mining quarterly spring 2011

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Cover March 2011 Mining Quarterly

PUBLISHED BY THE ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS

QQUARTERLYUARTERLYSpring 2011

A crew from Arnold Machinery out of Elkoassembles a new 36-yard Hitachi hydraulicshovel at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Twin CreeksMine in Humboldt County.

Twin Creeksdigs in forlong haul

Adella Harding/photo

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Inside cover March 2011 Mining Quarterly

— INSIDE —Long Canyon

Newmont to buy Fronteer— Page 2

BALD MOUNTAIN

Expansion nearly complete

— Page 16

ROBINSON MINE

Busy mining Ruth

— Page 27

ROUND MOUNTAIN

Starting Gold Hill satellite

— 3

ELKO MINING EXPO

More booths for June event

— Page 76

Find the jobyou want

— Pages 86-87Employment

ELKO — With gold prices still shining andthe state and federal governments looking formore revenue in tough economic times, themining industry is a target.

At the national level, President BarackObama’s budget proposes a 5 per-cent gross royalty for hard-rockminerals mined on public land aspart of a three-prong plan thatwould affect the industry.

The proposal outlined on theU.S. Bureau of Land Manage-ment’s website also would switchnew exploration and mining proj-ects from mining claims to min-ing leases.

The plan also calls for all min-ing operations on public and pri-vate property to pay a fee for thecleanup of abandoned mines.

“Mining has been one of thefew bright spots in Nevada’s economy, and itwould be a mistake to take any action thatcould cost mining jobs,” U.S. Rep. DeanHeller, R-Nev., said when word of the pro-posed royalty surfaced.

At both the national and state level, movesare afoot to urge the U.S. Department ofInterior to speed up permitting for miningprojects.

The Nevada Legislature planned to send aresolution to Nevada’s congressional delega-tion asking that the timeline for permits betrimmed, and U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.,said he was looking at a joint letter with Sen.Harry Reid, D-Nev., over permit times.

“Shortening the time could create thou-sands of jobs,” Ensign said.

The Nevada mining industry is on tap tocontinue to pay net proceeds of mineralstaxes in advance, and the industry is willingto help Nevada with its money troubles inthis case.

“The industry is OK with this one,” saidNevada Mining Association President TimCrowley.

“It’s important to point out the industrywas asked to OK prepayment in 2008 andhad to come up with the cash to give the state.This was a no-interest loan, and that is theyear the state realized the benefit,” he said.

If a new bill doesn’t pass in the current leg-islative session, the mines would go back topaying taxes the regular way, and that couldcause a cash-flow problem for the state,Crowley said.

He also said he is spending time in CarsonCity explaining what the mining industryalready pays in taxes and why the industrydoesn’t want to be singled out for new taxes.

“We’re working to see that the Legislatureunderstands our contributions tothe state,” Crowley said.

The industry pays more than$200 million a year in taxes,including net proceeds, payrolltaxes, property taxes and salesand use taxes, he said.

Crowley also testified in acommittee hearing in Februaryagainst a bill to take away themining industry’s eminent do-main authority.

“As far as the NMA is aware,there is no evidence that theeminent domain authority thathas been accorded mining com-

panies in this state for over 125 years hasbeen used other than sparingly and onlywhen absolutely necessary to allow signifi-cant projects to go forward,” he testified.

Fronteer Gold threatened to use eminentdomain against the Big Springs Ranch inElko County last year, but the ranch ownersand Fronteer settled and Fronteer purchasedthe ranch for $12 million.

Now, Newmont Mining Corp. may ownthe ranch if its $2.33 billion purchase ofFronteer Gold wins Fronteer shareholderapproval. See the story on Page 2.

Also in Nevada, the state Commission onMineral Resources is battling a move to con-solidate the commission and Nevada Divi-sion of Minerals into the Nevada Departmentof Conservation and Natural Resources.

Commission Chairman Fred Gibson saidthe move wouldn’t save money since thedivision’s funding comes from mining claimfees, but the consolidation could pose con-flicts of interest.

For example, the division promotes min-ing while the department’s Division ofEnvironmental Protection is charged withregulating mining.

Articles on mining projects and opera-tions in Nevada appear inside the MiningQuarterly, along with an interview with anenvironmentalist about his views on mining.

———————Adella Harding is editor of the Mining

Quarterly. She may be reached at [email protected].

Mining industry fightsnew grabs for revenue

AdellaHarding

MINING QUARTERLYJohn Pfeifer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PublisherAdella Harding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor

To advertise, call 775-738-3118Mining Quarterly is published in March,June, September and December by the Elko Daily Free Press (USPS No. 173-4320)

at 3720 Idaho Street, Elko, Nevada 89801, by Lee Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises.Periodical postage paid at the Elko Post Office. For change of address write 3720 Idaho St., Elko NV 89801 SPRING 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 1

2 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SPRING 2011

AADDEELLLLAA HHAARRDDIINNGGMining Quarterly Editor

ELKO — Newmont Mining Corp. put $2.33 billion onthe table in what the company figures is a sure bet thatFronteer Gold’s Long Canyon Project is the next CarlinTrend.

“We’ve done extensive due diligence. The more welooked at it, the more we liked it,” said Newmontspokesman Omar Jabara after Newmont announced itsoffer for Fronteer.

“The Long Canyon deposit is in our backyard, andNewmont can recognize a significant new CarlinTrend,” he said.

Newmont was the first big company to mine on theCarlin Trend and has been mining on the Carlin Trendsince 1966.

“We know this region better than anyone,” NewmontPresident and Chief Executive Officer Richard O’Briensaid in early February when Newmont and Fronteerannounced their friendly deal.

Nevada State Geologist Jonathan Price said later inFebruary that Long Canyon is a Carlin-type deposit,and the discovery “opens a whole new world. It’s excit-ing to me that a major company now has a stake in it,and that’s good for Elko County.”

Price, who also is director of the Nevada Bureau ofMines and Geology, said the test of whether it is anoth-er Carlin Trend may take a decade, but the discoveriesso far qualify as a new mining district.

Long Canyon is in Elko County in the PequopMountains between Wells and West Wendover andwould be the first major gold mine east of Elko.

Denver-based Newmont wants to buy Fronteer Goldfor Long Canyon and two additional late-stage explo-ration projects. Fronteer shareholders will vote in Aprilon whether to accept Newmont’s offer.

“We’re expecting the deal to close around the end ofApril,” Jabara said.

Newmont plans to pay cash for Fronteer, he said.“We’re fortunate to have a sizable balance sheet right

now,” Jabara said.Newmont had roughly $4.8 billion in cash, cash

equivalents and marketable securities at the end of2010.

Fronteer’s board already approved the proposed saleto Newmont.

If shareholders approve, Newmont will gain 100 per-cent ownership of Long Canyon, Fronteer’s North-umberland Project in Nye County and Sandman inHumboldt County.

Newmont also will take over Fronteer’s 40 percentshare of the West Pequop Project in the PequopMountains that Agnico-Eagle operates and the early-stage South Pequop Project that Golden Dory operates.

In addition, Newmont will acquire the Big SpringsRanch that Fronteer bought for $12 million last yearadjacent to Long Canyon.

The proposed arrangement also calls for the spin-offof Pilot Gold for Fronteer’s remaining exploration proj-

ects in Nevada.While Newmont’s deal is on the table, Fronteer con-

tinues exploration at Long Canyon and at North-umberland.

“We have one rig operating at Long Canyon, and theconstruction of the decline at Northumberland hasadvanced to 635 feet,” Fronteer spokesman GlenEdwards said on Feb. 18.

Vancouver-based Fronteer’s plans before the pro-posed merger were to develop a surface and under-ground operation at Northumberland, where WesternState Minerals mined from 1986 to 1990.

Newmont explored Northumberland in the past andis exploring Sandman now under an option agreementwith Fronteer.

According to Newmont, Sandman holds the potentialfor a surface mine on the 29-square-mile land package,and a prefeasibility study should be ready in 2012.

Fronteer’s president and chief executive officer, MarkO’Dea said Newmont’s plans plug into what Fronteerhas been wanting to do in Nevada.

He also said Newmont is the best fit to see LongCanyon through to a producing gold mine.

Jabara said Newmont sees a lot of synergies in thedevelopment of Long Canyon because Newmont hasexisting mills and already moves ore around in Nevadato the type of facility that best processes certain types ofore.

David Baker, vice president and chief sustainabilityofficer for Newmont, predicted in the teleconferenceannouncing the project that Long Canyon could be inconstruction in 2015.

Fronteer recently reported the measured and indicat-ed resource at Long Canyon totaled 2.2 million ouncesof gold, and Newmont expects the deposit to grow.

O’Brien said Long Canyon has the potential to growthree or four times the current resource.

The arrangement between Newmont and Fronteercovers spinning off 11 early-stage exploration projects inNevada, two in Turkey and one in Peru into Pilot Gold,

Newmont bets on Long Canyon

Newmont Mining Corp.

Newmont Mining Corp.’s graphic shows the locations of the Long Canyon, Northumberland and Sandman projects that wouldcome with the company’s proposed purchase of Fronteer Gold.

See NNEEWWMMOONNTT,, 3

SPRING 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 3

SubmittedA vehicle heads out of the new exploration decline at Fronteer Gold’s Northumberland Project inNye County. J.S. Redpath is the contractor.

and O’Dea said he will be chairman ofPilot Gold.

“Our core team at Fronteer will moveover to Pilot Gold,” O’Dea said, notingthe new venture will start with roughly$10 million from the arrangement withNewmont.

Fronteer shareholders will have an 80.1percent chunk of Pilot Gold, and New-mont will own a 19.9 percent stake.

The plan to spin off the explorationcompany is similar to what Fronteer didwhen it acquired AuEx Ventures last yearin an arrangement valued at more than$265 million to gain 100 percent owner-ship of Long Canyon.

That deal created Reno-based Renais-sance Gold Inc., which kept explorationprojects outside of Long Canyon, WestPequop and South Pequop.

The projects Pilot Gold will hold inNevada include Anchor, Baxter Spring,Brik, Buckskin North, Cold Springs,Easter, Gold Springs 2, New Boston,Regent, Stateline and Viper.

The Turkey projects are Halilaga andTV Tower, and in Peru is the Rae WallaceRights.

“Regent has great upside potential,”O’Dea said.

Newmont executives said in the tele-conference that Long Canyon will be amajor focus in Nevada, but the companyhas a pipeline of projects.

These projects include expansion ofthe Leeville underground mine north ofCarlin with the Leeville and Turfdeposits and getting back to gold pro-duction from the Gold Quarry open pit,where pit wall failures affected produc-tion, according to O’Brien.

Newmont also has growth potentialwith the recent U.S. Bureau of LandManagement approval for the EmigrantProject south of Carlin, and the plannedGenesis Project north of Carlin.

The Elko BLM District’s draft environ-mental impact statement on Genesiscould be released soon.

“We’ve sent a notice of availability tothe Washington office,” said DaveOvercast, manager of the district’sTuscarora Field Office, adding that hedidn’t have a time frame for when the EISwould be public.

In addition, Newmont has the copperleach project at the Phoenix Mine nearBattle Mountain and planned projectscalled the “Sleeping Giants,” includingMike, Fiberline, Greater Phoenix andCopper Basin deposits.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyMoira Smith, chief geologist for Fronteer Gold’s Nevada projects, describes the Long Canyongold deposit in the Pequop Mountains in Elko County in October. The map was in the office trail-er at Oasis.

Newmont ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 22



ELKO — With the high price of gold andnew and expansion mining projects inNevada, the hunt goes on for people forthe hard-to-fill positions in the industry,as well as for new easier-to-fill jobs.

“In 2010, we filled just over 1,000 posi-tions, and we had just under 30,000applications,” said Dana Pray, recruitingmanager for Barrick Gold of NorthAmerica’s Nevada mines, the GoldenSunlight Mine in Montana and Salt LakeCity administration offices.

The 30,000 applications include appli-cations from people applying for morethan one position, however, so thereweren’t actually 30,000 people seekingjobs, Pray said.

The 1,000 positions included people fornew jobs and to be replacements forvacant slots.

Barrick has roughly 4,000 employees inthe United States.

“For 2011, we’re looking at between1,200 and 1,500 positions to fill,” Pray

said. “The mining profession overall is inbig demand and in tight supply. Today, forinstance, we have 300 positions to fill.”

The most wanted people are on the tech-nical side, including mining, geological,electrical, mechanical and civil engineers.

“Those are difficult to fill at this point,also electricians,” Pray said.

Pray said Barrick trains people forentry-level positions, such as equipmentoperators, lubrication technicians andunderground support miners, andplanned in mid-February to put 11 peoplethrough an underground academy atTurquoise Ridge Mine in HumboldtCounty in the next few weeks.

“We had a huge response,” said LouSchack, director of communications andcommunity affairs for Barrick Gold ofNorth America.

Barrick puts a lot of effort into filling jobslots, including attending job fairs andevents around the country and recruitingfor military veterans.

“Yes, we are targeting them,” Pray said.Pray said there are nine people in

Barrick’s recruiting department.

Those looking to get hired go throughseveral pre-employment tests, including afit-for-duty physical and substance abusetesting and a criminal background check,as well as a reference check.

Pray encourages job applicants to applyonline so they can better track their appli-cations. Barrick has kiosks and people tohelp at the Elko administration office.

“We don’t encourage people to go to themines, but our office is here for that pur-pose,” Pray said.

Round Mountain Gold Corp. in remoteNye County, a partnership of Barrick andKinross Gold Corp. and operated byGoldcorp, also feels the hiring pinch.

“The toughest struggle without a doubtis the shortage of technical manpower,”Round Mountain General Manager RandyBurggraff said. “We’re pretty much able tokeep the hourly workforce full, but there istremendous difficulty finding technicalworkers.”

He said the mine struggles to find elec-tricians with special knowledge to work inmines, instrumentation technicians,engineers, metallurgists and geologists.

“With the lull in mining 15 years ago,not as many kids went into mining in col-lege, and we’re feeling it now. The ones wealready had are retiring,” Burggraff said.

Temporary employment agencies alsoare busy.

“This past year has been the busiestyear Elko Manpower has had in years,” saidBecky Tully, manager of the Elko Man-power office.

“The mines are our best customers byfar, but when they call us, it is for tempo-rary jobs,” Tully said, estimating 95 per-cent of the Manpower jobs are at mines.

She said the temporary agencies are “agood way to get your foot in the door.”

Tully, who has been at the Elko office 19years, said the office is seeing a lot ofpeople moving to the area looking for jobsafter hearing on television that Elko is agood place to look for employment.

The arrival of job hunters in Elko andmine recruitment has led to anotherproblem, according to Schack. That’shousing.

“One of the big challenges is findingpeople a place to live,” he said.

Mines struggle to fill special jobs


GOLCONDA — The future is lookingbright for Newmont Mining Corp.’sTwin Creeks Mine north of Golconda,where plans are under way for the goldmine’s first-ever underground projectand for expansion of open-pit mining.

“We’re excited about the future, and$1,300 to $1,400 gold helps. The cor-poration recognizes there is a lot ofcapital in infrastructure already here,”said Tim Pike, mine operations super-intendent.

The mine’s infrastructure includesthe Sage Mill with two autoclaves andthe Juniper oxide mill.

The underground exploration projectwill include roughly 1,600 feet of drift,according to Walt Holland, the mineoperations manager.

“We will put two diamond drills inthere for exploration and defining atarget base of 150,000 ounces,” he said.

The target for the undergroundexploration is the Vista Vein, which isto the northeast and under the VistaPit.

“There will be three months in andfive months drilling,” Holland said.

Small Mine Development expected tobegin the portal for the undergroundproject in February and finish the proj-ect at the end of May, according to RonGuill, the founder of SMD who keeps upwith the company, although he recent-ly sold it to his managers.

Twin Creeks also plans the Vista 7open-pit project that will expand theVista Pit, and permitting is under waywith the U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-ment for that project.

“We’re putting together the baselinereports now and submitting them to theBLM,” said Doug Barto, senior environ-mental manager, who said the project iswithin already disturbed acreage.

“It adds five years to the mine life,”he said.

Pike said Vista 7 would be a primari-ly oxide pit that will provide feed forthe Juniper mill and for the leach pad.

Ken Loda at the BLM’s Winnemucca


eyes long life

AABBOOVVEE:: Don Massie, left, and Tucker Smith, both ofArnold Machinery in Elko, work in late January toassemble a Hitachi hydraulic shovel at NewmontMining Corp.’s Twin Creeks Mine in Humboldt County.

LLEEFFTT:: Doug Hinshaw of Winnemucca dispatches mineequipment and haul trucks in late January from atower above the Mega Pit at Newmont Mining Corp.’sTwin Creeks Mine. The mine uses Minestar to track thetrucks.

Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly

TTwin Crwin Creekeekss

See TTWWIINN CCRREEEEKKSS,, 6


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyHaul trucks carry waste material to dump as backfill in the Mega Pit at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Twin Creeks Mine in Humboldt County. The trucksare driving on the backfill pile that splits the giant pit.

office stated that once the BLM receivesthe baseline reports, “we can start anenvironmental assessment in earnest. Ibelieve we are looking at about a Sep-tember approval date.”

FFuuttuurree ppllaannssHolland said Vista 8 also is part of

the Twin Creeks business plan, but dril-ling still has to be completed to defineVista 8.

“North Mega also is in the businessplan. It will be another layback,” hesaid, adding that Top Hill also is a tar-get.

“Then we have Cut 23 and 25 in theouter years of the business plan, thatwill be laybacks to the Mega Pit,”Holland said. “Everything mentionedhas Twin Creeks mining to 2023 andprocessing to 2036. We have eightgrowth projects with a potential for 7.5million ounces, plus the SleepingGiant, which is called the FiberlineProject east of the Mega Pit.”

CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 55


Twin Creeks ...


Pike said Fiberline could add another8 million ounces.

“We’re drilling there now,” he said.Newmont has approved $7 million in

drilling at Twin Creeks for 2011, whichis roughly two and a half times whatTwin Creeks usually spends.

Holland said the company realizesthat Twin Creeks already has the facili-ties and land that make it important tokeep the operations going for as long aspossible.

Don Wilhite, the process manager atTwin Creeks, said the projected minelife back in 1997 was to 2006, nowNewmont is looking to increase themine life even further.

The facilities at Twin Creeks includethe Sage Mill that includes two auto-claves for processing sulfide ore fromnot only Twin Creeks but other New-mont mines in northeastern Nevadaand the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venturenear Twin Creeks, as well as the Juniper



Mechanics JeffJones, left, and PetePettit talk in lateJanuary with DaveSadler, process main-tenance superintend-ent, about the workthey are doing on asecondary ball mill atthe Sage processingfacility at NewmontMining Corp.’s TwinCreeks Mine inHumboldt County.

Adella HardingMining Quarterly

Twin Creeks ...


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyA blast loosens the rock for mining in late January in Cut 22 in the Mega Pit at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Twin Creeks Mine north of Golconda.

Mill for processing oxide ores.Wilhite said the Sage Mill cost $300 million in 1997,

but “today it would be four times that, so we have agood asset base here.”

Barrick Gold Corp. operates Turquoise Ridge andowns 75 percent of the property, while Newmontowns 25 percent and processes the ore at the SageMill.

Wilhite said roughly 10 to 15 percent of the ore TwinCreeks processes is from Turquoise Ridge.

SSaaggee MMiillllThe Sage Mill reached a milestone last year when

the number of ounces going through the mill hit 10million, and “we’re looking to hit our 20 million-ounce mark,” Wilhite said.

So far, 16.9 million ounces of gold have been pouredat Twin Creeks over the years from 1987 to 2010,including ore coming from Carlin and TurquoiseRidge, he also said in late January.

The Sage Mill was designed to processing 204 tonsof ore per autoclave per hour, and the mill processed224 tons per autoclave per hour in 2010, Wilhite said.

The autoclaves treats the ore at an average temper-ature of 440 degrees, said Greg Thies, the processoperations general foreman.

Newmont has a system for processing ores at its

Twin Creeks and Carlin facilities that depends uponwhere the ore can best be processed for the bestrecovery and where the ore is needed to provide thebest blend for the facilities. Newmont has a roaster atCarlin, but the only active autoclaves are at TwinCreeks.

Oxide ores, which are ores that can be processedthrough leaching alone or crushing and leaching, stayon the site where mined but autoclaves and roastersare options for the refractory ores that need the extraprocessing steps to expose the gold.

Roasters process the ore through burning, whileautoclaves create a chemical reaction that heats theore without a physical burning process, said the chief



Twin Creeks ...

metallurgist at Twin Creeks, BlaineOlson.

He said laboratory analysis and historictesting tells Newmont where ore can bebest processed, and the company relies alot on historic information acquired overthe years on the types of ore.

“The autoclaves went into operationin 1997, and in that time we’ve devel-oped a lot of history of the differentdeposits in Nevada,” he said.

The blending of ores is to provideenough “fuel” for the autoclaves. Thisfuel comes from the ore.

“If the gold and sulfide fuel is justright, it provides all the heat necessaryto process the ore,” Olson said.

Trucks haul ore from Carlin to TwinCreeks, and this ore tends to be fromunderground mining, and occasionallythere are ores at Twin Creeks that needto go to the roaster in Carlin, “but mostof the flow is coming to us,” Olson said.

Newmont had an autoclave at theLone Tree Mine in years past, but opera-tion of that autoclave has been suspend-ed. There is no mining at Lone Tree now,although gold is still processed therefrom residual leaching, and reclamationwork continues. The laboratory at LoneTree also continues to be used for workfrom Newmont’s Phoenix Mine.

Wilhite said the Sage Mill also “veryoccasionally” processes ore from New-

mont’s underground Midas Mine. Midashas its own mill, however, and the ore atMidas has a lot more silver than the oreat Twin Creeks.

The ore going through the Sage Millaverages about a 10th of an ounce of sil-ver for every ounce of gold, Thies said.

Twin Creeks continually works toimprove the efficiency of the Sage Mill,including the addition of a third pump toeach of the two autoclaves last year.

Dave Sadler, the process maintenancesuperintendent, said there also havebeen improvements to the equipment atSage, such as the redesigning of the agi-tator blades for the autoclaves to in-crease blade life.

“From the day commissioned, thechanges started,” he said.

“The next project will be a new scrub-ber at the back of the autoclaves to cleanup emissions,” Wilhite said.

He said Twin Creeks has been “veryproactive” and worked with the NevadaDivision of Environmental Protection toreduce emissions and meet new regula-tions from the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency. The EPA approvedmercury regulations last December,although the state has had regulationsfor several years.

EEmmppllooyyeeee nnuummbbeerrssThe Twin Creeks Mine has 535

employees, and roughly 160 of those

people work in the laboratories andmills, according to Wilhite.

Mining is under way in Cut 22 at theMega Pit, which is a huge open pit splitby a mountain of backfill. The whole pitis about 2.5 miles long and probably1,000 feet deep, said Glenn Alexander,senior closure and reclamation engi-neer.

The newest piece of equipment for

the mining fleet is a $7 million Hitachihydraulic shovel with a 36-yard bucketthat Arnold Machinery out of Elko wasassembling on site in late January.

Pike said the newest shovel joins aP&H electric shovel, two older Hitachihydraulic shovels, a Caterpillar loaderand 21 250-ton Caterpillar haul trucks




Twin Creeks ...

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyGlenn Alexander, left, senior closure and reclamation engineer for Newmont Mining Corp.’s TwinCreeks Mine, and Tim Pike, mine operations superintendent for Twin Creeks, talk in January aboutthe progress of the West Pit reclamation project. They are standing on the fully backfilled pit.

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyGlenn Alexander, senior closure and reclamation engineer for Newmont Mining Corp.’s TwinCreeks Mine, stands at the newly reclaimed Pinon tailings dam. The spillway for water runoff ontop is in the background and to the right is a lined pond for runoff from the bottom of the dam.

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyFernando Mojica of Winnemucca, a process operator at the Sage Mill at Newmont Mining Corp.’sTwin Creeks Mine, checks an autoclave.

to make up the mining fleet.Twin Creeks began backfilling the

Mega Pit with waste rock in 2000, andthere currently are about 175 milliontons of backfill in the pit, according toPike, who said 1 billion tons of materialhave been mined out of Mega over theyears.

Along with the backfilling at Mega,Twin Creeks also completely backfilledthe West Pit and reclaimed the sur-face. The project received the Excel-lence in Reclamation Award from stateand federal agencies at the NevadaMining Association convention lastfall.

West Pit was filled with 24 milliontons of waste rock.

Reclamation work at Twin Creekshas been ongoing, and Alexander saidmore than 1,700 acres have been seed-ed on site, including mainly waste rockdumps and the Pinon tailings dam.

PPiinnoonn ddaamm rreeccllaammaattiioonnThe Pinon dam reclamation is the

newest project, and Alexander said the

project was designed to weather a100-year storm, including a spillwayfor any storm water or snowmelt thatcollects on the top.

The reclamation work includedplacing a 5-foot soil covering over the9 million tons of tails, which is thewaste from processing ore, as well asconstruction of the spillway.

Alexander said the spillway sendsthe storm water from rain and snowout into the desert, but any water thatseeps from under the tailings pondgoes into a lined pond.

He said in late January there hadbeen two runoffs since the construc-tion, spilling out roughly 300 gallonsof water a minute for a short time.

Twin Creeks crews did most of thework on the dam, but Honeywell wascontracted to build the spillway

Alexander said the covering andgrading of the tailings dam and thespillway construction were ready lastsummer, and the site was seeded in thefall.




Twin Creeks ... Don Wilhite, process man-ager for Newmont MiningCorp.’s Twin Creeks Minein Humboldt County,smiles in January as heguides a tour of the SageMill.


Electrician Pat Masterson istesting a flocculent systemin late January in the SageMill at Newmont MiningCorp.’s Twin Creeks Mine inHumboldt County.


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The seed mixtures were for plantsthat do well in the high desert, grow-ing well without irrigation.

Twin Creeks quit using the 150-acrePinon dam at about the end of 2001and uses the one at the Juniper Mill.

Twin Creeks also is proud of itssafety record, which puts the mine atthe top of all Newmont’s operationsin North America, with the PhoenixMine near Battle Mountain a closesecond, according to Holland.

He said the mine has a new safetyprogram called “Talking Safety.” Twohourly employees were brought intothe project to talk with other hourlyemployees and collect safety sugges-tions from them.

Holland said that as of the end ofJanuary the program had been underway 60 days, and there were morethan 100 suggestions, 75 percent ofthem already approved for imple-mentation.

“This gives them another path totalk with us, and we need their feed-back,” Holland said.



Twin Creeks ...AADDEELLLLAA HHAARRDDIINNGG

Mining Quarterly Editor

ELKO — Newmont Mining Corp.’splans for the future include develop-ment of the Emigrant Project rough-ly 10 miles south of Carlin now thatthe U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-ment has given the project the greenlight.

The BLM issued the record of deci-sion on the project in late January.

“We are pleased with the record ofdecision for the Emigrant Projectlocated in Elko County,” said MaryKorpi, director of external relations forNewmont in Nevada.

“Emigrant is part of our growthportfolio in Nevada and with theapproval of the ROD we can now movethe project further along our internalproject pipeline,” she said.

Proposed mining operations wouldlast for about 10 years through 2020with closure operations continuinguntil 2024 at the site that is within one

mile of Newmont’s mined-out RainMine, according to the final EIS.

“We hope to employ 180 folks andprotect the environment at the sametime,” BLM project leader for EmigrantTom Schmidt said.

Emigrant has been more than fiveyears in the planning and studyingstages.

The Elko BLM District stated thefinal EIS analyzed Newmont’s pro-posed plan of operations and theeffects of developing and operating anopen-pit mine, constructing a wasterock disposal facility, run-of-mineheap leach pad, permanent streamdiversion channel, ancillary supportfacilities and reclaiming surface dis-turbances.

Newmont will use the shop at Rain,the decision record states.

The EIS and decision record addressconcerns raised in the public commentperiod in 2008 and 2009.

“The BLM got a lot of comments onpotential acid generation, and we’re

saying it’s still not ready,” said JohnHadder, executive director of GreatBasin Resource Watch.

Schmidt said Great Basin ResourceWatch sent comments after the finalEIS during the review period after thefinal EIS was released.

The BLM addressed the acid con-cerns with plans calling for encapsu-lating any acid-generating rock inacid-neutralizing material in man-agement plan, if necessary, Schmidtsaid.

The record of decision authorizeddisturbance of 1,170 acres of publicland, including 442 acres of public sur-face and private mineral estate, and 248acres of private land.

The BLM authorization also allowsNewmont to mine 92 million tons ofore and 83 million tons of waste rockand construction of a zero-dischargeheap leach on 344 acres, including 214acres of public land, according to thedecision record.

BLM approves Emigrant Project


ELKO — Barrick Gold Corp.’s BaldMountain Mine has a new lease on life asthe major expansion project there nearsthe finish point.

“We’re wrapping up, but we’re still inconstruction. We plan to be done bymid-March,” said Jose Barron, Barrick’sproject manager for the Bald Mountainwork that is adding years to mine lifeand adding more jobs.

The project cost more than $200 mil-lion.

Bald Mountain General Manager DaveMcClure said the mine is “really in thedevelopment phase, probably untilaround the end of the second quarter.”

Massive stripping of dirt and rockthat doesn’t contain gold is under wayat the Top Pit, but there is a little oremined there, too.

“We’re developing now back into themain ore body,” McClure said.


Paul Smith,electrical man-ager for BarrickGold Corp.,talks about thepower needs forthe Bald Moun-tain Mineexpansion proj-ect in WhitePine County.The newMooney BasinSouth processplant is underconstruction inthe background.

Ross AndresonMining Quarterly

Bald Mountain expansion nears completion

See BBAALLDD MMTTNN..,, 17


Ross Anderson/Mining QuarterlyOne of the two new P&H electric shovels operating at the Top Pit at the Bald Mountain Mine is parked for P&H MinePro mainte-nance in early February. The shovels have 47-yard buckets.

He said the ore mined this year will be stacked onthe leach pads at Mooney Basin, so the gold produc-tion from that ore won’t show upuntil 2012.

Top Pit will be the center of activi-ty at Bald Mountain for the remain-der of Bald Mountain’s mine life,McClure said.

“We’ve really been in the develop-ment stage since we got our permit ayear ago, so our gold production willnot be as significant as it has been,”he said, but he pointed out that the trend will be uponce Top Pit is in ore. “That will really start to occur in2012.”

GGoolldd pprroodduuccttiioonnBald Mountain produced 20,000 ounces of gold in

the fourth quarter, up from 17,000 ounces in the 2009quarter, according to Barrick.

Total cash costs were $634 per ounce, down from$765 per ounce last year.

McClure said there also is still mining in one of thesmaller pits on site, Sago, and there is gold productionfrom residual leaching for earlier mining. Most of the


DDaavvee MMccCClluurree


Bald Mtn. ...

smaller pits on site also will be minedagain, he said.

“Top Pit will be the anchor,” McCluresaid.

The mine has produced as much as280,000 ounces of gold in a year, in2006, but historically the mine has pro-duced between 50,000 and 100,000 ayear since the early 1980s.

“When we start in 2012, we will begoing to the 200,000 to 300,000-ounce range,” McClure said, reportingBarrick expects to mine 250,000 tons ofmaterial a day beginning in 2012.

“To some degree, this can be viewedas new capitalization and a new project.It’s almost like a new project,” McCluresaid.

He said Bald Mountain has alwaysbeen considered a small mine, but withthe current gold reserves, the minereaches the large category.

“The ultimate pit design could bealmost as big as Goldstrike,” McCluresaid, referring to Barrick’s huge openpit operation north of Carlin.

Gold production won’t be as high asGoldstrike’s open pit, however, becauseBald Mountain’s ore isn’t as high grade.

“It’s truly a low-grade mine. Cer-tainly, the high gold price is beneficialto us for reserves and life of mine,”McClure said.

All of the Bald Mountain ore willcontinue to be run-of-mine going

directly to the leach pads, he said. “Allof our reserves are oxide.”

SSttiillll hhiirriinnggBald Mountain now has 280 workers,

and “that’s up 100 people from this timelast year,” according to Andy Thompson,administration and human resourcessuperintendent for the mine. “Our targetis to get 360 this year.”

He said the hiring process is “all aboutfinding individuals with a good workhistory and who can fit with the mine’srequirements.”

McClure said the workers also have tobe willing to be at a remote location andcommute a long way. The mine is 70miles south of Elko and 95 miles north-west of Ely.

“We’ve been incredibly fortunate tomaintain a pipeline of people interestedin coming to Barrick,” Thompson said,and he also reported the turnover ratehas been low the past couple of years at10 percent.

He said roughly 65 percent of the em-ployees are coming from Elko and SpringCreek and the rest travel from Ely andEureka.

Lou Schack, director of communica-tions and community affairs for BarrickGold of North America, said workersgoing to the new Cortez Hills operationsin Lander County now have to travel a


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyCarl Griswold, left, and Ryan Guthrie, both with P&H MinePro out of Elko, work on the bucket ofa giant shovel in February during maintenance at the Bald Mountain Mine in White Pine County.


Bald Mtn. ...


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyBarrick Gold Corp.’s Bald Mountain Mine is testing this large rubber-tire Caterpillar bulldozer inthe Top Pit. Behind the dozer is a Hitachi hydraulic shovel loading a 240-ton Komatsu haul truckwith waste rock.


longer distance from Elko than those going to Bald Mountain.The distance from Elko to Cortez Hills is about 85 miles.Barron said there are 260 or so contractors on site for the last phase

of construction, including roughly 200 TIC workers and 50 High Mark


Bald Mtn. ...


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyTwo of Bald Mountain Mine’s new Atlas Copco Pit Viper blast-hole drill rigs with90-foot masts are drilling holes in the Top Pit in February. The holes will be filledwith explosives.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyBrad Niman of Spring Creek unloads samples from a centrifuge in the assay laboratory at Barrick Gold Corp.’sBald Mountain Mine in White Pine County. The assay lab gained new space in the mine expansion project.

Construction workers, and he said sub-contractors from the area have donemuch of the work.

Barron said in early February the shopextension, a 2,800-square-foot assaylaboratory extension and the newprocess plant should be complete bymid-March.

LLeeaacchhiinngg ppaaddssThe new leach pad at Mooney Basin

would be ready within a week or so, hesaid on Feb. 9.

Bald Mountain completed the WestWing leach pad extension last year witha capacity of 1 million square feet, andthe newest leach pad is 7 million squarefeet.

The truck shop extension adds newbays for the new 240-ton Komatsu haultrucks that also are part of the expan-sion project. The extension includes awash bay that Barron said will be “muchbetter environmentally,” because thewater can be collected and recycled,rather than seeping into the groundwith the outdoor wash.

An additional warehouse buildingalso was under way at the mine site.

“We’ve just expanded the warehousecapacity,” said McClure.

The new carbon plant under con-struction in the Mooney Basin will bethe second one at that area of the min-ing property, and there also is a carbonplant near the administration and shoparea.

The addition of two P&H electricshovels last year also meant a new elec-trical substation and new power lines,and the new carbon plant needed newelectrical service, as well, according toPaul Smith, electrical manager for Bar-rick.

The steel buildings come fromHansen and Rice out of Utah, includingthe carbon plant.

Bald Mountain added more officesand training rooms as well, Barron said.

Although the expansion will be donebefore spring, there are still more 240-ton trucks that will be arriving duringthe year to bring the total new trucks to20.

“By the end of next week, we will

have 12 commissioned, and in Aprilthrough July we will commission thelast eight trucks,” McClure said on Feb.19, adding that Bald Mountain also hascommissioned three new blast-holedrills and two new bulldozers.

The older trucks will run their lifecycle, and these include a couple of older240-ton Komatsu trucks and seven 190-ton and 150-ton Caterpillar trucks.

Barron said there were a few snags inthe construction project, but he thoughtthe project went smoothly.

While the mine is in full production,reclamation will be concurrent, andthere will be some backfilling in somephases of Top Pit, according to Mc-Clure.

Bald Mountain also doesn’t requireany dewatering.


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyHigh Mark Construction lays the heavy liner in February for the pregnant and barren ponds atthe new Mooney Basin South gold processing plant at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Bald Mountain Minein White Pine County.


Bald Mtn ...



ELKO — Barrick Gold of North America con-tinues to plan the Arturo Project that wouldexpand the Dee Pit northwest of Elko whileawaiting the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’sapproval.

“We’re working through the process,” saidGeorge Fennemore, Barrick’s Nevada permittingspecialist. “We don’t really have a schedule, butwe want to get the project going as soon as possi-ble.”

The company expected the preliminary draftenvironmental impact statement for Arturo to beready sometime in February, but the timeline forpublic release of the draft EIS will depend uponthe time it takes for the preliminary review.

“We anticipate the draft EIS being availablethis summer,” Lesli Coakley, public affairs officerfor the Elko BLM District, said in mid-February.

The timeline for release of the final EIS and adecision will depend upon the number of publiccomments, Fennemore said.

“We just have to have the EIS process do its

Arturo going through permit process

See AARRTTUURROO,, 23

Steve Brower,left, ArturoProject manag-er, and GeorgeFennemore,Nevada permit-ting specialistfor Barrick Goldof NorthAmerica, holdup a map of theproposedArturo open pitmine. The proj-ect will expandthe Dee Pit, inthe back-ground.




Steve Brower,manager of theArturo Project,stands on theedge of theDee open pitthat BarrickGold Corp. andjoint venturepartnerGoldcorp Inc.plan toexpand. Themain portal toBarrick’sStorm under-ground mine isbelow.


Arturo ...thing,” he said.

Arturo is a joint venture with GoldcorpInc., with Barrick as the operator and 60percent owner, and Goldcorp as the 40percent owner of the project thatinvolves not only expanding the pit butgoing deeper in the pit.

“The pit will be sort of a Mickey Mouseshape,” Fennemore said, explaining thatthe expansion areas will look sort of likemouse ears on each side of the pit.

The project is all in Elko County.

AArrttuurroo mmiinnee lliiffeeBarrick and Goldcorp are planning

Arturo for an 11-year mine life, and earlyestimates are that there would be 350employees, but Brower said Barrickdoesn’t know yet how many of the work-ers might come from the existing work-force at Barrick.

Barrick expects to produce 2 millionounces of gold from Arturo, althoughexploration could expand production.

Plans call for a new leach pad and


waste rock dumps, as well as new roads,an office complex, a carbon process plantand a shop.

The oxide ores that can be leached willstay on site, while the ore from the deep-er mining will be trucked to Barrick’snearby Goldstrike Mine for processing.

Fennemore said Arturo will be largelyon an existing mine site, and there won’tbe any dewatering needed, whichreduces the amount of environmentalimpact from the project.

“Certainly, there will be some envi-ronmental aspects. There will be a pitlake formed there, and we have to seehow it basically plays into the waterresources of the area,” he said.

Barrick also changed the plan for aportion of the larger of two waste dumpsso the project doesn’t disrupt a mule deermigration area, Fennemore said. Thechanges were made after comments fromthe Nevada Department of Wildlife.

Barrick also plans to move the old Deeleach pads that has been reclaimed ontothe new leach facility for better environ-mental control, he said.

“The waste dump on the east will staythe same, but they had small heap leachpads in the 1980s and 1990s, and we willput the old leach pads on the new. Weneed to maintain the environment ofthose facilities. It is easiest to pick themup and put them on the new facilities abit south of the old leach pad,” Fen-nemore said.

There will be some gold recovery fromthe old leach material, although it maynot cover the cost of the move.

“It’s not a money matter, but at leastthe pads are small,” he said. “Dee did areal nice job with reclamation the firsttime around.”

SSttoorrmm uunnddeerrggrroouunndd mmiinneeMeanwhile, Barrick’s Storm under-

ground mine at the Dee Pit is still inoperation, with J.S. Redpath as the con-tract miner, and Storm will continue pro-ducing gold at least until the pit expan-sion reaches the portals.

“We haven’t turned our back on Stormat all. We’ve still budgeted for Stormexploration,” Brower said.

Storm has been in production since2007.

Barrick also continues explorationdrilling at Arturo, with one Hard RockExploration Inc. rig on site on Feb. 1

“We’re getting an early start this year,”Brower said.

The high gold prices make Arturo moreattractive to Barrick and Goldcorp, butBrower said they were working on Arturo

before the gold prices rose to more than$1,000 an ounce and are now at morethan $1,300 an ounce.

Arturo may be the newest mine Bar-rick will operate in Nevada, but the com-pany plans a large open pit operation atTurquoise Ridge Mine down the line.

TTuurrqquuooiissee RRiiddggeeBarrick President and Chief Executive

Officer Aaron Regent cited the proposedproject at Turquoise Ridge in HumboldtCounty as an example of Barrick’s futurepotential, stating that the undergroundmine could go from a small mine to alarge open pit operation.

“We continue to further define thisopportunity to mine a lower-grade orebody,” he said, reporting that a prefeasi-bility study will be done in 2012 on the

project. “Turquoise Ridge has the poten-tial to become a world-class asset.”

Turquoise Ridge produced 36,000ounces of gold for Barrick’s 75 percentownership in the fourth quarter of lastyear, down from 42,000 ounces in the2009 quarter. Newmont Mining Corp.owns the remaining 25 percent ofTurquoise Ridge.

The Goldstrike Mine produced288,000 ounces in the fourth quarter at acash cost of $490 an ounce, mainly dueto better-than-expected ore grades fromthe open pit, according to Regent in theearnings teleconference.

Goldstrike’s production totaled 230,000ounces in the 2009 quarter, produced at atotal cash cost of $528 per ounce.


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Arturo ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 2233

A DuckwaterShoshoneTrucking truckcomes out ofthe Dee Pitwith a load ofore fromBarrick GoldCorp.’s Stormundergroundmine. The oreis going toBarrick’sGoldstrikeMine roughlyseven milesaway for pro-cessing.


Storm’s production is included in theGoldstrike figures.

CCoorrtteezz MMiinneeThe Cortez Mine in Lander County

and its new Cortez Hills operations wereanother high producer for Barrick, with205,000 ounces of gold produced in thefourth quarter, at a cash cost of $329 perounce.

Cortez’s total production for 2010 was1.14 million ounces.

Regent said the mine “exceeded originalguidance on higher-than-anticipatedgrades.”

He also said in the mid-February tele-conference the company anticipated theBLM will release its record of decision on asupplemental environmental impactstatement on Cortez Hills at any time.

The BLM prepared the study after a 9thCircuit Court of Appeals ruling, andBarrick has been operating under a tai-lored injunction while awaiting the BLM’srecord of decision.

The injunction halted the transport ofrefractory ore to the Goldstrike Minenorth of Carlin for processing and limited

mine dewatering.Schirete Zick, public affairs officer for

the Battle Mountain BLM District, saidthe review period for the final supple-mental EIS ended on Feb. 14, “after whichthe BLM may proceed with the record ofdecision.”

Barrick estimated that the Cortez Minewill produce between 1.3 million and 1.45million ounces of gold this year fromCortez Hills and the Pipeline Complexthat make up the Cortez Mine.

Barrick also reported gold productionin Nevada included 43,000 ounces fromits 50 percent share of the RoundMountain Mine in Nye County, producedat total cash cost of $741 per ounce, upfrom $585 last year. Kinross Gold Corp.owns the other 50 percent of RoundMountain, which is in the midst of anexpansion.

The Marigold Mine near Valmy pro-duced 13,000 ounces for Barrick’s one-third share at a total cash cost of $802 perounce, down from 16,000 ounces at atotal cash cost of $505 per ounce last year.

Goldcorp owns the remaining two-thirds of Marigold and operates the mine.

The Bald Mountain Mine in White Pine

County produced 20,000 ounces at atotal cash cost of $634 per ounce, com-pared with 17,000 ounces at a total cashcost of $765 per ounce last year, accordingto the earnings report.

The Ruby Hill Mine produced 33,000ounces of gold at a total cash cost of $535per ounce, compared with 4,000 ouncesat a total cash cost of $243 an ounce in the2009 quarter.


Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly

Brad Bowman, a supervisor with J.S. Redpath, the contract miner for Barrick Gold Corp.’s StormMine, heads underground in a water truck. The portal is in the Dee Pit that Barrick will expandwith the Arturo Project.

Arturo ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 2244


RUTH — The Ruth Pit at Quadra FNXMining’s Robinson Mine in White PineCounty is a beehive of activity, withextra trucks hauling mud out of the bot-tom of the pit while the larger haultrucks and shovels are doing their thing.

Robinson is mining only at Ruth nowthat mining has ended at the Veteran Pitand producing copper, gold and molyb-denum from the ore.

“We will probably ship 260,000 tonsof concentrate this year. The majority isgoing to the Japanese and Chinese,” saidRobinson Process Manager Tom Bender.

Quadra FNX reported Robinson pro-duced 109 million pounds of copper in2010, including 27 million pounds in thefourth quarter, down from 122.5 millionpounds in 2009.

The mine also produced 73,000ounces of gold in 2010, including 16,000ounces in the fourth quarter, accordingto Quadra FNX’s production report.Robinson produced 98,970 ounces ofgold in 2009.

The company estimates Robinson’scopper production this year at between105 million pounds to 120 millionpounds, while gold production will slipto between 45,000 and 50,000 ouncesthis year.

Mining ended at Veteran in the fourthquarter of 2010.

Costs are expected to be higher thisyear at Robinson due to high costs formud removal in the Ruth Pit, accordingto Vancouver-based Quadra FNX.

Bender said Robinson contracted withN.A. Degerstrom to mine out about 6million tons of old Alta Gold tails andsoils that washed off into the pit so “wecan get to the ore underneath.” Alta Goldwas mining gold in the Ruth area in thelate 1980s.

N.A. Degerstrom President ChrisMyers said the company “plans to wrapup around the end of June,” after startingthe work in mid-November.

“It’s a pretty big job,” he said. “At anygiven time, we run 35 to 40 trucks,depending on the haul.”

Myers said the company has roughly200 people working seven days a week atRobinson.

“So far, it’s been a very challenging


AABBOOVVEE:: A Bucyrus electric shovel loads a240-ton Caterpillar haul truck in the RuthPit at Quadra FNX Mining’s Robinson cop-per mine near the historic town of Ruth andsouthwest of the town of Ely in White PineCounty.

LLEEFFTT:: Lance Hutchinson of Ruth in mid-February operates the crusher at QuadraFNX Mining’s Robinson copper mine inWhite Pine County. At left is Rick Hendrix,the mine’s electrical instrumentationsuperintendent.


Robinson’s Ruth Pit busy place

See RROOBBIINNSSOONN,, 28


Mill operatorShawn Cato of Elytakes a samplefrom a super baghe just filled withmolybdenum atthe Robinson Minein White PineCounty. The sam-ple will go theassay laboratory.The bags containroughly 3,000pounds of molyb-denum.


Robinson ...project, and we’re doing pretty well.We’re pretty much on schedule anddoing what we said we would do,” hesaid.

As for the busy traffic in the Ruth Pitwith the N.A. Degerstrom trucks haulingthe mud, Myers said “it’s quite anorchestrated event” for them to workthrough the regular haul-truck traffic atthe pit.

N.A. Degerstrom is based in Spokane,Wash., but has a field office in Elko, anequipment yard in Winnemucca andground in Fallon.

Bender said the Ruth Pit, where therehas been mining off and on for morethan a century, currently has a seven-year copper reserve, and there is “twicethe amount of moly as at Veteran Pit.”

“The price of moly is good. We’vebudgeted 400,000 pounds, but there is agood chance there will be 500,000 even600,000 pounds,” he said in mid-February.

The mill produces molybdenum



roughly 20 days out of every 30 days,Bender said, using a special flotationcircuit that floats the molybdenum tothe top and lets the copper concentrateproceed through the process.

High copper, gold and molybdenumprices help with the higher costs atRobinson.

Quadra FNX reported the price ofcopper ended the fourth quarter of lastyear at $4.40 per pound, after startingthe year at $3.34 pound, and the futuresprice on the Comex division of the NewYork Mercantile Exchange was $4.49 apound for May delivery.

Gold prices have been in the $1,300 to$1,400 range in recent months, andmolybdenum is in the range of $17 apound.

Arlo G. Lott Trucking Co. hauls thecopper concentrate that also containsgold from Robinson to Quadra’s rail-loading facility at Wendover, Utah, andthe concentrate is then loaded onto railcars for the trip to the port inWashington.

“Each truck hauls four round trips in a

24-hour period,” Bender said.Most of the copper concentrate goes

to China or Japan.The molybdenum, however, is loaded

into super sacks that weigh an average of3,000 pounds, and the sacks are loadedonto trucks.

“Most of it goes to a mine to be roast-ed,” Bender said.

Freeport McMoRan’s Sierrita Minesouth of Tucson, Ariz., roasts themolybdenum into a powder and sold tosteelmakers as an alloy metal, he said.

Before the copper and molybdenumconcentrates are ready for the trucks,however, the ore has to be mined andthen goes through a primary crusher andis then stockpiled, to be moved to themill via a conveyor belt.

“Everything goes through the crusherbefore it goes to the mill,” said RickHendrix, electrical instrumentationsuperintendent at Robinson.

Robinson also dewaters roughly 8,500gallons per minute so the pit is dryenough to mine, but the permit is for upto 18,000 gpm.

Along with the mud problem, Rob-

inson crews also encountered old mineworkings at Ruth, and Hendrix said his87-year-old father John worked in theRuth Pit years ago and helped withunderground work in the pit.

Rick Hendrix has worked at Robinson

off and on since 1974 and has been backto stay since 1997, working on the careand maintenance crew after BHP shutRobinson down until Quadra acquired


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyAssay laboratory technician Lora Romero operates an atomic absorption machine in the lab atthe Robinson Mine’s mill and processing facilities. She said she was checking ore for molybde-num content.

Robinson ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 2288


the mine. Quadra started the mill back upin September 2004.

Robinson’s most recent project at themill was construction of an addition for anew XCELL flotation circuit that wentinto operation in December 2009 tocatch the copper that had been going towaste.

“We’re recovering 10 million poundsof copper per year,” Bender said, addingthat the cost of operating the circuit isminimal, maybe 1 percent of what isrecovered.

Robinson has 18 Caterpillar 240-tonhaul trucks and four 150-ton trucks in its


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyA P&H electric shovel drops a load of material into a 240-ton Caterpillar haul truck in the RuthPit in mid-February at Quadra FNX Mining’s Robinson copper mine near the historic town of Ruthin White Pine County.




Tom Bender,process manag-

er at QuadraFNX Mining’s

Robinson Minenear Ely, looks

out over thecopper flotation

facilities at themill. Robinson

produces a cop-per concentrate

and floats offmolybdenum for

separate sales.




mining fleet.The mine currently has 537 employees,

but the budget allows for 575 workers,according to Bender, and the company ishiring.

Robinson is on the outskirts of the oldmining town of Ruth and a few milesfrom the town of Ely, but the mine is sev-eral hours from Las Vegas, Elko or St.George, Utah, which affects workerrecruitment, Bender said.

Companywide, Quadra FNX reportedin January that the company produced224 million pounds of copper in 2010,including 57 million pounds of copper inthe fourth quarter.

Quadra FNX had forecast copper pro-duction of 265 million pounds for 2010,however.

The company also reported produc-tion for the year included 7 millionpounds of nickel and 148,000 ounces ofprecious metals, including 2 millionpounds of nickel and 38,000 ounces ofprecious metals in the quarter, including


David Steinerof Ely worksin mid-February inthe controlroom in themill at QuadraFNX Mining’sRobinsoncopper minenear Ely.



platinum and palladium for the opera-tions in Canada.

Quadra FNX also stated the companyexpects to produce roughly 240 millionpounds of copper, 115,000 ounces of pre-cious metals and 7 million pounds ofnickel in 2011.

Along with Robinson, the companyoperates the Carlota Mine in Arizonathat produced 29 million pounds ofcopper cathode in 2011, and the FrankeMine in Chile that produced 41 millionpounds of copper in 2011.

The company’s Canadian operationsat Sudbury produced 49 million poundsof copper, 7 million pounds of nickel and75,000 ounces of precious metals during2010.

Quadra FNX also reported in Februarythe company was taking over miningoperations at Franke.

The company stated that MarineerZona Franca S.A., the local mining con-tractor at Franke shut down its miningequipment at the site due to financialdifficulties, and Quadra FNX would takeover the existing mining fleet.


AABBOOVVEE:: This area ofthe open pit at RoundMountain Mine in NyeCounty will be ex-panded once all thefacilities that were inthe way are relocated.

LLEEFFTT:: A haul truckdumps ore into acrusher at RoundMountain Mine in lateJanuary while a newconveyor system isunder construction inthe foreground. Theconveyor work is partof the relocation offacilities to make roomfor expansion of theopen pit.



ROUND MOUNTAIN — Round Moun-tain Gold Corp. has begun developing theGold Hill satellite mine five miles northof the Round Mountain Mine in NyeCounty.

“The first gold comes out of Gold Hillin the first quarter of 2012, so we’ve gotthis year for construction,” said RandyBurggraff, vice president and generalmanager of Round Mountain Gold Corp.,50 percent owned and operated by Kin-ross Gold Corp. and 50 percent owned byBarrick Gold Corp.

Round Mountain is constructing anaccess road to Gold Hill, a leach pad,process plant and waste dump, as well asstarting an open pit.

Round Mountain Gold also is prepar-ing for expansion of the Round Mountainopen pit to the west that Burggraff saidshould start in April.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Managementapproved the expansion project in 2010,including deeper mining within theexisting pit. Burggraff said in late Januarythe deeper mining “should start any timenow.”

The pit will be growing westward, butfirst the way had to be cleared and facili-ties relocated to make room, and BruceThieking, the operations manager atRound Mountain, said the cost is roughly$20 million for the work.

The gold gets deeper as the ore bodyheads west, and the pit is “bounded bygeology to the east and economics to thewest,” Thieking said, but the high price ofgold makes the $20 million for the relo-

Round Mountain startsdeveloping satellite mine

See RROOUUNNDD,, 34

GoldHill


Bruce Thieking,operations man-ager at theRound MountainMine in NyeCounty, looks outat the future siteof the Gold Hillsatellite mineabout five milesnorth of theRound Mountainpit. Constructionwas under way inlate January onthe access road.


Round ...cation of facilities worthwhile.

“We’re hoping the $1,300-$1,400 goldprice holds steady,” Burggraff said.

The current mine life for RoundMountain extends to 2016, not countingthe time for processing stockpiles andprocessing ore from residual leaching,but Burggraff said the higher gold pricesallow Round Mountain to mine materialsnot economic at lower prices.

GGoolldd pprroodduuccttiioonnHe said Round Mountain had a good

year in 2010, producing 358,614 ouncesof gold, which was a little higher thanthe projected 353,100 ounces of goldprojected for the year for Kinross andBarrick combined.

Round Mountain depends upon thegold price because the cutoff price forgold per ounce changes, and the priceneeds to be high for Kinross to minedeeper to justify the cost of removing theoverburden, Burggraff said.

Kinross stated in its earnings report

See RROOUUNNDD,, 35



John Vazquez,left, senior proj-ect manager forthe engineeringfirm InterraLogic Inc., andCharles Kinney,project managerfor Gold CanyonConstruction,look at a map atthe intersectionof the new GoldHill access roadand the countyroad that leadsto the old RoundMountain town.


that Round Mountain produced 43,521ounces in the fourth quarter for its share,down from 53,043 ounces in the fourthquarter of 2009. The costs were up at$798 per ounce in the fourth quarter,compared with $487 per ounce in the2009 quarter.

Kinross also reported on Feb. 16 thatRound Mountain’s proven and probablereserves for the company’s 50 percentshare were at 1.32 million ounces of gold.

The relocation work for the expansionopens the way for the pit to go out 300feet. The primary contractor for the proj-ect is Phoenix Industrial, which movedthe coarse ore pile and stackers and wasconstructing the new conveyor systemand a new reclaim tunnel. The frameworkfor the conveyor is 60 feet wide.

“We’re just getting stuff out of the wayfor Phase H,” Thieking said as he drove onthe site that will become the expandedpit.

Round Mountain had a major reloca-tion project back in 2008, too, to make

Round ...

See RROOUUNNDD,, 36



room for the pit. That time, the minerelocated the primary crusher to makeroom for Phase G.

A temporary conveyor system current-ly handles moving ore from the primaryto the secondary crusher.

AAcccceessss rrooaaddWhile the relocation work continues,

work to the north involves constructionof an access road from the RoundMountain site to Gold Hill, which will bethe only way to reach Gold Hill. Workerswill come to work at Round Mountainand be bused to Gold Hill, Thieking said.

“It’s not a haul road but an access roadbecause all the ore will stay at Gold Hill,”he said, but the road is being built haul-road size because trucks will go fromGold Hill to the truck shop at RoundMountain.

The ore mined at Gold Hill will beplaced on a leach pad at Gold Hill for pro-cessing.

Gold Canyon Construction was devel-oping the road in late January and clear-ing the Gold Hill site for the facilities.

Intermountain Electric outof Elko is putting in a newpower line.

Charles Kinney, the proj-ect manager for Gold Canyonfor Gold Hill, said the projectis being worked out of theElko office, but he is out ofArizona. Gold Canyon has anadministration office inReno, and offices in Arizonaand Alaska.

Interra Logic Inc. out ofFort Collins, Colo., is han-dling the engineering workfor Gold Hill, according tosenior project manager John Vazquez.

A key point in the road is where itcrosses the county road to the old town ofRound Mountain. Vazquez said there willbe sliding gates and railroad-type cross-ing arms at the juncture.

The county road also has to be sup-ported to handle haul trucks, Thiekingsaid.

Kinney said Gold Canyon has about 20people working on Gold Hill and furnish-es its own equipment. The company has

300 pieces of equipment foruse at all its projects.

Vazquez said RoundMountain has a partnershipwith the Shoshone tribes,and the road was designedso it doesn’t intersect anyculturally significant sites.

Although the expansionof the Round Mountain Pitto the west is a major proj-ect, the BLM approval alsoincluded the Fairview andKelsey Canyon pits that willbe on the edge of the RoundMountain Pit at the east

end, and Burggraff described them as“little pods.”

Gold Hill isn’t likely to expand beyondthe planned pit, however, but there willbe more drilling to look for potential, hesaid.

The environmental impact statementfor the expansion also allows for goingunderground, if the company decides totry, again.

The mine did an underground explo-ration project a few years ago, and kept

the potential to re-enter open, althoughKinross decided at the time not to mineunderground.

EEmmppllooyymmeennttRound Mountain Gold currently

employs 740 people, including those whowork for the company medical clinic,child-care center and company store.

The number of contractors on site isroughly 120, compared with the normalnumber of around 50 people, Burggraffsaid.

“The toughest struggle without adoubt is the shortage of technical man-power," Burggraff said. "We're prettymuch able to keep the hourly workforcefull, but there is tremendous difficultyfinding technical workers.”

He said the mine struggles to findelectricians with special knowledge towork in mines, instrumentation techni-cians, engineers, metallurgists and geol-ogists.

“With the lull in mining 15 years ago,not as many kids went into mining in col-

RRaannddyy BBuurrggggrraaffff

Round ...

See RROOUUNNDD,, 37



lege, and we're feeling it now. The ones wealready had are retiring,” Burggraff said,adding that there is added competitionbecause the mines in Australia are expandingand hiring more of the same needed technicalpeople.

Round Mountain Gold also continues withits safety efforts.

Burggraff said the expanded inspections theU.S. Mine Safety and Health Administrationstarted last year have been happening atRound Mountain, as well as at mines through-out the country.

“We’ve learned a lot of things and improvedsafety. It’s not hindering our ability to get thejob done, but they are definitely more visible,”he said of the MSHA inspectors.

Thieking said the mine recently added twonew 250-ton Caterpillar haul trucks to bringthe total number of the 250-ton trucks to 17.The mining fleet totals 39 trucks, includingolder, smaller trucks.

Round Mountain Gold also recently remod-eled and expanded the outpatient medicalclinic on site that provides care for employeesand their families, according to the ValleyView newsletter the company publishes.

Round ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 3366

Construction isunder way inJanuary on anew reclaimarea that is partof the crushingsystem for oremined from theRound Moun-tain open pit inNye County.OperatorKinross GoldCorp. is relocat-ing facilities tomake room forpit expansion.



DDAANNIIEELLLLEE SSWWIITTAALLSSKKIIMining Quarterly

ELKO — Members from many facetsin Elko County have come together tobring the fifth annual National Summitof Mining Communities to the ElkoConvention Center April 4-7.

The summit was originally plannedfor last fall, however, the date waschanged to April in order to bring enoughpeople to the summit to match the spon-sorship investment, said Don Newman,executive director of the Elko Conven-tion and Visitors Authority.

“We took a look at where we were withall of our registrations, and we found wehad 20 sponsors and good support, butfor the money invested by our sponsorswe didn’t feel we had the attendance tojustify it,” Newman said.

“We pushed it back to April and felt itwould be better represented, and theywould get more value for their dollar,” he

said. He said organizers are hoping for150-200 attendees at this year’s summitentitled “A Focus on the Modern MiningEra.”

There is also additional sponsorshipthis time around. Large sponsors includeGreat Basin College, Fronteer Gold,Barrick Gold Corp., Newmont MiningCorp., General Moly, AT&T, GeoTemps,Gold Dust West, Modern Concrete Inc.,Elko County and the Elko ConventionCenter.

A big push for the mining summit isthe website, which Newman said is nowdeveloped locally and can be updatedwith immediate changes.

“That’s helping a lot, so the informa-tion is current and up to date and as weget sponsors, the information is rightthere,” Newman said.

EEccoonnoommiicc ddiivveerrssiiffiiccaattiioonnThe conference is focusing on mining

or resource-based communities, with

discussion centering around economicdiversification and sustainability.

The speakers, workshops, panels, pre-sentations and tours will highlight com-munity projects aimed toward building asustainable future for communities,particularly those that are resource-based.

“We have unique characteristics fromother folks and the focus is on the mod-ern era with the mines that work with usproactively so we can sustain ourselveswhen they have a downturn and goaway,” said Pam Borda, executive direc-tor of Elko County Economic Diver-sification Authority and a member of thesummit planning committee.

Headline presenters will be DavidBeurle and Juliet Fox of InnovativeLeadership Australia/USA.

Beurle and Fox will lead participantsthrough a series of workshop sessions

Organizers hope for 150-200 attendees at Elko event

National Summit of Mining Communities in April

See SSUUMMMMIITT,, 39


and activities to prompt thought and dis-cussion for how today’s resource-basedcommunities can be proactive in buildinga sustainable future for themselves.

Borda said one track throughout thesummit is on building economic resilienceand diversity with a focus on tools for suc-cess. The other track is creating commu-nity adaptability and responsiveness witha focus on the environment.

Beurle will also lead participants in a“futures game,” which Borda said is sce-nario planning and allows participants togo through different scenarios and playout what will happen in the future basedon the decisions that were made.

CCaassee ssttuuddiieessDifferent case studies from areas such

as Winnemucca and Round Mountain willalso be presented during the summit.These will focus on the success of innova-tive projects undertaken to sustain a com-munity.

“One case study is Winnemucca thathas gone through a futures project, andthey will share the outcome of that proj-

ect,” Borda said.The summit was started five years ago

in Leadville, Colo., and was created inrecognition of the diverse environmentaland economic effects that mining com-munities experience as a result of theboom and bust cycles of mining.

Newman said they are taking a little dif-ferent approach to the summit this year byfocusing more on the modern era ofresource-based communities.

Borda said it will take a more positivefocus on the ways mining companies canwork with communities to ensure sustain-ability.

Borda said the event’s focus is particu-larly fitting for Elko because the twolargest gold producers in the world,Barrick and Newmont, are good corporatecitizens and big supporters of economicdevelopment, which will help Elko survivein relation to fluctuations within theindustry.

“The past four events were in commu-nities that were abandoned by the miningindustry and left with a mess to clean up,”Newman said. “We wanted to focus on themodern mining era and showcase thesteps and procedures put in place to pre-vent that from happening.”

He said the focus is on what communi-ties do to sustain themselves in relation tothe demands put on a community such aswork force and high housing costs.

“What happens when companies scaleback and there’s an impact on the com-munity, or workers coming to a communi-ty, does it impact the schools, who pays forthe roads with the wear and tear?”Newman said in relation to issues that canoccur in resource-based communities.“This (summit) will address a lot of thosethings.”

CCoommmmuunniittyy lleeaaddeerrssBorda said the summit is not geared

toward mining companies, but the lead-ers of communities where mining is apart of the economy or was part of theeconomy.

Suggested attendees for the conferenceinclude: Executives and board members ofchambers of commerce, convention andvisitors authorities and economic devel-opment agencies, public relations, com-munity relations and corporate socialresponsibility professionals, mining asso-ciation representatives, government offi-cials, educators, business owners, man-agers and concerned citizens of resource-based communities.

“The information that is here is for all ofus who have a role for the good of the com-munity,” Borda said.

For more information regarding the2011 National Summit of Mining Commu-nities contact Mardell Wilkins at [email protected] or call 775-753-2265.

Registrations and information are alsoavailable at www.nationalminingsum-mit.com or by e-mailing [email protected].


Summit ...



ELKO — General Moly is awaiting adecision from the State Engineer’s Officeover its request to change the use of agri-cultural water rights to mining and millinguse for the company’s planned Mt. Hopemolybdenum mine.

“We’re expecting a ruling from the stateengineer anytime,” said Pat Rogers,director of environmental matters andpermitting for General Moly. “We’reanticipating getting a favorable ruling.”

The company also continues to awaitU.S. Bureau of Land Management ap-proval for the planned mine in EurekaCounty, and the BLM’s decision is nowexpected late this year or early 2012.

State Engineer Jason King’s ruling tochange the beneficial use of the waterrights General Moly holds on a ranch itowns in Kobeh Valley from an agriculturaluse to a mining use follows a district courtdecision to remand the water rights issueto King.

The State Engineer’s Office had alreadygranted the permits, but Eureka County

and Diamond Valley growers took thatdecision to court.

Rogers said post-hearing briefs fromboth sides were due in mid-February, andthe ruling would follow.

The State Engineer’s Office heard testi-mony in December from the company’srepresentatives and from Eureka Countyand Diamond Valley growers concernedwhether the change in use would impactDiamond Valley.

Eureka County’s refusal to drop itsprotests already reduced the amountDiamond Valley alfalfa growers willreceive through the trust the company setup last year with stipulations that moremoney would come to the growers coop-erative if they convinced the county todrop its protest.

The trust that will be governed by aboard also had stipulations for the projectapproval timeline, so the amount is now at$4 million from a potential of $8 million.

The trust is a good program to helpgrowers address the water drawdown inDiamond Valley that already exists, Rogerssaid.

The BLM approval for Mt. Hope won’t

come until a draft environmental impactstatement is published, public commentgathered, a final EIS released and then arecord of decision.

“The DEIS is being drafted and isexpected to go out for a 45-day publicreview period late spring, early summer2011 with a notice of availability beingpublished in the Federal Register,” saidSchirete Zick, public affairs officer for theBattle Mountain BLM District.

“We’re anticipating a record of deci-sion six to nine months after publicationof the draft,” Rogers said in February.“We’re doing everything we can to makeit a quick process, but it’s got to be thor-ough, and it’s got to be defensible. Wewant them to do a thorough job.”

General Moly has revised projectionsfor the project approval several times.Two years ago, the company optimisti-cally predicted Mt. Hope would be inmolybdenum production by the end ofthis year.

“There’s absolutely no question thiswill be a go. It’s a question of when. We’vegot all the pieces in place, a good manage-ment team, good moly prices and

financing,” Rogers said.Molybdenum prices have been up and

down since plans began for the project,but the price currently is in the range of$17 per month.

Denver-based General Moly is planninga 44-year mine and creation of roughly400 jobs once the mine is developed 21miles north of the town of Eureka.

The property contains 1.3 billionpounds of proven and probable molyb-denum reserves, and Rogers said the mineand processing won’t create mercuryemissions, and no cyanide will be used.There also are no sacred Native Americansites on the property and no endangeredspecies.

“We’ve been working with the Duck-water Tribe,” he said.

General Moly also is looking at holding atown meeting in Eureka in March,according to Zach Spencer, manager ofexternal communications for the com-pany.

General Moly owns 80 percent of Mt.Hope through a joint venture withPOSCO, the world’s fourth largest steelcompany.

General Moly awaits decisions from state



ELKO — Great Basin Resource Watch keeps a closeeye on Nevada’s mining industry to encourage compa-nies and regulators to catch potential problems before amine goes into production, but the organization isn’topposed to all mining, according to Executive DirectorJohn Hadder.

“We want them to focus on the bigger picture. Wehope at this point in time they have taken care of thingsat the onset, and eventually it becomes automatic,” hesaid.

Reno-based Great Basin Resource Watch advocatesimproved practices and less environmental impact for“a better quality of life, which is coupled with basic eco-nomics and part of that is that mines provide jobs,”Hadder said.

He said pursuing better quality of life also includeslooking to the future of communities and protectingtraditional ways, whether for the Western Shoshonetribes or ranchers or miners.

“We’re not out to oppose all mines. Cortez Hills is theonly one we outwardly opposed,” he said, referring to

Barrick Gold Corp.’s operation in LanderCounty that was in and out of thecourts.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Managementissued a final supplemental environ-mental impact statement on CortezHills in January, and Hadder said later inJanuary that Great Basin ResourceWatch was continuing to look at the EISand deciding what to do next.

Schirete Zick, public affairs officer forthe Battle Mountain BLM District, stat-ed in February that the review period onthe supplemental EIS ended Feb. 14, andthe record of decision would follow.

The BLM completed the study afterthe 9th Circuit Court of Appealsremanded three issues in the full EISback to the U.S. District Court in Renobecause the appeals court wanted more analysis.

The issues included air quality concerns about truck-ing refractory ore to Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine north ofCarlin, mine dewatering and air particulate matter.

Great Basin Resource Watch, the Western Shoshone

Defense Project and the Te-Moak andTimisha tribes filed appeals over CortezHills that led to the supplemental EISand a tailored injunction that Cortezfollowed while BLM studied the threeareas of concern.

Cortez agreed not to increase dewa-tering and not ship refractory ore fromCortez Hills to the Goldstrike under theinjunction.

Great Basin Resource Watch foughtCortez Hills, but the organization looksat a lot of mining proposals and permitsthat it doesn’t appeal, Hadder said.

“If we think there will be long-termenvironmental impacts we look at thatand pursue it more aggressively,” hesaid in an interview while in Elko.

The organization determines whe-ther its efforts have succeeded by “looking for improve-ments on the ground,” and he said that while filingappeals may not lead to changes in an approved mine

John Hadder

GREAT BASIN RESOURCE WATCH

Keeping tabs on Nevada’s mining industry

See RREESSOOUURRCCEE WWAATTCCHH,, 43


Resource Watch ...plan, it may lead to dialogue with a min-ing company.

“We’d rather resolve issues outside ofcourt, if we can. A lot of permits comethrough that we review and don’t file.But sometimes the appeal process shinesa light on a particular issue. If we cancreate more dialogue with the industry,that’s good,” Hadder said. “RoundMountain did that.”

He said Round Mountain Mine in NyeCounty talked with Great Basin ResourceWatch while planning the currentexpansion project now under way. GreatBasin Resource Watch still filed anappeal with the Interior Board of LandAppeals over the project, however.

The organization filed the appeal overRound Mountain with the WesternShoshone Defense Project, and the twoare often on the same lawsuits.

Round Mountain operator KinrossGold Corp. is expanding the main openpit at the gold mine and starting the GoldHill satellite mine about five milessouth.

Hadder said his concerns are overpotential problems with pit lakes aftermining at Gold Hill. He said there couldbe flow-through of water that couldcontaminate ground water, but Kinrossand the BLM disputed Great BasinResource Watch’s concerns.

“They made some modifications tothe final EIS, but we’re still not con-vinced,” Hadder said.

The organization also had concernsabout Newmont Mining Corp.’s Emi-grant Project for south of Carlin. TheBLM recently issued a final EIS on theproject after redoing a draft EIS for theproject, which will be an open pit mine.

Hadder said Great Basin ResourceWatch also has concerns about Coeurd’Alene Mines Ltd.’s Rochester Minenear Lovelock that the company hasreceived permits to resume mining silverand gold. He said one issue is “someleaking of tailings,” and another is thatthe mine hasn’t completed an EIS “on allthat is going on out there.”

Great Basin Resource Watch got itsstart in 1994 at a time where there were

concerns about Cortez Mine’s proposalfor the Pipeline operations and the dewa-tering needed for mining. Pipeline andCortez Hills are both part of the CortezMine these days, but Pipeline was thefirst major project for a mine that hadbeen a small operation for many yearsbefore Pipeline.

The nonprofit organization is fundedthrough private donations and privatefoundations and has three paid staff,Hadder, and part-timers.

Great Basin Resource Watch also con-tracts with hydrologist Tom Myers andhas access to experts when needed,according to Hadder.

The organization also uses the WesternMining Action for legal work, andHadder said that nonprofit group hasoutside funding so Great Basin ResourceWatch can afford to hire the lawyers.

Hadder said Great Basin ResourceWatch formally changed the name fromGreat Basin Mine Watch at the beginningof 2008 after determining there wereother industries that bore watching andbecause of interest in pushing for alter-

nate energy in Nevada.He said Great Basin Resource Watch

supports solar, wind and geothermalenergy production, and he said this couldbe an “economic engine” for the state.

The organization also got involvedwith El Paso Corp.’s Ruby PipelineProject and is part of an appeal filed withthe 9th Circuit over BLM’s approval ofrights of way for the natural gas pipeline.

Hadder said he enjoys his job.“I like doing it. I have the opportunity

to travel, to get out to the Great Basin andmeet people and see the land,” he said ofhis current job. “I enjoy a sense of thatsome of what we’re doing will have long-term positive affect on the way peoplelive and the environment.”

A chemist, Hadder started with GreatBasin Resource Watch in 2006. He saidhe earlier worked for Citizen Alert for 10years so he was acquainted with miningissues before coming to work for GreatBasin Resource Watch.

When working for Citizen Alert, hewas involved in the Yucca Mountain bat-tle.


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ELKO — Small Mine Development is asbusy as it has ever been, and founder RonGuill said that made it a perfect time forhim to turn the company over to newowners.

“I’m just changing jobs, really. I’ve gotinterests in other investments, and it was agreat time with what we’vegot lined up for work,” he said.

Guill sold to a group ofsenior managers in aninternal buyout, and opera-tions continue as they havebeen, said Cheryl Gmirkin,SMD’s business manager atthe Boise, Idaho, office.

“It’s an exciting time.We’ve got big shoes to fill,”she said.

The company has 10 proj-ects under way, ranging fromunderground developmentwork at Newmont MiningCorp.’s Leeville Mine northof Carlin to contract mining at the Smithunderground mine at Yukon-NevadaGold Corp.’s Jerritt Canyon Mine north ofElko.

Gmirkin said SMD now has nearly 350employees.

The company’s employment numbershave varied over the years, but one of therougher years was 2009, when thenumber of workers was down to 237.

Although Guill is officially retiredfrom SMD, he was up on all the com-pany’s projects under way or about tostart in February.

“Leeville is still the biggest with over100 people,” Guill said, and he said SMDstarted a new project for Newmont at FullHouse, also out of Leeville.

Full House is a separate project, he said.SMD also has started the Pete/Bajo

underground projects out of Newmont’sPete Pit, also north of Carlin, Guill said.There are two portals.

“Pete/Bajo will be ready to mine in thenot too distant future,” he said.

These new portals also will serve asanother access to Leeville when theCarlin East portal is mined out duringsurface mining.

SMD also is doing development work

at the underground Exodus Mine and is“trying to get the high-grade ore out ofthe old Deep Star,” Guill said.

Deep Star’s portal is in the Genesis Pitand was linked to Newmont’s Deep PostMine that is now closed.

Guill said SMD had to redo all the ven-tilation and other work to get ready tocontract mine at Deep Star.

The company also is doing develop-ment work at Newmont’sMidas underground minenorth of Golconda and hasexpects to do so for anotheryear, he said.

“That’s seven for New-mont right now,” Guill said.

SMD also continues thecontract mining work atSmith, and planned to start aportal for Klondex Mines Ltd.at Fire Creek near CrescentValley in early March forexploration and test mining.

Another job that Guillexpected to be under way bymid-February was at New-

mont’s Twin Creeks Mine north ofGolconda, where SMD would start aportal for underground exploration of theVista Vein out of the Vista Pit.

He said SMD relocated the crew fromthe Butte Highlands underground projectnear Butte, Mont., for the Twin Creeksjob.

Development of Butte Highlands isjust on temporary hold, however.

“That’s what I will be doing. I am gen-eral manager for the joint venture inMontana,” Guill said.

The joint venture is with TimberlineResources, and Guill also sits on Tim-berline’s board.

Guill said he started the transition lastJune to see how the managers would dowithout him.

“I was at 1,000 feet up and watchedthe action,” Guill said.

He decided the managers would dojust fine so he is allowing them to pur-chase SMD out of future profits, and he isaround if they need help.

In fact, his new office is in the samebuilding as the SMD office.

Guill said there has always been “a

RRoonn GGuuiillll

SMD keeps busyunder new owners

See SSMMDD,, 46


IsabelleLaBranch, afreelance writerand spokes-woman for TheMore You Digcampaign,shows abrochure to TimMatusiak ofProcon Miningand Tunnelingin BritishColumbia at abooth duringthe NorthwestMiningAssociationconvention inDecember inSpokane, Wash.


JJUULLIIEE WWOOOOTTTTOONNMining Quarterly

ELKO — The Northwest Mining Association’snew public awareness campaign is designed to helpcollege students understand how the miningindustry affects their daily lives.

The More You Dig “aims to educate college stu-dents about the importance of mining in their dailylives, change public perception and generate posi-tive media for the mining industry,” according to thecampaign brochure.

Isabelle LaBranch, a freelance writer and spokes-woman for the campaign, said it’s the first time themining industry has made an effort to reach out tocollege students.

“We want to remind (students) that everythinggood doesn’t come from Costco and Walmart,”LaBranch said. “There’s a supply chain here.”

For instance, the average cell phone contains 17minerals.

LaBranch said there’s a huge green movement onmany college campuses, but students may notrealize, for example, that they can’t have a hybrid

‘The More You DIG’

See DDIIGG,, 46


SMD ...

Dig ...

small operation” in the Boise office tohandle payment of bills and humanresources.

“My philosophy has always been thatthe superintendents out in the field areautonomous to their own jobs,” he said.

Guill started SMD in Spokane, Wash.,in July 1982 and moved it to St. George,Utah, “when we landed a real project inJanuary 1983.” The company moved toBoise in 1994.

The shop remained there until the

Battle Mountain shop took over all thework.

SMD acquired the large shop there in2009, and Guill said “it is a wonderfulfacility. It is amazing the high quality ofwork done there, and it is where we trainour mechanics.”

SMD also trains truck drivers.SMD General Manager Keith Jones

said in the announcement on Guill’sretirement that “the new owners share inRon’s vision and are excited to begin thenext chapter with this great company.”


car without minerals.“College students are only getting the

point of view of environmentalists,” shesaid, and the mining industry should berepresented too.

LaBranch, a 24-year-old public rela-tions and advertising graduate from theUniversity of Nevada, Reno, used to workas a nanny for an exploration geologist,who approached her about designing thecampaign.

Journalism students at UNR fre-quently work with nonprofit organiza-tions and design campaigns for them andhelped with The More You Dig, she saidin February.

LaBranch planned to visit a number ofcollege campuses in February, includingUNR, to raise awareness about themining industry.

Besides connecting with college stu-dents in person, The More You Dig cam-paign actively uses social media, such asYouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

“(The campaign) is also about gettingindustry professionals out there on socialmedia,” LaBranch said, which is a first forthe mining industry. She said she’spushing mining companies to get on thecampaign’s Facebook page and try tocreate a conversation with students.

Another goal is to reach students onthe campaign website.

“We wanted to be able to relate it to

college students,” LaBranch said.The website includes a “Mining in

Your Dorm Room” feature that allowsstudents to see how the mineralsindustry provides elements that go intoeveryday dorm room items such as alu-minum water bottles and cell phones.

The website also includes informationabout careers in mining, profiles ofyoung people working in the miningindustry, and several different blogs.

LaBranch said she maintains the blogsand updates them when minerals orother mining-related topics come up inworld news. She also has a new blogabout mining legislation.

The website pays tribute to the cam-paign’s mascot, “Digger,” a college stu-dent studying mining engineering whoworks at a mine during the summer.

Details about several competitions canalso be found on the campaign website.Winners will receive scholarships fromthe Northwest Mining Association.

“It’s pro-mining and we’re working tochange the public perception of mining,”LaBranch said about the campaign.

The campaign has links to large com-panies that belong to the NorthwestMining Association and a goal is to be“really transparent” throughout thecampaign, she said.

For more information on The More YouDig Campaign, visit www.themorey-oudig.com.




ELKO — One of Yukon-Nevada GoldCorp.’s primary goals is to keep the millbusy at the Jerritt Canyon Mine north ofElko, and the company believes there isdemand for the mill’s roasters.

“We’re very comfortable treating orewith a low fuel content, low-sulfide ore,”Chief Operating Officer Graham Dicksonsaid.

Newmont Mining Corp. has beensending about 50 trucks a day to JerrittCanyon this winter, and Yukon-Nevadawas negotiating in mid-February to con-tinue the arrangement.

The trucks carry roughly 2,000 tons aday to Jerritt Canyon from Newmont’sNevada operations, and Yukon-Nevadapurchases the ore to process in its mill.

Ore for the mill also comes from stock-piles and from the Smith undergroundmine at Jerritt Canyon, which SmallMine Development mines for Yukon-Nevada.

“We’re happy with them. They mine

about 1,000 tons a day from Smith,” saidYukon-Nevada President and ChiefExecutive Officer Robert Baldock.

Yukon-Nevada plans to do its ownmining of the SSX-Steer undergroundmining complex, however.

The Vancouver-based company’s planto raise money by offering incentives forholders of share warrants to exercise thewarrants early would pay for new miningequipment for SSX, according to Baldock.

“We’re alerting people we are gearingup, and we’re staffing up for July,” hesaid.

The company also would use moneyfrom the early exercise of warrants towinterize the Jerritt Canyon mill.

Dickson said the plan is to keep orefrom getting wet in the winter months toboost mill efficiency.

“We’re also spending money on a newtailings facility that will last 20 years,”Baldock said.

In addition, he said the company hasbudgeted $18 million for exploration thisyear.

Shareholders were slated to vote

March 8 on whether to offer the incentiveto raise roughly $59 million.

Plans at Jerritt Canyon also couldinclude a return to open pit mining.

“We’re re-evaluating everything outthere, including the pits that were closedat lower gold prices,” Dickson said.“We’re evaluating historical data andputting in holes.”

He also said he feels good about 2011,after a year that had “been an adventure.”

One of the problems that caught theattention of shareholders is the compa-ny’s report that there are 2,700 ounces ofgold unaccounted for in the millingprocess. The company discovered thetrouble in the third quarter of last year.

“We expect it to show up in the nextaccounting,” Dickson said.

Yukon-Nevada also worked in 2010 toclear up lawsuits against the companyfiled when Yukon-Nevada shut downJerritt Canyon in August 2008 becomesof financial difficulties.

The one lawsuit still pending in mid-February was filed by former employeesseeking the second half of their severance

pay and payment on medical bills pend-ing when the mine shut down.

Baldock was optimistic the lawsuitwould be settled by the end of March.

Yukon-Nevada also has been dealingwith citations from the U.S. Mine Safetyand Health Administration, which hasstepped up mine inspections and begunannouncing monthly results of inspec-tions.

MSHA reported that beginning on Jan.19, agency inspectors conducted an impactinspection at the Jerritt Canyon mill, andthey issued 24 citations and seven orders.

MSHA stated two of the orders wereissued in conjunction with an imminentdanger order. One was issued over theoperator’s failure to examine each work-ing place at least once per shift for condi-tions that may adversely affect safety orhealth. A second order was issued foroperating equipment that posed hazardsto miners.

Yukon-Nevada’s investment relationsmanager, Nicole Sanches, said on Feb. 17the company didn’t have any commenton the MSHA citations.

Jerritt Canyon wants to keep mill busy


ClementineKnight looks upto her fatherAdam Knight afew days beforehe left for WestAfrica as sheholds the book“ClementineMonkeyPrincess” that hewrote based onher nickname.



ELKO — Adam Knight of Elko plans to write his second chil-dren’s book when he has time off from his duties as mine manag-er at a gold operation in Senegal in West Africa.

“There is not going to be a lot of distractions there so it should bereally easy to set aside an hour a day to work on it,” he said a few daysbefore heading to West Africa for his first days on the new job site.

He is staying in a camp at Teranga Gold’s Sabodala Mine whileon the job.

Knight expects to be back in Elko in April for his five weeks offbefore returning for another seven-week stint at the gold mine,

Mine manager writeschildren’s books

See AADDAAMM’’SS SSTTOORRYY,, 49

Adam’s Story


and he might have time to write then,too.

Between his time at the camp and timeoff in Elko, he hopes to finish “Leonard’sTalking Thumb.”

“That should be in print this time nextyear, and probably six months after thatwe hope to bring out ‘Mike, the AngryElf.’ That’s a Christmas story,” Knightsaid.

The first book, “Clementine MonkeyPrincess,” is already published and forsale on Amazon.com and at monkeymonkeymedia.com.

Knight’s wife Jackie started a pub-lishing company called Monkey MonkeyMedia to sell her husband’s books.

“There have been several hundredsold. She’s actually ordered a secondprinting of the book,” Knight said.

DDaauugghhtteerr CClleemmeennttiinneeThe book features his daughter

Clementine, nicknamed Monkey Prin-cess when she was younger and climbeda lot.

The tale is about the Monkey Princess,

who is kidnapped by monkey comman-dos, and about her rescue from theJungle of Flim.

Knight said Clementine’s climbingand her nickname inspired him to writethe story, but he has always told storiesto his children, and there are five of them— Clementine, 9, Sam, 13, Leonard, 11,Mike, 7, and Jack, 5.

Knight said he started the first book in2005 and then didn’t get back to it for acouple of years before publishing it in2010.

His sister, Nora Kay Golay, illustratedthe book, and Knight said she will beillustrating the next books, too.

“We work really well together, asidefrom the fact that she’s a good artist,”said Knight.

He said it is hard to gauge the reactionof readers, but he asked a book editor heknows to read “Clementine,” and theeditor said he got carried away with thestory and had to remember to edit.

“He did ask me to change a fewthings,” Knight said.

He also said he attended a Society ofChildren’s Book Writers and Illustrators

conference in Virginia City, where helearned a lot about writing and publish-ing.

Knight said one thing he learned isthat most writers don’t have as much sayabout the illustrations of the book as hedoes working with his sister, and heprefers his arrangement.

He said his work in mining makes itpossible for him to write children’s booksand for other miners to pursue theirhobbies or music or artwork.

“The mining industry allows people todo that, to have those creative outlets.Because of the regular pay, they don’thave to take another job to make endsmeet. The side effect of a strong miningindustry is it allows regular people to livecomfortably,” he said.

MMiinniinngg eexxppeerriieenncceeKnight recently resigned as mine

manager at Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp.’sJerritt Canyon Mine north of Elko to takethe position in West Africa.

He had worked at Jerritt Canyon in thepast, and had been working for PremierChemicals in central Nevada before

returning to Jerritt Canyon.Knight said he started in mining in

1994, and his degree is in mine engineer-ing.

He said the job offer for the position inSenegal was good timing, pays well and“will be a good adventure.”

Knight said he visited Senegal inNovember, and he said the formerFrench colony is well-developed and“real nice.”

The mine is in a remote location, how-ever, and all the workers stay at the campwhen they are on their shifts, he said.

The open-pit mine employs 500workers, and roughly 300 of them arelocal people who have been trained to “ahigh level of skill and dependability,”Knight said as he prepared for his firstjob out of the United States.

Many of the mine employees whoaren’t local come from Australia.

Teranga Gold Corp. is a Toronto-based gold company created to acquirethe Sabodala gold mine and a largeregional exploration land package inSenegal from Mineral Deposits Ltd.,which is an Australian company.

Adam’s Story ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 4488


AABBOOVVEE:: Dennis Lay-bourn, environmentalmanager at NewmontMining Corp.’s TS PowerPlant at Dunphy, viewsthe fire in the boilerthrough a welding shield.The fire gets up to 2,400degrees to burn coal toproduce electricity.

LLEEFFTT:: Coal is slidingonto a stockpile at the TSPower Plant nearDunphy during a train-unloading sequence inlate January. The plumeat right is water vaporfrom power production.



DUNPHY — Newmont Mining Corp.’s TS PowerPlant strives to operate as cleanly as possible, andfigures cited in the Electric Lights & Power maga-zine show the plant is doing so.

The magazine used U.S. Environmental Pro-tection Agency figures from 2009 to rank powerplants throughout the country, and the TS plantranked fourth in the country for the lowest emis-sions of nitrous oxide and eighth for sulfur dioxideemissions out of 14,000 coal-fired units in thecountry.

The TS plant on Newmont’s TS Ranch is a one-unit plant, but the larger plants were rankedaccording to each unit even if they are a three-unitplant for equal rankings.

“What’s interesting in our case is we are withinthe top 20 in both categories,” said Dennis Lay-bourn, the environmental manager for the plantthat started producing electricity in June 2008.

“We always want to be the best,” said JohnSeeliger, the regional energy manager forNewmont.

He said the fewer unexpected plant shutdownsfor repairs, the better the quality of emissions,since starting back up raises emissions.

The white plume motorists on Interstate 80 seecoming out of the power plant stack is water vapor,not smoke.

Seeliger said the TS Power Plant should becleaner than older coal-fired plants because it wasbuilt using the latest technology.

Laybourn said during a late January tour that halfof the plant is devoted to emission controls.

“It’s a constant improvement process,” said MattMurray, an external relations representative forNewmont.

Laybourn said there are continuous adjustmentsto reduce emissions. Seeliger said as the operatorscontinue to learn more about the plant, they arefine tuning their work and using less lime andammonia, which improves the plant’s efficiency.

The TS Power Plant also is the only power plantwith mercury air emission controls. At this point,there aren’t any EPA regulations governing mercu-ry emissions from power plants, but Laybourn pre-dicted “there will probably be mercury regulationsfor power plants in the next two years.”

He said the plant continuously monitors mercu-ry emissions, as well, pointing out that theWyoming coal the plant burns is low in mercuryand low in sulfur.

NNeewwmmoonntt ooppeerraattoorrNewmont has been operating the plant since July

1, 2010, after ending its contract with DTE Energy

TS Power Plant high on clean list

See PPOOWWEERR PPLLAANNTT,, 51


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyA 130-car coal train moves slowly through the unloading process in late January at Newmont’s TS Power Plant at Dunphy. A power plant crew picksup the train from Union Pacific to unload the coal. Newmont Mining Corp. produces 218 megawatts of electricity per hour at its TS Power Plant,below, on the company’s TS Ranch at Dunphy to save money on power for the company’s gold mines in northeastern Nevada.

Services, and Seeliger said the plant ranwell before Newmont took over, and theplant is doing well as a Newmont opera-tion.

Newmont hired most of the DTEemployees and currently has 64 full-timeemployees to operate the power plant thecompany built to save money on the elec-tricity its northern Nevada mines use toproduce gold.

Seeliger said the figures were yet avail-able for how much the plant saved thecompany in 2010, but the $640 millionplant saved Newmont roughly $60 mil-lion in 2009.

The power plant burns coal from ArchCoal’s Black Thunder Mine, and New-mont just signed another three-year con-tract with Arch, Seeliger said.

Union Pacific Railroad brings 130 carsof coal to the power plant property aboutevery six days. Those rail cars are droppedoff for TS Power Plant operators to movethrough the unloading process. As thecars are pulled through the terminal, a hotshoe signals the car to open up and drop

Power plant ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 5500

See PPOOWWEERR PPLLAANNTT,, 53


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyHerb Sollinger of Spring Creek is closely watching in late January as a train car moves into placeto hit a hot rail that will trigger release of the load of coal at Newmont Mining Corp.’s TS PowerPlant.

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyDennis Laybourn, environmental manager at Newmont Mining Corp.’s TS Power Plant, adjustsone of the emission controls in the small building at the plant site near Dunphy. With him is KudaMutama, the plant’s engineering manager.

TS POWER PLANT


its load of coal.Each train carries 15,000 tons of coal,

and the power plant keeps roughly amonth’s supply in a stockpile at the site,wet down and covered with a sealer so itwon’t blow in the wind.

“We burn about a car an hour,” Lay-bourn said.

“Each car carries about 118 tons ofcoal,” Seeliger said.

PPoowweerr pprroodduuccttiioonnThe power plant produces 218 mega-

watts of electricity every hour, and theplant sells 203 of the 218 megawatts to NVEnergy. The power goes into the grid atthe Falcon substation about two milesfrom the power plant.

The Nevada mines then use 136 of the203 megawatts, and NV Energy buys therest of the power, Seeliger said.

The coal is fed into the plant on con-veyor belts to fill the silos. The coal arrivesat three-quarters of an inch chunks, and“we crush it to powder with our pulveriz-ers,” said Seeliger.

Air blows the coal dust into the boiler,

which reaches up to 2,400 degrees.“It burns instantly, like a torch,” said

Laybourn.Seeliger said the plant runs water

through the boiler tubes to make steamof up to 1,000 degrees to go throughthe turbine to turn the generator to

produce power.“Once the energy is out of the steam,

we cool it back to water,” he said.The water is recycled, and the plant is a

zero-discharge facility. Evaporationponds on site are for any plant drainage.

The plant sends a portion of the fly ash

that remains after the production of elec-tricity to the Leeville underground minefor backfill production, and the rest goesto an ash landfill, Seeliger said, althoughthe plant will sell the fly ash to others.

Laybourn said there are 5,000 bags tofilter out the fly ash.


Power plant ...

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyJaime Rivera, an electrical instrument technician at Newmont MiningCorp.’s TS Power Plant, in late January checks connections in the water-testing laboratory.

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyBrian Raff of Elko operates the control room at Newmont Mining Corp.’sTS Power Plant at Dunphy. The top center screen shows a chart of allemissions data, and a warning sounds if emissions are near the limit.


JJOOHHNN DDOOBBRRAA

RENO — The fate of Nevada’s miningindustry hangs on gold prices, and 2011 ismaking a lot of people nervous.

The drop in prices in January was themain concern, but the recovery in Feb-ruary has brought some relief. None-theless, a little historical perspective is inorder.

An obvious question is what’s hap-pening? One simple answer is that we sawJanuary profit taking in a new tax year.However, that is probably little more thana technical glitch. World gold investorsare not generally concerned with U.S.capital gains taxes.

With the usual disclaimer that if I reallyknew what’s happening, I wouldn’t bewriting this, let me offer some observa-tions.

First, the gold markets have changedremarkably over the past decade. In the1990s and before, the major gold buyersand sellers were European central banks,which used gold markets to balance theirforeign exchange accounts.

With the run up to the introduction ofthe Euro in 2000, European central banks

started unloading their gold holdings,which were substantial. They managed topush the price down from the $370s to the$270s per ounce. There were press reportsthat central bankers regarded gold hold-ings like used office furniture, somethingto be discarded.

Then came the realization that if theEuropean central banks divested theirgold, there would be no reason to have aBundesbank, Bank of France, Luxem-bourg, etc., and a lot of European centralbankers would lose their jobs. They don’t,after all, manage a currency anymore.

But, before that realization sunk in, inthe mid 1990s the Euro bankers werelining up to sell and the follies began. Firstin line was British Chancellor of theExchequer Gordon Brown. He engineeredthe sale of 400 plus metric tons (about 13million ounces) at less than $300 perounce. The notional loss on the sale (salesprice versus the current price) is around$14 billion. Oops.

The British press is finally, more than adecade later, investigating Mr. Brown’sfollies, but that’s like investigating who

This chart shows the gold price for the first part of this year.

MINING COMMENTARY

Looking back at golden follies

See DDOOBBRRAA,, 57


forgot to close the barn door when youalready know the answer.

Between his feats of financial wizardryand the investigation, Mr. Brown waselected British prime minister. Oops,again.

But Mr. Brown was not the only goldbear. The European bankers, who tradi-tionally had used their holdings andmarket operations to stabilize the price,all sold (except, for the most part, theSwiss, Germans and French), and they gotburned. And so did Nevada’s miningindustry.

The moral to that part of the storyshould probably be to keep the bankersaway from the gold, but around 2002 theworld of gold turned. Once the stampedeto sell started to ease, a new dynamic tookover the market. Miners who had soldforward in the declining market of thenineties to protect themselves from thebankers, started to unwind their hedge-books. This required them to buy gold,boosting demand, to deliver against theirfutures contracts instead of using theirfuture production.

The most significant changes in gold

markets, however, come from factors notrelevant a decade ago. One significantissue is the growth of Exchange TradedFunds (ETFs), which make gold invest-ment much more accessible to the public.

Another is the interest in holding phys-ical gold in the form of coins and bullionas evidenced by the numerous advertise-ments seen in the media.

Both ETF and bullion demand repre-sent a move to mass marketing notpresent a decade ago.

The Indians have traditionally been thelargest importers of gold and that is amass market in and of itself. And, risingaffluence in India is definitely bullish forgold. Also, in the past few years China haslegalized gold sales and that’s another bil-lion potential buyers.

When you add in western buyers of bothphysical gold and ETFs, we are talkingabout billions of gold investors and, myopinion is that I trust them more than afew dozen European central bankers.

———————John Dobra is director of the Natural

Resource Industry Institute and associateprofessor of economics at the Universityof Nevada, Reno.

Dobra ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 5555


ELKO — Goldcorp Inc. announcedproven and probable gold reserves rose 23percent in 2010 to 60.1 million ounces.

The Vancouver-based company alsoreported proven and probable silverreserves were at 1.3 billion ounces.

“Strong growth in reserves andresources in 2010 underscores the con-tinued success of Goldcorp’s strategy tocomplement organic growth in our exist-ing districts with disciplined acquisi-tions,” said Chuck Jeannes, president andchief executive officer.

“Goldcorp’s gold reserves have nowincreased in each of the last seven years,”he said.

In Nevada, the gold reserves for theMarigold Mine at Valmy were at 1.55 mil-lion ounces for Goldcorp’s two-thirdsshare of the mine. Barrick Gold Corp.owns the other one third.

Also in Nevada, Goldcorp’s reserves atits 40 percent-owned Dee propertynorthwest of Carlin were recorded at930,000 ounces. Barrick owns the other

60 percent of the Dee property where thepartners are planning the Arturo goldmine.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-ment’s Elko District is preparing an envi-ronmental impact statement on Arturo.

The Dee property also has 4.39 millionounces of silver for Goldcorp’s 40 per-cent ownership, according to the report.

Goldcorp’s largest gold reserves are atPenasquito in Mexico, 18.17 millionounces, followed by 9.46 million ouncesof gold reserves for its 40 percent shareof Pueblo Viejo in the DominicanRepublic. Barrick is the 60 percent part-ner in Pueblo Viejo.

The company stated recent vein dis-coveries at Cerro Negro in Argentinanearly doubled gold reserves andresources there. The gold reserves total2.07 million ounces, and the silverreserves total 20.5 million ounces.

Goldcorp reported the company soldits 10.1 percent equity interest in OsiskoMining Corp. for nearly $532.6 million.

Jeannes said the proceeds will be usedto fund the development of Goldcorp’sexisting project pipeline.

Goldcorp boosts reserves


Nevada SoyProductsOperationsManager DarinBloyed holds ahandful ofcamelina seedbefore it goesinto the huge“screw” thatcrushes andheats the seeds.



LOVELOCK — Camelina seeds are sotiny it’s hard to believe they can produceoil, but they do.

Newmont Mining Corp.’s pilot projectthat got off the ground when the com-pany’s TS Ranch planted camelina andcanola crops last spring in irrigated fieldsnear Dunphy was in the seed-crushing,oil-producing stage in February at NevadaSoy Products in Lovelock.

The next step will be to send the oil toMinden, where Bently Biofuels Co. willproduce a biodiesel fuel that Newmontwill then have blended with diesel fuel atCarlin for a 50-50 mix to use in the com-pany’s underground mining equipment.

“If we have over 5,000 gallons ofcamelina oil, we’ll be happy,” said SteveSpitze, manager of climate change pro-grams for Newmont. “What we ulti-mately would like is 5,000 gallons ofcamelina biodiesel and 5,000 gallons ofcanola, or 10,000 gallons total.”

While the oil process will continue fora couple of more steps before the productis ready for mining equipment, the mashproduced when the oil is crushed out ofthe seeds was being bagged at NevadaSoy for immediate return to the TS Ranchto be blended with other feed for cattle.

The camelina feed is rich in omega 3and was expected to be 10 percent ofblended feed.

The camelina seeds trucked from theranch silos to Nevada Soy are processedin a new wing the company added forprocessing camelina and canola seeds,and the plant manager, Philip Rewinke,stressed during a tour that this wing iscompletely separate from the organic soyprocessing facilities on site.

The TS Ranch used fertilizer on its firstcrops, while the soy beans processed onthe other side were grown without fertil-izer.

“Everything is separate for organic,” hesaid.

The first run of camelina processed33,320 pounds of seed, producing 6,767net pounds of oil, or 20.31 percent, and22,768 pounds of meal, which was 68.33percent of the truckload. The sludge

From seed to oil

Steve Spitze, left, manag-er of climate change pro-grams for NewmontMining Corp., and MattMurray, an external rela-tions representative forNewmont, talk about theprocess to crush cameli-na seed into oil thatNewmont will use forbiodiesel fuel. The by-product is the meal atbottom left.


Newmont ranch’s cropbeing converted to fuel

See OOIILL SSEEEEDD,, 60

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NV. LIC. 0039116 • Est. Since 1994


Steve Spitze,manager of cli-mate changeprograms forNewmontMining Corp.,watches mealcome out of adrying drum atNevada SoyProducts inLovelock. Themeal is what isleft aftercamelina seedgrown onNewmont’s TSRanch iscrushed forthe oil that inturn will beused forbiodiesel fuelfor under-ground miningequipment.


Oil seed ...totaled 1,374 pounds, or 4.12 percent.

“The first run, the oil was less thanexpected. We were kind of expecting alarger oil yield, and it improved in thesecond run,” Rewinkle said.

The second run processed 47,660pounds, yielding 10,898 pounds of oil, or22.86 percent, 35,412 pounds of meal, or72.33 percent, and 1,533 pounds ofsludge, or 3.21 percent.

Rewinkle said Nevada Soy is stillrefining the process and completing theexpansion. The company added 4,000square feet and was still awaiting newelectricity capacity from NV Energy,using a generator in the meantime.

He said “camelina is breaking throughin the market,” and the challenge is fig-uring out the pricing.

To turn the tiny seeds into oil andmeal, Nevada Soy feeds the seed from ahopper into a huge “screw” that crushesand heats up the seed. “This is justbreaking the seed,” Rewinkle said.

“It cooks at between 265 degrees and




These 275-galloncontainers holdoil from camelinaseed grown onNewmont MiningCorp.’s TS Ranchnear Dunphy andwere processedat Nevada SoyProducts in Love-lock. The oil is forbiodiesel fuel.From left are:Steve Spitze,manager of cli-mate changeprograms forNewmont; MattMurray, an exter-nal relations rep-resentative forNewmont; andPhilip Rewinkle,manager ofNevada Soy.


Oil seed ...



285 degrees,” and then the crushed seedsgo through a cooling auger while makingtheir way to the press, he said.

Then the seed is dumped into thepress, and the oil goes into a pan belowwhile the meal comes out and goes to acooling drum.

“We let the environment cool it down,and now it is ready to bag,” Rewinkle said.

The meal goes into a tote bag thatholds 1 ton, after a final step through amixer-grinder operated in the back lot.

The oil, meanwhile, goes to a cen-trifuge that separates the sludge out, andthe oil goes into drums and later to tanksranging in size from 900 gallons to 2,200gallons.

“We’re running a little over 1,000pounds per hour through one machine,”said Darin Bloyed, the operations man-ager for Nevada Soy and a PershingCounty commissioner.

He said it takes about one hour and 20minutes to fill one bag of the meal.


Otillo Contrerashangs a bag tobe filled aftermeal from oilseeds is runthrough themixer-grinder atNevada Soy Pro-ducts inLovelock. Themixer-grinder isattached to thetractor in therear.


Oil seed ...



The plant is processing the camelinaseeds first, and the canola seeds willfollow.

Rewinkle said he is enthused about thepossibilities of processing oil out ofcamelina seed grown in Nevada and thenthe oil going to Minden to be turned intobiodiesel because the project is good fornorthern Nevada.

Newmont and the TS Ranch startedthe pilot project to look at the potentialfor growing oil seeds on the ranch as analternative to alfalfa and to produce abiodiesel that is cleaner for miners.

The company at that time also wantedto be prepared if Congress approved thecap and trade bill. In that case, Newmontcould help offset the CO2 emissions fromthe company’s TS Power Plant with thebiofuels project, according to Spitze.

Once the pilot project goes through allthe steps, Newmont will be taking a hardlook at the costs and the options.

Spitze said there will be three key


Nevada SoyProductsManagerPhilipRewinkleholds a hand-ful of mealthat wasbagged to goto NewmontMining Corp.’sTS Ranch. Themeal waswhat was leftafter camelinaseed grownon the ranchwas pro-cessed into oilat the plant inLovelock.


Oil seed ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 6622

things to study, including a cost benefit analysis of the crop itself and whetherit pays to grow the oil seeds.

Another step will be to analyze the quality of the fuel, and how miners ben-efit and how it does in the mining vehicles, and the third step will be an overallbusiness case analysis.

“Pilot programs are always expensive. What we will look at is what the pricewould be in the future and estimate full costs in the future,” Spitze said.

Dan Gralian, manager of Elko Land and Livestock that includes the TSRanch, also will look at whether he is “pleased with the bottom line” with theoil seed crop, Spitze said. The ranch has sold alfalfa for years, but the demandis down.

“The crop did pretty well, but we will do some things differently to assure ahigher yield,” Spitze said of the oil seed crop.

For the pilot project, the TS Ranch planted 250 acres of camelina and 125acres of canola, using three irrigation pivots total for the test crop. Earlier sto-ries in Mining Quarterly editions incorrectly stated that there were 250 acresof each seed type.

The cost analysis also will look at the cost of transportation for a truck totake loads of seed to Nevada Soy. Spitze said the cost was $700 for a 25-tonload. The seed also has to be transported to Bently.

Newmont and Gralian may also look at whether it might be more cost-effective for Newmont to buy biodiesel fuels from the market, and the TSRanch to sell oil seeds on the market, separately.

Nevada Soy Products has been in business 12 years. Rewinkle said his par-ents, Bob Rewinkle and Mary Jo Rablin, stated out as hay brokers, but farmersurged them to get into the seed business and from there they went to producingorganic soy meal.


Steve Back-herms, left, asalesman for theSteam Store inElko, and storeowner Troy Back-herms demon-strate one of theHotsy units pres-sure washersthey sell.


RRIISSHHII DDAAUULLAATTMining Quarterly

ELKO — Out on dusty West Commercial Streetis one of the cleanest stores in town — the SteamStore of Elko.

The well-established Elko business sells Hotsypressure washers, Val6 radiant heaters and wasteoil heaters of all sizes, among other items.

The Steam Store was opened in 1989 and ismostly owned by Troy Backherms and ScottReutner. The pair bought the store four years agoand currently head a team of five employees whowork out of the shop.

The pressure washers are the highest-sellingproducts and the Hotsy distribution company isthe Steam Store’s main line.

The Steam Store even offers to show theirHotsy pressure washers and how they work topotential clients before the customers buys one.

“We don’t mind coming by various mine sitesand small businesses and showing them thepower and efficiency of the washers,” said “Big”Steve Backherms, Troy’s father and head of theSteam Store sales department. “If they’re inter-

Mines big customers of Steam Store

See SSTTEEAAMM SSTTOORREE,, 65


ested, we’ll fire one up and show them howthey work. We’ve taken our big trailer unitsto the mines and cleaned up a hall pack orgrater for them to show how its done.”

According to Backherms, the pressurewashers range from $7,000 to $20,000. TheSteam Store also repairs any of the pressurewashers that have been damaged, whichBackherms says happen quite a bit.

“The warranties all depend on the unit,some pumps are good for five years, andeverything else is good for a year dependingon the abuse cycle,” Backherms said. “We’veseen some really beat up washers.

“Business runs in cycles. We can work onthree, four, five a day, it just depends. Wealways have something to work on. Some ofthe guys who use the washers at the sitesdon’t own it so they don’t treat it very well,but hey that’s what keeps us going,” he said.

Tom McGinnis was the first owner of theSteam Store of Elko and opened it in the late1980s. He has been keeping tabs of hisformer shop and is thoroughly impressedwith how the store has steadily progressedunder Backherms and Reutner.

“They both have done a great job with thestore,” McGinnis said. “I built the store orig-

inally from scratch. The Elko Steam Storeopened as a division of the Steam Store uphere in Twin Falls. We decided to open it inElko because we thought our equipmentwould sell well there. The mining industrywas very prevalent in the Elko area. We fig-ured the type of equipment we used and soldwould sell well in the Elko area. We evolvedwith the mining industry.”

Thinking he was ready for retirement,McGinnis first tried to sell the Elko store 11years ago.

“I was looking for a change and sold theElko Steam Store to a guy in 2000,” McGinnissaid. “Unfortunately gold prices started dip-ping then and the guy I sold it to couldn’t runit. I ended up having to buy it back from him.”

In 2005, McGinnis sold the Twin Falls storeafter owning it for 35 years, and then com-muted back and forth from Elko to run thestore.

“I was happy to sell the store to Troy andScott Reutner in 2007,” McGinnis said. “AndI’m pretty sure they were happy to buy it fromme. These new guys have done really well inElko.”

The Steam Store at 147 Commercial St. is8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Thephone number is 738-9700.


Steam Store ...AADDEELLLLAA HHAARRDDIINNGG

Mining Quarterly Editor

ELKO — Golden Predator MinesU.S. Inc.’s proposed expansion of itsAdelaide exploration project is in theinitial stages, according to the U.S.Bureau of Land Management.

“The company proposes under-ground exploration and to do drillingat the bottom of the drift,” said KenLoda of the Winnemucca BLM office.

He said in February the BLM ex-pects the environmental assessmentto be finalized in September on theproject roughly 10 miles south ofGolconda in Humboldt County.

The BLM reported Golden Pred-ator’s plans include excavation of anunderground exploration tunnel andventilation shaft for undergroundexploration drilling and ore sampling.

The company also plans to con-struct support facilities, an ore stock-pile pad and a waste rock dump, aswell as an evaporation cell for stormwater and improvements to existinghaul roads.

“Most of the proposed surface dis-turbance associated with this projectwould be within the existing footprintof lands disturbed during previousmining activity, which consists ofmultiple, small open pits and relatedaccess and haul roads, along withexploration roads drill sites andtrenches,” Humboldt River FieldOffice Manager Michael Truden saidearlier.

The proposed project area coversapproximately 641 acres, and planscall for four years of exploration,depending upon results, according tothe BLM.

According to Golden Predator’swebsite, the Adelaide property is partof the Gold Run Mining District,which has been active since the 1870s.

The largest past producer withinthe property, the Crown Mine, oper-ated intermittently from the early partof the century into the early 1940s. Ithas produced approximately 19,000ounces of gold and 345,000 ounces ofsilver from a combination of open pitand underground workings.

BLM to do Adelaide study


ELKO — Royal Gold Inc. achievedrecord revenue in the quarter endingDec. 31, 2010, as the company continuesits pursuit of high quality royalties,according to Tony Jensen, the compa-ny’s president and chief executive offi-cer.

The Denver-based royalty companyreported net income of $18.3 million, or33 cents per share, for the quarter end-ing Dec. 31, based on roy-alty revenue of $56.3 mil-lion.

The net income for thesecond quarter of its fiscalyear was up 90 percentover net income of $9.6million, or 24 cents pershare, on royalty revenueof $34.7 million in thesecond quarter of theprior fiscal year.

“Our record second-quarter results reflect theresiliency of our diversi-fied portfolio in helpingus achieve another strongquarter of cumulative productiongains,” Jensen said in the earningsannouncement.

The company reported the 62 per-cent increase in quarterly revenue waslargely driven by new production fromTech Resources Ltd.’s Andacollo Minein Chile, Vale’s Voisey’s Bay in Canadaand production increases at Peñasquitoin Mexico.

Higher average gold prices alsoattributed to the higher revenue.

The average price of gold for the sec-ond fiscal quarter was $1,367 per ounce,compared with $1,100 per ounce for thecomparable period the prior year, rep-resenting a 24 percent increase, ac-cording to Royal Gold.

IImmppaacctt ttoo rreevveennuueeThe company reported the increase

in revenue was partially offset by lowerproduction at the Pipeline operations

at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Mine inNevada and from Newmont MiningCorp.’s Leeville underground mine, alsoin Nevada, for areas of Leeville whereRoyal Gold holds royalties.

Royal Gold’s revenue also wasimpacted by a reduced royalty rate atTaparko in West Africa. The royaltydropped from 25 percent to 2 percent ascaps took effect, Jensen said.

According to the earnings report,royalty revenue from Cortez totaled$7.6 million on 89,445 ounces of gold in

the 2010 quarter, com-pared with $8.9 million inrevenue and 124,973ounces of gold in thequarter ending Dec. 31,2009.

Barrick is focusing onthe Cortez Hills opera-tions at the Cortez Mine,while Royal Gold’s royal-ties are on the Pipelineportion of the operationsin Lander County.

Leeville provided $2.6million in revenue on105,998 ounces of gold inthe most recent quarter,

compared with $3 million on 150,328ounces of gold in the prior year.

Another Nevada royalty, fromQuadra FNX Mining Ltd.’s RobinsonMine near Ely, provided $3.5 million inroyalty revenue on 12,655 ounces ofgold and 24.7 million pounds of copper,down slightly from $3.6 million in rev-enue in the 2009 quarter on 24,057ounces of gold and 31.7 million poundsof copper.

William Zisch, vice president ofoperations for Royal Gold, said in thecompany’s earnings teleconference inearly February that Robinson endedmining at the Veteran Pit in the fourthquarter and shifted all mining to theRuth Pit.

He also said copper production was 6percent below guidance at Robinson


Royal Gold’s netincome up 90%

Royal Goldearnings

Net income:$18.3 million,33 cents per shareRevenue:$56.3 millionfrom 33 mines

See RROOYYAALL GGOOLLDD,, 67


because of bad weather and lower grades, but goldproduction was above guidance.

TToopp rreevveennuuee mmaakkeerrAccording to the earnings report, the top revenue

maker in the quarter was Andacollo, with $11.3 millionon 11,087 ounces of gold. There was no production theprior year for comparison.

The second-highest revenue source was Voisey’sBay, which provided $8.1 million in royalty money on22.5 million pounds of nickel and 39.6 million poundsof copper. There were no comparison figures for lastyear.

Cortez was in third place, followed by the PeñasquitoMine, where Royal Gold earned $5.8 million in royaltieson 54,775 ounces of gold, 5.1 million ounces of silver,38.3 million pounds of lead and 58.1 million pounds ofzinc.

Goldcorp Inc. operates Peñasquito, which provided$1.1 million in revenue in the prior year, when the minewasn’t in full production. Goldcorp predicts $350,000ounces of gold production this year, however.

Robinson was the fifth highest royalty provider, fol-lowed by the Mulatos Mine operated by Alamos inMexico, which provided $3 million in revenue on 47,834ounces of gold, compared with $2.4 million on 43,928ounces of gold the prior year.

Leeville was in the sixth spot, followed by HighRiver’s Taparko, which provided $2.6 million in royaltyrevenue on 105,998 ounces of gold, down from $3 mil-lion on 150,328 ounces of gold in the 2009 quarter.

Royal Gold currently has revenue coming from 33mines worldwide that are part of its portfolio of 187properties, including 24 development-stage projects.

The portfolio grew last year with acquisition ofInternational Royalty Co.

“We more than made up for the reduced royalty rateat Taparko with new year-over-year revenue additionsfrom Andacollo and the IRC portfolio and increasedproduction at Peñasquito,” Jensen said in the earningsreport.

LLooookkiinngg ttoo ffuuttuurreeRoyal Gold also invested during the quarter in two

projects the company sees as future revenue-genera-tors.

The Mt. Milligan transaction closed in the quarter,with Royal Gold paying $226.5 million at closing andagreeing to pay $85 million during construction for a 25percent revenue stream on 6 million ounces of gold onthe project in British Columbia.

Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. owns Mt.Milligan.

“We’re very pleased with this transaction, and welook forward to similar opportunities where we can add

value in the future,” Jensen said in the earnings tele-conference.

Royal Gold also closed deals for additional goldroyalty interests on Barrick Gold Corp.’s Pascua-Lama Project on the border of Chile and Argentina,giving Royal Gold a 5.23 percent net smelter returnsliding scale royalty at gold prices of $800 an ounce ormore.

“At present we envision the Mt. Milligan andPascua Lama projects will become our largest revenuesources once they reach full production,” Jensen said.

Mines expected to increase production as they rampup or begin production this year include the DoloresMine in Mexico; Las Cruces in Spain; and theWolverine, Holt and Canadian Malartic mines inCanada. Royal Gold has royalties on these mines, aswell.

Royal Gold also announced it has amended andrestated its term loan and revolving credit facility pro-vided by HSBC Bank USA, National Association andThe Bank of Nova Scotia.

The action increases available funds from $125 mil-lion to $225 million.

“The increased size and improved terms of this newfinancing structure reflects the growth we are experi-encing in Royal Gold and provides the company withgreater liquidity and financial flexibility, and positionsus well for new opportunities,” Jensen said.

Royal Gold ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 6666

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ELKO — A new conceptual model forhow Nevada’s gold deposits form can“help exploration geologists to look formore Carlin-type deposits,” accordingto State Geologist Jonathan Price, whois director of the Nevada Bureau ofMines and Geology.

A research team from the Universityof Nevada, Reno and the University ofNevada, Las Vegas devised the model,and Price said the team’s ideas are in ascientific paper that is readily accessibleand free.

“It’s the evolution of years of investi-gation,” he said. “To me, the most inter-esting aspects are looking deeper in theCarlin system, or the Battle Mountain orGetchell deposits.”

Price also said a current case in pointis that the new model has implicationsfor looking for more gold deposits atLong Canyon in the Pequop Mountainsof Elko County, an area that hasn’tbeen mined yet but Newmont Mining

Corp. hopes to acquire from FronteerGold.

“So that’s exciting,” he said.The Carlin-type gold deposits for the

model are characterized by extremelyfine-grained nanometer-sized particlesof gold adhered to pyrite over large areasthat can extend to great depths, ac-cording to UNR.

More gold has been mined fromCarlin-type deposits in Nevada in thelast 50 years — more than $200 billionworth at today’s gold prices — than wasever mined from during the Californiagold rush of the 1800s, the universitystated in an announcement on the newmodel.

The current Nevada gold boomstarted in 1961 with the discovery of theCarlin gold mine north of Carlin, andsince the 1960s, geologists have foundclusters of these “Carlin-type” depositsthroughout northern Nevada. Theyconstitute, after South Africa, thesecond largest concentration of gold onEarth.

Despite their importance, geologists

have argued for decades about how theyformed.

“Carlin-type deposits are unique toNevada in that they represent a perfectstorm of Nevada’s ideal geology — a tec-tonic trigger and magmatic processes,resulting in extremely efficient trans-port and deposition of gold,” said JohnMuntean, a research economic geologistwith the Nevada Bureau of Mines andGeology at UNR and a former industrygeologist who explored for gold inNevada for many years.

“Understanding how these depositsformed is important because most ofthe deposits that cropped out at thesurface have likely been found. Ex-ploration is increasingly targetingdeeper deposits. Such risky deep explo-ration requires expensive drilling,” hesaid.

“Our model for the formation ofCarlin-type deposits may not directlyresult in new discoveries, but models forgold deposit formation play an impor-tant role in how companies explore bymitigating risk,” he said in the an-

nouncement.“Knowing how certain types of gold

deposits form allows one to be morepredictive by evaluating whether ore-forming processes operated in the rightgeologic settings. This could lead toidentification of potential new areas ofdiscovery,” Muntean said.

He collaborated with researchersfrom UNLV: Jean Cline, a faculty pro-fessor of geology at UNLV and aleading authority on Carlin-type golddeposits; Adam Simon, an assistantprofessor of geoscience who providednew experimental data and his ex-pertise on the interplay betweenmagmas and ore deposits; and TonyLongo, a post-doctoral fellow who car-ried out detailed microanalyses of theore minerals.

The team relates formation of thegold deposits to a change in plate tec-tonics and a major magma event about40 million years ago. It is the mostcomplete explanation for Carlin-type

New model may help geologists find gold

See GGOOLLDD MMOODDEELL,, 69

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gold deposits to date, according to UNR.“Our model won’t be the final word

on Carlin-type deposits,” Muntean said.“We hope it spurs new research inNevada, especially by people who maynot necessarily be ore deposit geolo-gists.”

The work was funded by grants from

the National Science Foundation, theUnited States Geological Survey, PlacerDome Exploration and Barrick GoldCorp.

The team’s article appears in theonline edition of the journal NatureGeosciences,available at www.nature.com/ngeounder “advanced online publica-tion.”


Gold model ...


ELKO — Jipangu International ismining again at the Standard Mine fivemiles south of its Florida Canyon Minewhile development work continues atthe site.

“We’re getting the infrastructure androads ready for Standard, and we’ve gotthe trucks and equipment there,” saidFlorida Canyon and Standard GeneralManager Joel Murphy.

All the mining will be at Standard forthe next few years, and he said in mid-February crews were wrapping up thework at Florida Canyon.

“We expect all mining to be atStandard by mid-April,” Murphy said.

Plans continue, however, to return toFlorida Canyon once Jipangu has re-ceived U.S. Bureau of Land Managementapproval to expand operations there.

“We’re working on starting a plan ofoperations to come back to FloridaCanyon,” Murphy said.

“We have 1.1 million ounces ofreserves,” he said, adding that FloridaCanyon picked up 100,000 ounces tothe 1 million ounces it had at the end of2009, even after mining all of 2010.

Brent Ford, engineering manager forFlorida Canyon and Standard, saidFlorida Canyon mined 17.1 million tonsof ore and waste rock in 2010 and themine recovered 55,500 ounces of goldand 40,000 ounces of silver during theyear.

The forecast for this year is to mine18.2 million tons of ore and wastebecause of the extra stripping at

Standard, and Ford said productioncould be a little lower “because the newleach paid is firing up” at Standard.

Murphy said two exploration drillsare working at Florida Canyon after fin-ishing at Standard.

Ford said the combination ofStandard and a return to Florida Canyonwill provide more than 10 years of minelife.

“This is very large, very low-gradematerial, and if the gold price stays up,we’re in high cotton,” he said.

Murphy said there are 150 peopleworking at the two sites combined.

At Standard, Florida Canyon crewsare finishing the roadwork, but Murphysaid N.A. Degerstrom Inc. helped withthe initial road work.

The crews also are stripping the over-burden and getting ready to stockpileore at Standard, he said.

Ford said ore at Standard probablywill be crushed, but it could go run-of-mine to the leach pad. The decision ispending.

Ore will be placed on an expandedleach pad at Standard, but the truckshop, laboratory and administrationoffices will be used at Florida Canyon.

Although all the mining will be atStandard, there will be residual leachingat Florida Canyon and reclamation workwill continue.

Ken Loda of the Battle Mountain BLMDistrict said in February Florida Canyonwas just completing revision of a long-term trust agreement for future envi-ronmental cleanup beyond closure ofthe property, such as drain down fromthe leach pads.

Jipangu miningagain at Standard

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ELKO — In just a few years, AlliedNevada Corp.’s Hycroft Mine continuesto boost gold production and has an eyetoward developing the mine into a majoroperation.

The Reno-based company expects tocomplete an initial feasibility study in thethird quarter to look at the economics ofmining and milling sulfide ore, accordingto Tracey Thom, vice president of in-vestor relations.

“If we choose to build a mill, we willsee the heap leach profile drop signifi-cantly. Otherwise, we will run the heapleach at the level proposed,” she said.

If Allied Nevada decides to build a milland go for the sulfide ore at the mine inHumboldt County, gold productioncould reach more than 600,000 ounces ayear, and silver production could be 27million ounces a year, Thom said.

The open-pit mining now that puts allthe ore on a heap leach pad will beincreasing with the current expansion tobetween 250,000 and 260,000 ounceswithout a mill, she said.

Hycroft produced 102,000 ounces ofgold in 2010 and forecasts gold produc-tion of between 125,000 and 135,000ounces this year as the expansion contin-ues.

“We will be mining upwards of 80 mil-lion tons of waste and ore by 2012,” Thomsaid on Feb. 18.

Allied Nevada revived the closedHycroft Mine in 2008 and has beenexpanding the operation since that time,with 140 employees now and plans toreach 200 workers by the end of this year,she said.

Thom said the mine put three new320-ton Komatsu haul trucks in opera-tion before the end of 2010 to help withthe stepped-up mining, and the minewill add four more trucks this year.

“Ultimately, there will be 16 trucks by2012,” she said.

The mining is in the Brimstone Pit, andminers opened the new Cut 5 in lateJanuary, she said.

Exploration drilling also continues at asteady pace at Hycroft, which is west of

Winnemucca.“We’re still doing infill drilling, and we

will start step-out drilling in the secondquarter,” Thom said.

The drilling will focus on the opensouth end of the Vortex deposit, she said.

“We did almost 396 holes in 2010,”Thom said, reporting there was morethan 333,000 feet of infill drilling to pro-vide data for the initial feasibility studyand for metallurgical studies.

The company also plans to spend $18million on companywide exploration,with an additional $4.5 million beingcapitalized.

Thom said exploration will continue atHasbrouck Mountain five miles south ofTonopah.

“It is a “pretty exciting project for us.It represents a second mine for us. Itcould look like a little Hycroft, a nice,clean, simple operation,” Thom said.

The company also announced inFebruary it hired Michael Moran to a newposition as vice president of projectdevelopment with a primary focus onHycroft, including leading engineeringdesign, feasibility studies and mine con-struction.

“We are extremely pleased that Mikehas agreed to join Allied Nevada in thiskey role as we advance the Hycroftexpansion projects,” President and ChiefExecutive Officer Scott Caldwell said inthe announcement.

Moran has more than 25 years of expe-rience in the management, development,construction and operation of large-scale projects, according to AlliedNevada.

Allied Nevada stated the outlook forthis year calls for gold sales at a cash costof $460 to $490 per ounce with silver asa byproduct.

Allied Nevada stated the expected costof sales this year will be higher because ofthe lower grades, an increased miningrate as Hycroft ramps up its oxide expan-sion and because of higher expectedcommodity prices.

The company also reported in lateJanuary the average grades are expectedto be lower this year as mining goesthrough a lower-grade phase in theBrimstone Pit.

Allied Nevada plansto keep growing



CARLIN — Winning teams play “hill-billy golf” in one segment, and in an-other, a ball pops out when team mem-bers successfully help a pretend chokingvictim.

Those were just a couple of the high-lights of Newmont Mining Corp.’sannual refresher training in January andFebruary at the University of Nevada,Reno, Fire Science Academy to meetU.S. Mine Safety and Health Admini-stration requirements, as the company’ssafety professionals work to make thetraining more interesting.

Newmont held similar training ses-sions in Battle Mountain and Winne-mucca, as well, for employees whowork nearer those communities, butthe training at the fire academy was foremployees at Carlin operations and theElko office, whether they are a man-ager, a geologist, a miner or a truckdriver.

“In the old days, we plugged in a VCRtape,” said Don Neff, safety manager forCarlin operations. “The key is havingeveryone engaged in safety programs.”

He said Newmont puts on 10 classes ayear for those in the Carlin area to besure all 1,800 employees go throughtheir all-day training, and the companyhas used the fire academy the past fouror five years.

“We’ve actually gotten a lot of feed-back. People like the small groups andhands-on,” Neff said at an earlyFebruary session. “Every year we getmore creative and better responses.

AABBOOVVEE:: Newmont Mining Corp.’s regionalsenior vice president of North Americanoperations, Tom Kerr, acts as a choking vic-tim as Newmont employee Jeff Coats per-forms an abdominal thrust on Kerr andinstructor Lorenzo Ramirez watches duringrefresher safety training at the University ofNevada, Reno Fire Science Academy.

LLEEFFTT:: Don Neff, safety manager for New-mont Mining Corp.’s Carlin operations,demonstrates the prop used for a safetyinstruction module on recognizing hazards.Newmont held safety training sessions inJanuary and February.


Refresherclass keepsparticipantsengaged

See SSAAFFEETTYY,, 73

Safety training at Newmont


InstructorChatz Rath, left,works withNewmontMining Corp.employees JayRunyon, center,and RobertBroderson in anemergencyresponse mod-ule duringNewmont’sannual safetyrefresher train-ing in Februaryat theUniversity ofNevada, RenoFire ScienceAcademy.


Safety ...This year has been really well-received.”

At the training in Carlin, theattendees were put into teams togo through eight modules, andthese modules met MSHA re-quirements while also offeringhands-on instruction and $50prizes at the end of the day.

“When they break into teams,they have a better opportunity toask questions and for hands-on,”Neff said.

One module is for field-levelrisk assessment, including recog-nition of hazards and accidentprevention, and the employeeshad to identify “a whole bunch ofhazards” in a prop, as well as iden-tifying housekeeping tasks, Neffsaid.

At another module, a teamlearned about inspections. Forexample, instructor Temby Law-rence showed a first aid kit that


See SSAAFFEETTYY,, 74


expired three years ago but was found on amine site.

Another module covered electrical safetyand included a prop.

Another segment addressed miners’ rights,explaining that miners have the right to bringsafety concerns to their supervisors, and theyhave the right to call MSHA.

Yet another module was on ground control,and a sixth was on transportation and com-munication, explaining how important it is tospeak clearly on the radio. The teams with themost points played hillbilly golf.

A seventh segment was on emergency re-sponse and preparedness, including teachingabout abdominal thrusts (also known as theHeimlich maneuver), defibrillators, making asling for a broken arm and more.

The eighth segment was on industrialhygiene, including on hearing protection andrespiratory protection.

The instructors include emergency re-sponders, people from the health and safetydepartment, and Neff said they start planningwell ahead of the classes, and they “instructeach other” before instructing the classes.

“It takes five months to put together, what

with us doing our everyday jobs, too,” he said.There were 175 Newmont employees going

through the refresher training on Feb. 10.Their day lasted nine and a half hours, butincluded lunch and breaks.

“We try to keep them under 200 for classsize and 16 instructors,” Neff said.

He said the instructors look at the refresheras a chance to give people the skills they needto do their job and also skills they can use athome.

Neff also said mining companies sharesafety ideas, because “there is nothing pro-prietary about safety. We don’t keep secretswhen it comes to safety.”

Newmont has been stressing a safety cul-ture at the mine level and the corporate level.

The International Council on Mining andMetals, which put together a safety video,quotes Newmont President and ChiefExecutive Officer Richard O’Brien as sayingsafety in mining is not only critical — it’s per-sonal.

“If leadership at the top doesn’t say it’simportant — it’s not going to happen. But it’snot enough to provide them with rules andtechnologies. It’s really hearts and mind com-mitment,” the CEO said.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyNewmont Mining Corp. equipment operator Lore Del Sarto listens during aNewmont annual refresher training session at the University of Nevada, Reno FireScience Academy.

Safety ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 7733


Submitted

GE Water Water and Technology presents an award to Barrick Gold Corp.’s Ruby Hill Mine repre-sentatives in the town of Eureka in recognition of the mine’s work with GE on dust suppression.From left are: Dwayne Knudson, Ruby Hill supervisor; Brian Mason, Ruby Hill environmentalsuperintendent; and Ray Nivens, GE Water and Technology.

EUREKA — This year’s approach tominimizing fugitive emissions fromBarrick Gold Corp.’s Ruby Hill Mine fivemiles west of Eureka included the use ofDusTreat, a lignin-based dust palliativefrom GE Water.

This product is an environmentallyfriendly option to magnesium chlorideuse on roads and other non-paved areas,according to GE Water, which presentedan award to Ruby Hill for its efforts tocontrol dust at the gold mine.

GE Water representative Ray Nivenssaid this award came from the corporatelevel, which chose Ruby Hill from sub-missions throughout the country.

GE Water’s application of this organicbinder included prepping the surface toloosen the top layer and allow theDusTreat to adhere to substrate material,according to the company.

The company reported a specific tar-geted dose was achieved by spraying theproduct from a water truck in severalpasses. Once the product began to hard-en cure, the road was compacted using asmooth drummed roller.

The dust control work at Ruby Hill

included the access road from U.S.Highway 50 up to the mine site. Bothparking lots were treated, as well as theroads around the warehouse and truckshop.

Product also was applied to theadministration and laboratory areas andon all light vehicles roads around theprocess building, crusher and ore stock-pile, as well as on the road along the con-veyor and up to the stacker, according toGE Water.

Another objective was to address air-borne particulate leaving the pit as aresult of prevailing easterly winds, thecompany reported.

“This was the first time lignum hasbeen used on the pit high wall for dustsuppression,” said Melanie Lawson,community relations specialist for Bar-rick Gold of North America.

A more dilute DusTreat solution wasapplied using a cannon sprayer mountedon the water truck. A section was treatedon the east high wall, resulting in a dra-matic reduction in dust, and the compa-ny stated several spray patterns wereevaluated.

GE Water suppressesdust at Ruby Hill



ELKO — Shining gold prices and avibrant mining industry are likely toattract even more vendors to the 2011Elko Mining Expo to be held June 9-10 atthe Elko Convention Center.

“We’re excited. We’re in the planningprocess for the 26th annual event, andwe’ve made a few changes,” said ElkoConvention and Visitors AuthorityExecutive Director Don Newman.

The Expo is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June9 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 10.

“We’ve added additional booths in thecity park near the tennis courts, based ondemand,” Newman said.

The June Expo will have 469 booths,including 48 10-foot by 10-foot boothsin the park across from the conventioncenter, according to Jennifer Stotts, theECVA’s events coordinator. That com-pares with 421 booths at the 2010 event.

“We’ve got a pretty extensive waitinglist,” she said, estimating more than 70on the list for the mining mall tents and70 for space outdoors.

The indoor exhibit space is sold out.“I think gold prices has a lot to do with

it. When gold does well, the show doeswell. The last three years have been high,and we’ve sold out and gotten bigger thelast three years,” Stotts said.

The gold price has been in the range of$1,300 an ounce to more than $1,400 anounce since last September.

Stotts said returning exhibitors havethe first right of refusal for booths forthis year’s Expo until March 14, afterwhich Expo spaces are open to all andshe will be moving through the waitinglist.

The Expo is making another changethis year, too.

Stotts said a product showcase isplanned instead of technical sessions,allowing vendors from 20 to 50 minutesto demonstrate their products in theconvention center theater.

“This will give all the exhibitors achance to showcase new products ortheir products,” Stotts said.

The showcase is free to exhibitors andattendees.

Although the Expo is June 9-10, theopening banquet is at 6 p.m. June 8 atStockmen’s Hotel & Casino, and thatevent always sells out, Stotts said.Tickets are on sale now.

Another event already is sold out —the June 6-7 golf tournament at RubyView Golf Course, according to the LouSchack, director of communications andcommunity affairs for Barrick Gold ofNorth America and the tournamentchairman.

“This is probably the earliest it hassold out,” he said in mid-February.

Schack said 520 rounds of gold havebeen sold.

Stotts said tickets are on sale for thegolf tournament banquet that will beginat 5:30 p.m. on June 7 at Ruby View.

“I think it will be a great Expo,” Stottssaid.

The Expo also will have activities foryoung people again this year. The Minor

Miners activity will be from 12:30 p.m.to 3 p.m. June 9 and 10, and there will bea play land at Elko Main City Park eachday.

Details on booths, event tickets andsponsorships are available on theInternet at www.exploreelko.com or bycalling the ECVA at 775-738-4091 or tollfree at 1-800-248-3556.

Elko Mining Expo adds booth space

Lynne Volpi, left, owner of Kestrel Mine Services andthe Women’s Mining Coalition coordinator, andPamela Smith, community relations coordinator forFronteer Gold, are in the WMC booth at the 2010 ElkoMining Expo.

Visitors stopin at theSteam Storebooth at the2010 ElkoMining Expo.The ElkoConventionand VisitorsAuthorityhonored theSteam Storeas a SilverExhibitor for25 years ofparticipationin the Expo.

Adella HardingMining Quarterlyfile photos



ELKO — Great Basin Gold Ltd. contin-ues test mining at the Hollister Project inElko County and fine tuning theEsmeralda Mill near Hawthorne, accord-ing to Lee Morrison, human resourcesmanager for the company’s Nevadaoperations.

“We’re still in the trial mining stageand still trying to figure out what is thebest mill process,” he said.

Hollister will remain a trial-mining,underground operation until the U.S.Bureau of Land Management completesan environmental impact statement onthe project and issues a record of deci-sion.

“The EIS is moving along. We’re look-ing to get a draft out in a few months,”Dave Overcast, the Tuscarora field man-ager for the Elko BLM District, said inmid-February.

Great Basin Gold reported in lateJanuary that production at Hollistertotaled roughly 31,000 equivalent ounces

in the fourth quarter of 2010, and thecompany expects Hollister to produceroughly 110,000 gold equivalent ouncesin 2011.

Costs for the quarter were $680 perounce.

Great Basin Gold also reported Hol-lister had 907,000 proven and probablegold equivalent ounces as of January 2011,including 832,100 ounces of gold andnearly 5 million ounces of silver.

The latest reserves for Hollister are up13 percent from the last figures in January2009, and the increase is despite 176,387gold equivalent ounces mined since thattime, according to the company’s reportin early February.

The grade of the latest reserves aver-ages 0.79 ounces per ton of gold and 4.75ounces per ton of silver.

Once Hollister becomes a full-produc-tion mine, Great Basin Gold forecastsannual production of 110,000 ounces ofgold equivalent over eight years atHollister with a cash cost of roughly $527an ounce.

All of the ore mined at Hollister is

processed at Esmeralda roughly 300miles from Hollister, and Morrison saidthe mill is fully commissioned, but thefine tuning is to reach maximum recov-ery.

John Davis Trucking hauls the ore toEsmeralda.

Hollister is a high-grade operation,but the extremely high grades in a pocketin the Blanket Zone have been minedthrough.

The company stated initial trial miningin the Blanket Zone yielded 500 tons at agrade of 15 gold equivalent ounces per toncontaining roughly 7,500 gold equivalentounces, and Morrison said Hollister is stilldefining the Blanket Zone.

He said the ore pockets are intermittentat this point.

“We just don’t know what we’ve got,”Morrison said.

Fred Dippenaar, president and chiefexecutive officer of Great Basin Gold,reported in late January that the averagemining rate at Hollister is 325 tons perday.

“At Hollister, exploration drilling from

underground is successfully tracking thelateral extensions of the Hollister veinsnorthwestward to the Gloria vein systemand the Butte bounding structure andsoutheastward from the Gwenivere veinsystem to the Hatter Graben,” he said.

Great Basin Gold currently has 200employees in Nevada, including 35 atEsmeralda and 25 at the Winnemuccaoffice, Morrison said. The remainder areat Hollister, which is in a remote locationin northwestern Elko County.

The company also continues to workwith the U.S. Mine Safety and HealthAdministration in light of MSHA’s actionlate last year that put Hollister on noticefor a potential pattern of violations.

“It’s a big issue with us, and we’re try-ing to work through it,” Morrison said,noting that Hollister hasn’t had anyfatalities or lost-time accidents, al-though there have been near-misses.

“We’re convincing MSHA we’re not asbad as we’re portrayed to be,” he said.

Great Basin Gold also plans to chal-lenge some of MSHA’s findings, Mor-rison said.

Hollister trial mining, producing gold


BByy JJAARREEDD DDuuBBAACCHHMining Quarterly

ELKO — Cost effectiveness is important inthe mining industry, and Atlas Copco report-ed it has been taking major steps to increasingthat factor for the company’s clients.

While the Elko store has expanded servicesto include a customer equipment exchangeprogram and a welding and line bore shop,probably the most crucial advancement forthe company is through development of theExcore diamond tool core drilling system.

According to John Wolfe, geotechnicaldrilling and exploration regional sales man-ager, Atlas Copco has been developing andtesting the Excore system for about two yearsworldwide, including in Nevada, Idaho,Montana and California.

“Exploration is key,” he said. “It’s all abouthow much core you put in the box.”

While the Excore exploration bits are dia-mond embedded as are some others, Wolfesaid the innovation lies in the classificationsthe company has established for differenttypes of rock.

Whereas some drilling companies deal withthousands of different bits to try and figureout what works best for a certain situation,Wolfe said Atlas Copco’s system relies on asystem of just 21 bits. The bits are classified byapplication and rock group. Then, crowndesign can be factored.

Wolfe said a company using the Excore sys-tem recently broke a record by drilling 390feet in just one shift. According to Wolfe,Excore produced about an 80 percent higherrate of penetration than other bits with a fourtimes longer life.

Figures generated from a drilling project in

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyJohn Wolfe, left, Atlas Copco geotechnical drilling and exploration regional sales manager, and Matt Willeford, manager of the Elko Atlas Copco store, hold the company’s latestdiamond drilling bit, the Excore.

Atlas Copcoservice techni-cians JerryShaff, left, andAaron Holtrebuild anexplorationhead in theElko shop aspart of AtlasCopco’sexchange pro-gram.


Drilling innovation New system adds efficiency

See AATTLLAASS CCOOPPCCOO,, 79


Africa indicate a 40 percent savings on time need-ed to drill a 1,640.42-foot hole with only two rodpulls versus a different bit style’s 14 and only onebit replacement versus the other bit’s seven.

Also, only two Excore bits were needed versusthe other bit’s eight. In the Africa application, anExcore bit lasted for 951.44 feet.

Atlas Copco’s literature on Excore also states therock was so hard in the African drilling that theother bit was actually becoming polished, ratherthan cutting rock, and applying more force onlyraised the drilling platform. It was then with thecontracted drilling time running out that the com-pany, Drillcorp, switched to Atlas Copco’s Excorebits.

In the local testing, Wolfe said Atlas Copco hasbeen getting good results with Excore.

According to Wolfe, Excore was officially launchedMarch 1, and stock is already on-hand in the Elkostore. A promotional campaign will follow.

Store Manager Matt Willeford said clients whoinvest in the Excore system will be trained on itsapplication to ensure they get optimum results fromthat investment. But, according to Wolfe, 90 per-cent of the time there’s a problem it’s because thedriller is using the wrong bit for the wrong location.

Atlas Copco also continues to provide under-

ground and surface drilling machines in its geot-echnical drilling and exploration division, as wellas its ground support innovation, the Swellex rockbolt system.

The local store’s recent expansions include adedicated exchange and rebuild facility, as well as awelding and line bore shop. The store also has amobile unit for bringing those services to the proj-ect site.

Willeford said the exchange program is an alter-native to a mining company having to buy a newpiece of equipment, be it a loader, truck or drill rig.Technicians examine the worn or broken equip-ment, and report on what it will take to restore theitem, thus helping to gauge cost effectiveness forthe customer.

“Service exchange reduces down time for anoperation,” Willeford said. “And down time is key.”

Willeford said the local store has 33 employees,and has 24-hour service available for clients.

“The mines run 24 hours, so we have to run 24hours,” he said.

The local facility also carries a substantial inven-tory of the rock drilling tool supplies, such as bitsand pipe for the surface and underground applica-tions.

For information on Atlas Copco, go online towww.atlascopco.us.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyBrent Lange, a product support sales representative, examines a bundle ofcopper wiring out of one of Atlas Copco's newest features, a mobile weldingand line bore shop.


Atlas Copco ...



ELKO — Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s RochesterMine in Pershing County is gearing up for new produc-tion later this year as new equipment continues toarrive.

“We have some ore available, but the crusher andleach pad are not ready so we are backfilling in the pitfor a buttress and laying out the drill pattern for ore,”Rochester General Manager Cindy Jones said.

Any ore mined now is stockpiled, she said, estimat-ing that the crusher that had been sitting idle sinceAugust 2007 and a new leach pad will be ready in June.

“Then, we will be going like crazy,” Jones said.Rochester has eight new 100-ton Caterpillar haul

trucks coming by early March and is using the two haultrucks still on site and four contracted trucks for thecurrent work, Jones said.

Two new blast-hole drill rigs also are on order, butRochester already has two new loaders, two new bull-dozers and a grader on site.

“We’re stripping in the Rochester Pit,” Jones said.Work also is under way for a new section of the con-

veyor system to move ore to the crusher at the silvermine.

“We will be in full operation and producing silverounces off the new leach pad this fourth quarter,” Jonessaid.

Rochester also is hiring more people as the expansionproject continues. Jones said in mid-February therewere 92 people employed and 29 contractors on site.

“We’re interviewing another bunch. When we getmore people, we will go 24-7,” she said. The mine isrunning a day shift only at this point.

Jones said Rochester has received more than 1,000job applications or resumes and plans to be fully staffedto 200-225 people by early summer. There also will be60 to 100 contractors on site during peak construction.

The project’s job creation is the key reason Nevadalawmakers, former Gov. Jim Gibbons and PershingCounty officials urged the U.S. Bureau of LandManagement to allow the Rochester expansion to bedone under an environmental assessment that tookless time than an environmental impact statement.

Rochester agreed, however, to do an EIS to coverclosure of existing leach pads, and Jones saidRochester will have a plan to the BLM by Dec. 31,including plans for additional mining.

“Engineers are on site for the baseline work, and wewill submit an expansion plan with it. This will be forthe future and out of the scope of what’s been donebefore. We will roll into the next leach pad,” Jones said.

She estimated approval for the new work would takethree to four years through the EIS process.

Ken Loda of the BLM’s Winnemucca District saidapproval of the current expansion also was contingenton a long-term trust and new estimates for reclamationcosts.

Rochester stopped mining in 2007 but has continued

residual leaching on the pads since then, as well as con-tinuing reclamation work on site.

The expansion comes as the production from resid-ual leaching is decreasing, although production in 2010exceeded the budget for silver ounces, according toJones. Figures weren’t released by press time.

Rochester also will be doing exploration drillingstarting this spring in hopes of increasing the mine life.The new leach pad under construction has a mine life of

six to seven years, “but we hope to go for another 10years or more,” she said.

Coeur stated last fall that the capital costs for thecurrent expansion would be $29 million this year and$38 million over the life of the project.

The Idaho-based company said then thatRochester’s annual production was expected to be 2.4million ounces of silver and 35,000 ounces of gold withthe expansion.

Rochester development under way

AABBOOVVEE:: A new Caterpillar loader fills a haul truck atCoeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester silver mine nearLovelock in February as part of the company’s expan-sion project.

LLEEFFTT:: Personnel at Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’sRochester Mine near Lovelock took time away fromdevelopment work on Feb. 9 to show the Reno HugHigh School’s environmental class an operating mineand environmental monitoring requirements. The stu-dents pose in the bucket of a new Caterpillar loader.

Rochester Mine photos


Ruth Carraher, vice president of Crown Gold Corp., talks about the Reno-based company’sMonte Crisco exploration property in Nevada with Neil Eurick, president and chief executiveofficer of Behre Dolbear Environmental Services out of Denver, at the Northwest MiningAssociation convention in Spokane, Wash., in December. The 2011 convention is Nov. 28-Dec.2 in Sparks.

NORTHWEST MINING ASSOCIATION SHOW

Alan Young of Intermountain Electronics out of Price, Utah, talks with Karen Tate, national mar-keting director for Tunnel Radio of America Inc., at the Northwest Mining Association conventionin Spokane, Wash., in December. Tunnel Radio provides underground communications for min-ing operations.

Paul Connors, left, of Spring Creek, a mining specialist with Victaulic, and Vince DeLaura, a west-ern mining specialist for Victaulic out of Aurora, Colo., talk in their booth at the Northwest MiningAssociation convention in Spokane, Wash., in December. There were 288 booths and 18 coreshack displays at the event.

Judy LeClair, left, of Fruita, Colo., a recruiter with Schmueser & Associations Inc., and SonnyLeClair, also of Fruita, talk with Vince DeLaura, western mining specialist with Victaulic out ofAurora, Colo., at the Northwest Mining Association convention in Spokane, Wash., in December.Schmueser is an industrial contractor that often handles projects at mines, including in Nevada.

Photos by Mining Quarterly Editor Adella Harding

ELKO — Barrick Gold Corp. execu-tives presented 2010 achievementawards to North American employeesduring site visits in early 2011.

“These awards recognize excellence inseveral key areas of our business. Theseemployees were nominated by theirpeers for outstanding performance andproviding a positive example for all of usat Barrick,” said Lou Schack, director ofcommunications and community affairsfor Barrick Gold of North America.

Award recipients at Barrick’s Gold-strike Mine north of Carlin included:John Worthen, senior operations man-ager, safety champion; the team han-dling sulfur fuels for the roasters, con-tinuous improvement; Steve Yopps,process manager, security champion;and John Rodriguez, roaster operationsgeneral supervisor, environment indi-vidual award.

The sulfur team included Bart Beatty,Steve Gretch, Sam Hatch, John Hebert,Roger Huisentruit, Katie Laird, JohnPekrul, Pete Peterson, Rodriguez, MarkSalisbury, Lucas Still, Jennifer Tobin and

Worthen.A team from Goldstrike also received

the regional continuous improvementaward for magnetic separation of roastertailings. The team included Wayne

Douglas, Todd Esplin, Kip Slaybaugh,Walter Guifarro, Aaron Knight andYopps.

Award recipients at the Cortez Mine inLander County included: Bill Reed, haul

truck mechanic, safety champion; DaveMason, security manager, securityofficer award; and the Cortez cyanide


Two Barrick Gold of NorthAmerica employees,George Fennemore andTisha Wooley, received cor-porate social responsibilityawards from the corpora-tion. From left are: CarolineRossignol, manager of cor-porate social responsibilityfor Barrick; Fennemore,permitting specialist;Wooley, environmentalgeologist at Donlin Creek inAlaska; and Greg Lang,president of Barrick Gold ofNorth America.

Submitted

Barrick presents North American awards

See BBAARRRRIICCKK,, 84


recertification team, environment.The team included: Kevin Andersen,

operations; Brian Barker, safety; NateConk, operations; Jon Davidson, main-tenance; Carol Doerr, planning; CindaHumphreys, operations; Jon Kamensky,metallurgy; Aaron Lund, environment;Dave Nash, maintenance; and DarinPowers, training.

The regional continuous improve-ment award went to Cortez processemployees.

Barrick presented the safety-siteaward for most improved small mine toTurquoise Ridge in Humboldt County,and the safety champion honors went toErnie Fortmann, mobile maintenancetrainer.

At the Bald Mountain Mine in WhitePine County, Lonnie Armknecht re-ceived the environment individualaward, according to Barrick.

The company also presented a safetychampion award to Doug Johnson, mineoperator, at the Ruby Hill Mine in EurekaCounty and the environment individualaward to Dwayne Knudsen, mine opera-tions general foreman at Ruby Hill.

A corporate social responsibilitychampion award went to George Fen-nemore, permitting specialist at the Elkoregional office.

Safety champion honors for those inexploration went to Roger Dickson, ex-ploration foreman for Connors Drilling,a contractor working at Cortez, and KarlMarlowe, exploration geologist, NorthAmerica.

Barrick presented a safety-site awardfor best performance of a small mine tothe Golden Sunlight Mine in Montana,and a safety champion award to MarkBriggs, training foreman.

A regional continuous improvementaward for idea generation and innova-tion went to Rick Jordan at GoldenSunlight for gravity spirals.

The Barrick awards at the Hemlo Minein Canada went to: Al Kennedy, mill-wright, safety champion; Actiflo Team,environment team award, Jeremy Dart,Kennedy, Glenn Norris and DaveSchmidt; and the corporate socialresponsibility champion award went toRoger Souckey, human resources super-intendent.

In another presentation, Gary Sund-seth, ranch manager for North America,received a safety champion award for

Barrick ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 8833

SubmittedDon Ritz, left, senior vice president for safety and leadership for BarrickGold Corp., presents an environmental excellence award to DwayneKnudson, a supervisor at Barrick’s Ruby Hill Mine near the town ofEureka. Knudson took steps to mitigate dust problems.

SubmittedBarrick Gold Corp. presented Gary Sundseth, surface resource man-ager for Barrick Gold of North America, with a safety champion trophyfor the safety and health program he implemented for Barrick’s agri-cultural properties. Craig Ross, left, vice president for safety, healthand risk for Barrick, stands with Sundseth.

Bill Reed, a haul truckmechanic at BarrickGold Corp.’s CortezMine, holds his safetychampion award fromBarrick for his workon a platform thatallows haul truckmechanics to safelyaccess the engineladder.

Submitted

Joe Dick, left, gen-eral manager ofBarrick GoldCorp.’s Cortez Minein Lander County,talks about DaveMason’s accom-plishments beforepresenting himwith the company’ssecurity officer ofthe year award.Mason is the secu-rity manager atCortez.Adella HardingMining Quarterly

SubmittedLonnie Armknecht, left, leadman and operatorwith the mine operations division at BarrickGold Corp.’s Bald Mountain Mine, accepts hisenvironmental individual award from PeterKinver, Barrick’s chief operating officer.

SubmittedDavid Elliott, left, senior director of businessstrategy for Barrick Gold Corp., presents a safe-ty champion award to Karl Marlowe, explorationgeologist for Barrick Gold of North America.

SubmittedAmy Schwalm, senior director of investor rela-tions for Barrick Gold Corp., presents DougJohnson with his safety champion award. He isan operator at Barrick’s Ruby Hill Mine on BCrew.

See BBAARRRRIICCKK,, 85

Meeting MSHA’s DPM RulingCustom designed to directly replace the OEM Muffler

Designed for the most severe applicationsMeets EPA Standards CARB Verified MSHA Certified

775-777-3092Authorized OEM Dealer forDCL International

DieselParticulate

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Roger Dickson, explo-ration foreman for Con-nors Drilling, a contractorworking at Barrick GoldCorp.’s Cortez Mine,receives a safety champi-on award. From left are:John Cavaness, safety andhealth manager, BarrickExploration at Cortez; andGrover Wallace, RustyChurch, Dickson, BrianPhilipanics and Kyle Rhod-erick, all of Connors.

SubmittedBarrick Gold Corp.’s recognition awards at Turquoise Ridge Mine in Humboldt County includedones to Ernie Fortmann, mobile maintenance trainer, safety champion award, and Karl Marlowe,exploration geologist, safety champion award. From left are: Peter Kinver, Barrick’s chief operat-ing officer; Fortmann; Brent Kristof, general manager; Marlowe; and Craig Ross, vice presidentof safety, health and risk. Submitted

Don Ritz, left, senior vice president of safety and leadership for Barrick Gold Corp., stands withJohn Worthen, senior process operations supervisor at Goldstrike Mine, safety champion award;Steve Yopps, Goldstrike process manager, security champion award; John Rodriguez, generaloperations supervisor at the Goldstrike’s roaster, environmental excellence award.

Submitted

implementing a safety and health pro-gram for Barrick’s agricultural properties.

Barrick also presented an award ofmerit for safety to the Donlin Creek

exploration project in Alaska, and thecorporate social responsibility cham-pion award went to Tisha Wooley, envi-ronmental geologist at Donlin Creek,who organized winter clothes drives forschoolchildren.

Barrick’s Western 102 power plant 10miles east of Sparks received an award ofmerit for zero lost-time injuries.

Barrick ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 8844

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Inside cover March 2011 Mining Quarterly

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QQUARTERLYUARTERLYSpring 2011

A crew from Arnold Machinery out of Elkoassembles a new 36-yard Hitachi hydraulicshovel at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Twin CreeksMine in Humboldt County.

Twin Creeksdigs in forlong haul

Adella Harding/photo

mining quarterly spring 2011

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