gold producer, believes it can increase reserves at its Bald Mountain and Round Mountain mines, which it acquired from Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX) late last year.

The company, which is looking to strengthen its portfolio in North America, has increased its exploration budget for the year by 50% to $9 million as “promising results” at Bald Mountain have “reaffirmed Kinross’ confidence in the site’s significant upside potential,” it said in a market update ahead of an analyst tour this week.

Kinross, which operates two mines in Russia and also owns the problem-plagued Tasiast operation in Mauritania, also see great potential in its other Nevada-based mien — Round Mountain.

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Gold supply to drop by 7 pct by 2021 – Newmont CEO – by Michael Allan McCrae (Mining.com – June 20, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Due to the past price performance of gold, supply is constrained says Gary Goldberg, president and CEO of Newmont Mining. “We see the medium- to long-term as being very good,” said Goldberg in an interview with MINING.com earlier this month talking about gold prices and buying trends in India and China.

“I think you have seen a decrease in supply as there has been less investment in new properties. We are one of the few who are building two brand-new mines: Merian-Suriname and Long Canyon in Nevada. “Overall, we see gold supply dropping by about 7% by 2021.”

Transcript is edited for brevity and clarity.

MINING.com: Who are you.

Gary Goldberg: I am Gary Goldberg. I am the president and CEO of Newmont Mining.

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