mining quarterly spring 2012

PUBLISHED BY THE ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS

QQUARTERLYUARTERLYSpring 2012

Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly

Jesse Toepfer, left, project man-ager for Barrick Gold of North America's regional projects group, and Jim Allred, construction supervisor for the blind bore project at Cortez Hills, stand in front of a special drill rig operating in Nevada for the first time.

Boring downat Cortez Hills

SPRING 2012 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 1

ELKO — Golden opportunities for miningcompanies, miners, suppliers and communi-ties continue in Nevada, especially in north-eastern Nevada.

Gold projects are under development or inthe planning stages, and there are somany exploration companies work-ing in Nevada that drillers are a hotcommodity.

“It’s devilish tough now to get adrilling rig of any shape or size. Wehave to plan four to six monthsahead to get a drill rig,” said StevenKoehler, chief geologist with Evol-ving Gold.

All the activity is creating morejobs and a shortage of housing.Articles inside this Mining Quar-terly look at the jobs market and the motelsand hotels filling with workers in the miningindustry. The quarterly comes back to jobsagain this issue because jobs are a significantpart of the golden opportunities.

A key point the two biggest gold producersin the world want to make, however, is thatthey are seeking skilled people for the mostpart but are willing to train for certain jobs.Those they are willing to train are honestpeople with good work records and goodsafety records.

“It’s competitive, and you have to haveyour ducks in a row,” said Lou Schack,director of communications and communityrelations for Barrick Gold of North America.

The projects under way in Nevada includeNewmont’s Emigrant gold mine that will bein production later this year, and more onEmigrant is inside.

Newmont also is developing the expansionproject in the Genesis District north of Carlinfor new gold production and is looking downthe road at the Long Canyon Project. Detailsinside.

Also, Barrick’s Cortez Mine continues tobe a major gold producer and now has highhopes for its latest gold discoveries, Red Hilland Goldrush. More on Cortez is inside thisedition.

The Turquoise Joint Venture that Barrickoperates, with Newmont as one-quarterowner, also has big plans and is growingunderground as well. More on the TurquoiseRidge Mine is inside this quarterly.

Allied Nevada Gold Corp. continues itsgrowing efforts at the Hycroft Mine 55 mileswest of Winnemucca, and the U.S. Bureau ofLand Management is taking public comment

on a draft study of expansion plans at that goldand silver mine. More on Hycroft is inside.

Great Basin Gold Ltd.is still awaiting releaseof the draft study on its plans for the HollisterMine in northwestern Nevada but is pro-

ducing gold through test miningduring the wait. More on Hollister isinside.

Gold isn’t the only commodityspurring interest. General Moly ishoping to start construction on theMt. Hope molybdenum project thisyear. The BLM’s draft study is out.More inside.

With all the growth in the miningindustry over the years has comechange and a greater focus on com-munity sustainability and commu-

nity relations.“The roles of communications and com-

munity relations in the business have grownand evolved significantly over the last 10 to 20years,” said Mary Korpi, director of externalrelations for Newmont Mining Corp.

“It is the expectation of communities,employees, investors, key stakeholders and themedia that we are open and transparent withour operations and activities. It is importantthat we have the understanding and supportof each of these groups to open new mines,continue to operate and expand existingmining operations and to successfully closefacilities,” she said.

“Communications and community rela-tions are a role and responsibility of everyonein the mining industry and I have been fortu-nate enough to have been involved for thepast 35 years to be part of this change in thebusiness,” Korpi said.

An interview with Korpi also appears inthis edition.

Another sign of the snappy miningeconomy is the fact that this Mining Quarter isthe largest ever, with 104 pages. Advertiserswant to reach the mining market.

Please keep in mind that with a quarterlythis big, there are interesting articles through-out the edition. For instance, an article on BossTanks,a vendor that does business with miningcompanies, is on Page 99, and an update onAmerican Vanadium is on Page 98.

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

Quarterly and mining editor for the ElkoDaily Free Press. Mining news is on the

elkodaily.com website. Her email addressis [email protected].

— INSIDE —CORTEZ MINE

Producing gold for Barrick— Page 2

NEWMONT MINESNorth Area busy place— Page 26

ROCHESTER MINEFull silver production— 7

MINING JOBS Lots of hiring, motel living— Page 45

ELKO MINING EXPOMore booths this year— Page 52

Find the jobyou want

— Pages 102-104Employment

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

To advertise, call 775-738-3118

Mining 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

Booming industryboosts area’s economy

AdellaHarding

2 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SPRING 2012

BByy AADDEELLLLAA HHAARRDDIINNGGMining Quarterly Editor

CRESCENT VALLEY — Barrick GoldCorp.’s Cortez Mine is in a golden era ofhigh gold production and new discov-eries.

“There’s lots going on,” said CortezGeneral Manager Brian Grebenc.“We’re definitely excited about thegrowth. It’s a fantastic property and hasfantastic prospects, but what reallycaught my eye were the people atCortez. They have a passion for whatthey do here.”

The company expects to produce inthe range of 1.18 million and 1.25 millionounces of gold this year, he said. That’s alot of gold but down from 2011 produc-tion.

Cortez produced 283,000 ounces ofgold in the fourth quarter of last year and1.42 million ounces for all of 2011, ac-cording to Barrick. That compares with1.14 million ounces for the year 2010 and205,000 ounces in the fourth quarter of2010.

Barrick President and Chief Exec-utive Officer Aaron Regent said inBarrick’s earnings teleconference inFebruary that Cortez “is one of themost profitable gold mines in theworld.”

Cortez has roughly 1,200 employeesand roughly 400 contractors on thesite, said Grebenc, who came to Cortezfrom Barrick’s Cowal Mine in Australiaroughly six months ago.

The Cortez Mine includes the newerCortez Hills operations and the olderPipeline complex of pits and the millthat processes ore from the two areas.

Grebenc said Cortez has somethingfor every miner, with both open pit andunderground mines and “three types ofprocess streams.”

Cortez processes the better grades ofore in the mill, leaches the lower gradesat both Cortez Hills and Pipeline andsends refractory ore by truck toBarrick’s Goldstrike Mine north ofCarlin for processing.

Cortez currently is mining at CortezHills, where there are both under-ground and surface operations roughly10 miles from the Pipeline operations.

“We’re talking right now about mov-ing some resources over to Pipeline, butthe main production is from the Cortez

AABBOOVVEE:: Henri Gonin, left,maintenance superintend-ent at the Cortez Hills oper-ations, poses with mechanicDanny Jensen of SpringCreek in the truck shop. A400-ton Liebherr haul truckis in the background.

LLEEFFTT:: A 400-ton Liebherrhaul truck carries a load ofmaterial out of the open pitin February at Barrick GoldCorp.’s Cortez Hills opera-tions in Lander County.

Ross AndersonMining Quarterly

Cortez still a golden operation

pit and underground,” Grebenc said.At Cortez Hills, Barrick is now pro-

ducing gold from the leach pad and hasstarted stripping the Pediment depositthat will later join the Cortez Hills Pitto make one pit.

The Cortez Hills open pit is roughlyhalf the planned depth, which will be2,200 feet down, according to DougWilson, superintendent of open pitoperations.

RReedd HHiillll aanndd GGoollddrruusshhBarrick’s Red Hill and Goldrush dis-

coveries in the Horse Canyon area areexcitement generators for Cortez fortheir future potential as mines that alsowould be part of the Cortez Mine.

“The growth phase of Cortez is notover,” Grebenc said.

Rob Krcmarov, senior vice presidentof global exploration, said in Barrick’searnings teleconference Gold Hill andGoldrush are “now merged into onesystem,” and the resource has doubledsince last September when Barrickannounced the discovery.

“It’s a very significant deposit, whichwill continue to grow,” he said.

Barrick reported the gold resource atRed Hill is 1.27 million ounces in theindicated category and 3.3 millionounces in the inferred category, andthe resource remains open in all direc-tions.

A small portion of Goldrush had suffi-cient drilling intensity to bring in an ini-tial inferred resource of 2.45 millionounces, according to the earnings report.

One of the current projects is devel-opment of a new ventilation shaft forthe Cortez Hills underground that mayhelp increase gold production. Seerelated story on Page 10.

“At least it opens opportunities forus,” Grebenc said.

Even in the older Pipeline area, plansare to mine the Crossroads deposit thathasn’t yet been developed.

“It’s been a lot about systematizingwhat we do at Cortez. The center of


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyBrian Grebenc, general manager of Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Mine, talks in February about thebusy Cortez operations.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyDoug Wilson, mining operations superintend-ent for Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Mine, standsin the new Pediment deposit mining area.

See CCOORRTTEEZZ,, 4

gravity will sort of move south, back to Pipelineagain,” said Michael Protani, manager of open pitoperations.

“I would estimate about a third will come fromCortez Hills in terms of the amount of tons moved.Pipeline is part of the mine plan, but we will still bemining here,” he said at Cortez Hills.

“We’ll start picking up Gap, Pipeline and the newCrossroads,” Protani said.

Another current project is the expansion of thetailings facility at Pipeline. A new lift is going on now,but the expansion will follow.

NNeeww ssttrreettcchh ooff rrooaaddCortez also recently constructed a new road from

the highway south of the town of Crescent Valley tothe Cortez Hills site, opening it in January. The newroad is county and joins with the county segmentBarrick constructed earlier while developing CortezHills.

The county road had to be rerouted to bypass theactive mining operations.

“Now it’s straight and flat and a safe and quick trip,”said Lou Schack, director of communications andcommunity affairs for Barrick Gold of North America.


Cortez ...Driver EverettPearson ofBattle Moun-tain standsatop a 400-ton Liebherrhaul truck inthe CortezHills shop formaintenance.He cleaned outthe driver’sarea whilemechanicsworked on thetruck.

Ross AndresonMining Quarterly

CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 33

See CCOORRTTEEZZ,, 6

He said the new road cuts time and distance forminers who drive or ride the bus from Elko andSpring Creek. It’s a two-hour drive from SpringCreek to Cortez Hills.

The new road was built because of the tailingsdam project, but also provides the shorter route toCortez Hills.

Earlier, Barrick completed an expansion of theassay laboratory at Cortez and upgraded the millto reduce bottlenecks.

“The mill is working at 12,500 tons a day and wasbuilt for 10,000 so the debottling was a great suc-cess,” Grebenc said.

At the Cortez Hills operations, the surface miningrate is 350,000 tons a day of ore and waste rock,according to Protani. Ore going to the Pipeline millfor processing is crushed at Cortez Hill and then puton a 9.5-mile conveyor to the mill.

Vern Goglio, the underground manager, said theunderground operation moves 1,400 tons of ore a dayand is working at a one-to-one ratio with backfill.

Protani said Cortez Hills has been busy withdevelopment activity and is now to the point wherethe focus is on building a team.

“We want to get people to work together to be


Cortez ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 44

Barrick Gold Corp.This map shows Barrick Gold Corp.’s new Red Hill and Goldrush gold discoveries in the Horse Canyon region of the Cortez Minein the Crescent Valley area.See CCOORRTTEEZZ,, 8


the best mine in the world,” he said.

SShhoovveelliinngg aanndd bbllaassttiinnggWilson said there are two shovels

operating in the Pediment deposit as themining gradually progresses towardPediment, which is lower grade than theCortez Hills deposit “but is still a gooddeposit.”

Cortez blasts every day to loosen theearth for mining, and Wilson saidCortez has been using electronic blast-ing caps with computer chips for thepast four or five years.

“We can control the blast down to thelast millisecond,” said Wilson, who hasbeen at Cortez Hills nearly seven years.“I have seen it go from a teaspoon of dirtto now.”

The control of the blasting helps limitvibration.

Barrick uses its own crews to blast butSouthwest Energy LLC provides thepowder.

Protani said Barrick has purchasedanother P&H electric shovel that will becoming on site in October and be com-

missioned in January 2012, and the com-pany has committed to a number of newhaul trucks.

Barrick is buying 360-ton Caterpillartrucks that will be commissionedthrough 2013.

Barrick developed Cortez Hills whilebattling a lawsuit environmental andWestern Shoshone groups filed againstthe U.S. Bureau of Land Managementover the project.

Tribal leaders claimed Mt. Tenabo,where Cortez Hills is located, is home toseveral Western Shoshone creation sto-ries, and the water running beneath it issacred.

U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks inearly January denied claims from the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone, GreatBasin Resource Watch, the WesternShoshone Defense Project and the Tim-bisha Shoshone Tribe that the BLM vio-lated environmental laws in a court-ordered supplemental study.

Cortez Hills was under a partialinjunction in 2010 and until March 2011.The BLM had to complete a supple-mental study, after a 9th Circuit Court ofAppeals opinion kicked the project backto U.S. District Court in Reno for moreanalysis.

The injunction prevented dewateringin the new Cortez Hills area and blockedBarrick from sending trucks of refrac-tory ore from the underground to Gold-strike.

Protani said the current dewateringrate at all of Cortez is 24,000 to 25,000gallons per minute and most of that is atPipeline. Cortez is permitted to dewaterup to 34,500 gpm.

Grebenc said lawsuits create uncer-tainty, and it was hard on the peoplecoming to work at Cortez.

“The way I look at it, we certainlydidn’t put the ore reserve here, but wefound it, and we’re doing the best wecan,” he said.

Grebenc also said Barrick can’t con-trol the gold price and battles inflationevery year, which “creates the need toget smarter and better at what we do.”

High gold prices have certainly helpedBarrick, but Schack said not all themoney is “running off to the banks.”Barrick is investing in projects like thoseat Cortez that are sizable investments,he said.

While Cortez is now the largest goldproducer for Barrick, Grebenc said everyBarrick operation is important to thecompany.

“That’s where we develop talent,” hesaid.

Barrick also shifts employees to thedifferent operations worldwide whenneeded, such as those from Cortez whoare helping Barrick complete the PuebloViejo Project in the Dominican Republic.

“It’s a great opportunity for people toget a real global sense — great exposureto global issues,” said Grebenc.

Cortez ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 66

“We want to get peopleto work together to be

the best mine inthe world.”

— Michael Protani, manageropen pit operations


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyDriller John Jenkins of Mt. Morris, Pa., watches the screens in the drill shack at Frontier-Kemper ConstructorsInc.’s blind bore drill site at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Hills operations.


CRESCENT VALLEY — A bright blue drilling rig that looks like noother is hard to miss at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Hills operations inLander County.

Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc. is blind bore drilling at the site inthe first such project in Nevada.

“It actually drills from the surface to underground to provide ventila-tion,” said Jim Allred, blind bore construction supervisor for Cortez.

The huge rig is drilling a shaft that is 14 feet in diameter and will thenbe lined with steel down 1,500 feet and grout behind the steel, he said.

“We’re now at about 620 feet down,” Allred said on Feb. 8.The underground mining crews will mine to the new shaft, and they

were about 400 feet away on Feb. 8.“The whole shaft is full of water, on purpose, to provide pressure for

the bit,” Allred said. “The cuttings go up through rods and to a settlingpond.”

Actually, there are two ponds, one for the solids and one for water thatis then reused in the drilling effort.

The shaft under way in February is strictly for ventilation for theexpanding underground mine, and it is the first of two that Frontier-Kemper is doing on site.

The second one will be 16 feet in diameter and may be concrete lined,Allred said. This also will be a ventilation shaft.

Both shafts will make it possible for Barrick to expand under-

Giant drilling rig bores shaft from surface

See DDRRIILLLLIINNGG,, 12


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyFrontier-Kemper Constructors Inc.’s bright blue blind-bore drilling rig is digging a shaft from the top to the underground Cortez Hills oper-ation at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Mine in Lander County. The rig brings the material and water used in drilling back to the surface for dis-charge into two ponds. The water is recycled.

Drilling ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 1100

ground mining.Jesse Toepfer, project manager for Barrick Gold

of North America, said Frontier-Kemper has usedthe blind bore rig back East, but the concern inNevada is the soil conditions.

The ground is hard rock that fractures, and thedrill bit could get stuck in a fracture.

“Ground conditions make this project what it is— the challenge,” said Bob Schumm, drill super-intendent. “So far, so good.”

Barrick benefits from the blind-bore drillingfrom the top down because the drilling can bedone without interfering with the undergroundmining operations.

“They’re able to mine while we advance theshaft,” Schumm said.

Miners won’t have to haul away any muck fromthe shaft project since the waste is pulled back upto go to a pond, Toepfer said.

Setting up the giant rig was a big project initself.

Toepfer said Frontier-Kemper has been on thesite about six months, after bringing the rig in 14-16 semi loads and putting the rig together atCortez Hills.

“They just started drilling the third week ofDecember. It took a few weeks to get it assembled


and operating,” he said.The plan is for the north hole to be com-

pleted by August, and the second, thesouth hole, will be done in March 2013,Toepfer said.

“When the fans kick out, it becomesoperational,” he said of each shaft.

Site work is already under way for thesecond hole, which is near the Cortez Hillsshop and the ready line for the haul trucksmining the open pit.

Frontier-Kemper will have to move therig for the second hole, which means takingit apart and reassembling it. The secondhole is roughly a mile from the first.

Greg Becken, the field safety coordi-nator for Frontier-Kemper, said there are16 people on the blind-bore project,

working 24-7, and the crew comes fromseveral states.

Driller John Jenkins of Mt. Morris, Pa.,said he has been doing his job about sevenyears. He was watching the RPMs, drilldepth and rotary table operations onscreens in the drill shack.

Schumm, who lives in Florida, said theblind-hole drilling is safer than conven-tional shaft work, which is done from thebottom up.

The blind-bore rig uses a rotary tablepowered by hydraulics, and water is con-tinually pumped back into the hole so it is aclosed-loop system, he said.

“Nothing is forcing the cutting bit intothe ground except the weight,” Toepfersaid.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyBob Schumm, drill superintendent for Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc., talks about the com-pany’s blind bore drilling project at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Hills operations in Lander County.


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyLuis Zamaya, left, of Winnemucca assists Fermin Solis, also of Winnemucca, as he operates a jackleg drill in February in a10-foot-by 10-foot cut at the Turquoise Ridge underground mine in Humboldt County.


GOLCONDA — Gold production is going up at the Tur-quoise Ridge underground mine in Humboldt County, whileplans continue for a super pit at the mine site.

“Looking at the future, we see a huge open pit on top of abigger underground,” Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture GeneralManager Nigel Bain said.

Barrick Gold Corp. operates the Turquoise Ridge Mine andowns 75 percent, while Newmont Mining Corp. owns 25 per-cent and processes the gold ore from Turquoise Ridge at itsnearby Twin Creeks Mine.

Turquoise Ridge expects to complete a prefeasibility studyin the fourth quarter of this year for the open pit project. Thestudy could be followed by permitting efforts, if the eco-nomics show the project would be worthwhile.

“It’s a giant pit, and we’re trying to work on running theunderground and the open pit simultaneously,” said Bain, who

TurquoiseRidge

Following a pattern of growth

started at Turquoise Ridge in Aug. 1,coming from Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine,where he was the underground manager.

“It’s early days,” he said of the plan fora surface mine.

The pit and undergroundmine will operate together atleast for 10 to 12 years, butthe pit could take out thecurrent shafts, which wouldmean possibly a new shaftand possibly ramps from thepit wall.

“It will have to be phasedand measured so we don’timpact the open pit and un-derground,” Bain said.

“If we do the project, itwill be the largest mine in thestate,” said Lou Schack,director of communicationsand community affairs for Barrick Goldof North America.

GGoolldd pprroodduuccttiioonnTurquoise Ridge produced 179,400

ounces of gold in 2011, compared with163,400 ounces in 2010 for the joint ven-ture, according to Don Mitchell, admin-istrative superintendent.

The prediction for 2012 production is223,000 ounces.

Barrick reported in its earnings reportthat Turquoise Ridge produced 34,000ounces of gold for Barrick’s 75 percentshare in the fourth quarter, down from36,000 ounces in the 2010 quarter.

The mine produced 135,000 ounces for

Barrick for 2011, up from 124,000 theprior year.

“Production doubles by 2016,” saidRory Howell, chief engineer, reportingthat Barrick plans to increase the fleet of

haul trucks starting in 2013.The underground has a

mine life now that extendsto 2039.

“We’re open at depth anddown dip to the northeast,”Chief Geologist SimonPollard said, reporting thata fourth mining zone will beadded this year in the NorthZone.

If the pit project movesforward, Turquoise Ridgewould add roughly 700employees to the 364 now atthe underground operation.

The mine also has roughly 150 contrac-tors, including DMC and drillers,Mitchell said.

Turquoise Ridge has six drills oper-ating underground and 11 on the surface,and the companies doing the drillinginclude Conner, Boart Longyear, Major,TonaTec and Fred Anderson.

“We’re ahead on ounces and safety,and we’re a flagship in waiting,” Bainsaid of the mine that is growing inunderground production and would behuge if the open pit is developed.

Although Turquoise Ridge productionall comes from underground mining,


See TTUURRQQUUOOIISSEE,, 16

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyMariano Martinez is a cager at the Turquoise Ridge underground mine operated by Barrick GoldCorp. in Humboldt County. He is awaiting passengers to take down into the mine.

NNiiggeell BBaaiinn


Turquoise ...there is surface mining now. ContractorR.E. Monks continues to mine a quarryon site to produce about 40,000 tons amonth of aggregate.

R.E. Monks has about 20 workers onsite.

The aggregate is used for backfill usedin the underground operations.

BBaacckkffiillll ppllaannttWork continues on an underground

backfill plant in the North Zone, wherethe mining is now, and “that will greatlydecrease the effort to haul backfill,” saidJon Baird, underground operationssuperintendent.

The $42 million plant is set for com-pletion in 2013.

The project includes five bore holesfrom the surface, including two holes totransport the aggregate from the surfaceto underground, one for the fly ash, onefor fuel and power and one for shotcrete,according to Howell. Boart Longyear isdoing the bore holes.

Barrick had looked at building a con-veyor to move ore because of growth, butLaird said the company dropped thatplan in exchange for adding more trucksto the fleet.

The current drive underground fromthe main shaft to the mine workings isroughly two miles, and the workings areclose to 3,000 feet down.

“The deepest ore bodies go another600 to 700 feet down from where we arenow,” Pollard said.

Mining now involves pneumaticjackleg drills in 10-foot by 10-foot cuts,but Bain said the mine will be usingnarrow-vein jumbo drills and rockbolters to replace the jacklegs.

“We’re buying them for the narrowtop cuts. It will improve safety andremove miners from the hazards offalling rock,” he said.

One narrow-vein jumbo is already onsite from Sandvik.

“Sandvik is helping us with newdesigns for larger bolts for smallerdrifts,” Bain said.

“We’re expanding the mine and get-ting new equipment and getting awayfrom jacklegs to make the mine evensafer,” he said.

Laird said one of the biggest chal-lenges is with the bolter because of theboom size, so the boom is modified totake a piece of steel that then connectswith another piece “so the boom has tobe only 6 feet long, but we can still have8-foot roof bolts.”

SSaaffeettyy rreeccoorrddTurquoise Ridge’s safety record is at

the best ever. The joint venture hit amilestone in February when employees

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyDusty Deputy of Winnemucca works on a jumbo drill that broke down at the Turquoise Ridgeunderground mine north of Golconda.


See TTUURRQQUUOOIISSEE,, 18


Turquoise ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 1166

completed 872,675 hours worked with-out a lost-time injury in a full year ofoperations. A lost-time accident is onethat causes an employee to miss the nextscheduled work day.

“This is a testament to the dedicationand leadership of the workforce atTurquoise Ridge,” said Jim Wieser, theoutgoing health and safety superin-tendent who was moving over to Bar-rick’s Cortez Mine. “Safety is a focus foreveryone from the manager to the latestnew hire and that makes TR a great placeto work.”

The mine also received Barrick’s awardfor most improved small mine in both2011 and 2010, and a safety award fromthe Nevada Mining Association.

Turquoise Ridge and all Barrick opera-tions also became certified with theInternational Standards Organization forthe first time in 2011 and expect to con-tinue to do so every year “from here onout,” said Turquoise Ridge Environ-mental Superintendent Mark Miller.

BBaarrrriicckk pprroodduuccttiioonnCompanywide, Barrick produced 1.81

million ounces of gold in the fourthquarter of 2011 at a cash cost of $505 anounce, compared with 1.7 million ouncesin the 2010 quarter.

For the year 2011, Barrick produced7.68 million ounces of gold at a total cashcost of $460 per ounce, compared with7.77 million ounces at a total cash cost of$409 per ounce.

North American production totaled760,000 ounces in the fourth quarter,including strong performances fromthe Cortez and Goldstrike mines inNevada.

Cortez in Lander County produced283,000 ounces in the fourth quarter, upfrom 205,000 ounces in the 2010 quarterat a total cash cost of $331 per ounce,compared with $278 per ounce in the2010 quarter.

The Goldstrike Mine north of Carlinproduced 245,000 ounces in the 2011quarter, compared with 288,000 ouncesin the 2010 quarter. Total cash costs wereat $570 per ounce, up from $435 perounce in the 2010 quarter.

Barrick stated Goldstrike is expectedto produce between 1.25 million and 1.3million ounces of gold this year as theopen pit moves back into a higher orephase.

Barrick’s Ruby Hill Mine in Eureka

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyMechanic Inaki Hernandez of Winnemucca works on a 36-ton Atlas Copco haul truck in the underground shop at the Turquoise Ridge Mine inHumboldt County. He was a summer intern at the mine and trained at Great Basin College.

Four workers chat next to ajumbo drill after it brokedown at the TurquoiseRidge underground mine inHumboldt County. Fromleft are: Jose Magana ofWinnemucca, who hasworked at the TurquoiseRidge Mine nearly nineyears; Donovan Walker, whorecently transferred fromthe Goldstrike Mine;Franciso Cervantes ofWinnemucca, miner; andJoey Savoie ofWinnemucca, utility crew.



County produced 29,000 ounces in thefourth quarter, down from 33,000ounces in the 2010 quarter, and totalcash costs were up at $500 per ounce,compared with $429 per ounce in the2010 quarter.

According to Barrick’s earningsreport, the Bald Mountain Mine inWhite Pine County produced 35,000ounces in the 2011 quarter at a totalcash cost of $695 per ounce, comparedwith 20,000 ounces in the fourthquarter of 2010 at a cost of $558 perounce.

The Round Mountain Mine in NyeCounty produced 43,000 ounces forBarrick’s 50 percent ownership, thesame as in the fourth quarter of 2010.Total cash costs were $477 per ounce,down from $685 in the 2010 quarter.

The Marigold Mine in HumboldtCounty in which Barrick has one-thirdownership, produced 14,000 ouncesfor Barrick in the fourth quarter of 2011at a total cash cost of $835 per ounce.That compares with 13,000 ounces at acost of $720 per ounce in the 2010quarter.

The Golden Sunlight Mine inMontana produced 19,000 ounces inthe fourth quarter of 2011 at a total cashcost of $764 per ounce, with no com-parison since the mine wasn’t in pro-duction in the 2010 quarter.

BBaarrrriicckk iinnccoommeeBarrick reported net income for the

fourth quarter of 2011 of $959 million,or 96 cents per share, which was similarto earnings in the 2010 quarter.

The fourth-quarter 2011 net incomecompared with $961 million, or 97cents per share, in the 2010 quarter,while revenue rose to $3.79 billion, upfrom $3.01 billion in 2010, mainlybecause of a 22 percent higher realizedgold price of $1,664 per ounce.

Higher costs affected net income,according to the Toronto-based com-pany.

Adjusted net earnings were up 15percent, excluding one-time items, to$1.17 billion, or $1.17 per share, com-pared with $1.02 billion, or $1.02 pershare, in the 2010 quarter.

Barrick reported copper productionrose to 143 million pounds in the fourthquarter of 2011 from 82 million poundsin the 2010 quarter.

Copper’s realized price was down,however, at $3.69 per pound from$3.99 per pound in the 2010 quarter.

Barrick’s proven and probablereserves at year end totaled 139.9 mil-lion ounces of gold and 12.7 billionpounds of copper, the companyreported.

AABBOOVVEE:: MechanicDuane Schulze ofWinnemucca worksinside a haul truck inFebruary in the un-derground shop atthe Turquoise RidgeMine that BarrickGold Corp. operatesnorth of Golconda.

LL EE FF TT :: M e c h a n i cKen Peterson doespreventative mainte-nance on a haul truckin the undergroundshop at the TurquoiseRidge Mine.




ELKO — Barrick Gold Corp.’s BaldMountain Mine is planning its latestexpansion under a new general manager,Tracy Miller.

“It’s a great property. Because it isgeographically spread out and with somany pits, there are chal-lenges the larger and newmines don’t have,” shesaid.

Bald Mountain is a low-grade gold mine on 250square miles of property,the largest acreage ofBarrick’s Nevada minesites, but the operation issmall.

“The people have beenreally friendly, and that’s agood sign that the cultureis good. There is more of afamily feel,” said Miller,who most recently wasmanager of safety, healthand security at Barrick’sCortez Mine.

Bald Mountain has filedplans of operation toexpand mining, includinggoing back to the AlligatorRidge Mine that has beenclosed for some time.Barrick is seeking permitsfrom the U.S. Bureau ofLand Management for theproject.

“The BLM is tentativelyscheduled in spring 2012 to seek publicinput on two Barrick proposals to expandthe Bald Mountain Mine, located about70 miles northwest of Ely and 30 milesnortheast of Eureka,” said ChrisHanefeld, spokesman for the Ely BLMoffice.

Barrick is proposing to consolidate theNorth Operations Area Project and

closed Casino/Winrock mines into oneplan of operations, and Barrick plans toconsolidate the Alligator Ridge andYankee mines into one plan of opera-tions.

Miller took over at Bald Mountainwhen Dave McClure retired after servingas the general manager there since 2006.McClure oversaw the recently completed

expansion that included anew mining fleet.

Barrick’s Ruby Hill Mineon the outskirts of thetown of Eureka also has anew general manager,Steve Yopps, who reportedplans are under way for apit expansion.

“I am excited to beworking at Ruby Hill. Thesite has a long history ofsafe, low cost production,and I am looking forwardto becoming part of thegreat team that is here atthe mine,” Yopps said.

“During 2012, our teamwill be focusing ongrowing business with aproposed pit expansion,which will secure RubyHill’s long-term future,and continuing presencein Eureka County,” hesaid.

Yopps joined Barrick in1994 after Barrick ac-quired Lac Minerals, andhe worked as chief metal-lurgist at the Bullfrog

Mine near Beatty until transferring toGoldstrike in 1996.

He served in several superintendentpositions before becoming manager ofthe process division in 2005.

Miller joined Barrick in 1990, spendingmost of that time at Goldstrike, includingseveral years as superintendent and man-ager of the open pit division.

Barrick plansexpansions under

new managers

TTrraaccyy MMiilllleerr

SStteevvee YYooppppss


ELKO — Mary Korpi arrived at New-mont Mining Corp.’s Carlin operations in1987 in the midst of a mining boom, andshe is now director of external relations forthe company in the midst of anothermining boom.

She has seen a lot of changes in those 25years in Nevada, such as the company’sgrowing efforts to communicate withcommunities and work with cities andcounties to prepare them for growth.

“We have a responsibility to let commu-nities know,” Korpi said.

Most recently, Newmont representa-tives have been giving presentations toElko County Commissioners and citycouncils in Elko, Wells and West Wendoverto let them know the company’s plans forthe Long Canyon Project.

Long Canyon will be a gold mine in thePequop Mountains between Wells andWest Wendover, the first major mining

operation in the east part of the county.Newmont’s North American regional

office in Elko is completing a social impactassessment for the Long Canyon Project sothe company can better understand theimpacts the new gold mine will have on thecommunities and whether there areimpacts to mitigate.

“So we will look at what we need to do aspart of the management plan,” Korpi said.

She said consultation with communitiesand Indian tribes is a company standard.

“I think there are multiple reasons. Weneed to understand what’s important to acommunity and what’s going on in com-munities, and they want to know what’sgoing on with Newmont,” she said.

Korpi said when she arrived in Nevada,Newmont was mining gold in what is nowcalled the North Area, including at theoriginal Carlin Pit, and were just com-pleting an expansion project at GoldQuarry at what was then called Mill 5.

“It was a period of change and growth inthe industry. There was a lot of activity

across northern Nevada. Housing was verytight,” she said.

The highest gold price in 1987 was$499.75 an ounce in 1987. Prices laterplunged as low as $255 an ounce, but hit ahigh of more than $1,900 an ounce lastyear and were in the $1,700-$1,740 range inFebruary.

Now, housing is tight again, and New-mont is working with several developersacross northern Nevada to increasehousing in Elko, Battle Mountain andWinnemucca.

“The direction we’re looking to pursue isa guarantee of occupancy for a set period oftime,” Korpi said.

Developers can show that guarantee toobtain financing.

Although Korpi has been with Newmontin Nevada since 1987, she began workingfor Newmont in 1976 in Arizona when thecompany subsidiary Magma Copperowned the copper operations in San


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyMary Korpi, director of external relations forNewmont Mining Corp.’s Nevada operations,has seen a lot of changes since coming toNevada 25 years ago.

COMMUNICATING WITH COMMUNITIES

Newmont’s Mary Korpi

See KKOORRPPII,, 24

Manuel, which was a company town.“When I started with Newmont, it was

an international diversified mining com-pany. Then it focused on becoming a goldcompany, and the hub was the Nevadaoperations,” Korpi said. “It was the T.Boone Pickens era.”

Pickens tried to acquire Newmontthrough a corporate takeover, but the com-pany was able to fight the takeover.

“Now, over the many years, Newmontagain is an international mining company,primarily in gold but copper too,” Korpisaid.

Newmont spun off Magma Copper in1987.

She said she is sometimes asked why shestayed with Newmont so long, and heranswer is: “I was able to change jobs withinthe company versus changing companiesto get a different job. The opportunitieswere terrific. Newmont still provides forpeople in the organization.”

Newmont also wants potential em-ployees to want to work for Newmont andstay with Newmont.

“I wouldn’t have worked for this com-pany for 35 years if I didn’t believe in whatthey do and how they do it,” Korpi said.

“When people enjoy what they are doing,they do it well and they do it safely.”

She came to Nevada as a senior metal-lurgist and continued in that position untilshe became director over the analytical andmetallurgical services in 1988, a time whenNewmont was designing and constructingan integrated laboratory and built the RainMine south of Carlin and Mill 4.

“Then I went over to loss control andwas director of health and safety from 1990to 1992,” said the native of Michigan’sUpper Peninsula.

Korpi’s next job was as mill and leachsuperintendent on the operations side forfour or five years, when Newmont wasmining along the Carlin Trend north ofCarlin and at Rain south of Carlin

“That was another brand new opportu-nity,” Korpi said.

She became manager of communica-tions in 1996, and the job covered commu-nity relations as well.

Korpi said Newmont used to have onlyone person allowed to talk for the companybut the world of communications haschanged with the speed of technology.

“Now, we can get you to the experts,depending on the topic or issue,” she said.

Communication is important to ex-plain the mining industry to the mediaand the public, but the industry didn’t doenough in the early days of modern

mining, Korpi said.“I think one of the battles of the mining

industry is that many years ago, we didn’ttell our story. We still struggle,” she said,explaining this struggle is showing peoplehow important mining is to individuals andto the nation and the world.

“Communications is not just with themedia but with communities. We’re inte-grated,” Korpi said. “Our past reputationwas boom and bust, and it’s not easy tochange that opinion.”

The boom in social media also has meantNewmont has to keep up and be ready torespond.

Along with the extension of communi-cation efforts, another change is New-mont’s focus even in a mining boom on thesustainability of communities once miningslows as ore runs out.

“With sustainability, we work to be surecommunities are prepared for change,”Korpi said.

Newmont doesn’t want to wait until theend of mining is two years out but ratherlook 20 years into the future, Korpi said.

That’s also why Newmont started itsLegacy Fund that includes an endowmentfund that will build up over the years tohelp communities when mining slows.

“We want to build on it for 20 to 30years,” she said.

Korpi also said a skilled workforce is

important for sustainability. Talents devel-oped for mining can later be used for newjobs.

Her external relations department nowhas nine people, including her. There arerepresentatives in Elko, Battle Mountainand Winnemucca, and another is assignedto the Wells and West Wendover commu-nities.

“It’s so much about relationships. Ittakes time to build those,” Korpi said.

Each site has a committee to help therepresentatives make decisions on dona-tion requests from nonprofit organizations.

The external relations department alsohandles mine tours for investors, analysts,media, lawmakers and staff, schools andspecial events. Newmont also providessummer tours to the general public.

The Newmont representatives workwith the communities, but Korpi said themany Newmont employees who volunteerin their communities also have a role toplay in community relations.

“This is home for them. It’s not unusualto see people with 20 to 25 years with thecompany and multi-generational too,” shesaid.

Korpi also said the mining industry is asmall world, and those in the industry con-nect with friends, friends of friends andfriends of family members throughout thebusiness.


Korpi ...


ELKO — Newmont Mining Corp. crewsare mining north of Carlin at a new pitcalled Pay Raise, at Widge and at theoriginal Carlin Pit — the oldest ofNewmont’s mines on the Carlin Trend —and at the prolific Gold Quarry Mine.

Pay Raise is part of the expansionproject in the Genesis District inNewmont’s North Area that will eventu-ally produce 2.4 million ounces.

“We’re doing development work on itright now. There are some ounces up highwe are putting on the leach pad,” saidNathan Bennett, senior mine engineer.“Pay Raise will take us out to 2013.”

Widge is also producing ounces for theleach pad and is part of the original BlueStar Pit, and Bennett said reserves therewere added last year. Mining started in2011 on Widge.

“Widge will be done in April,” Bennettsaid.

The bigger Genesis Pit that is nowcalled Silver Star isn’t being mined yet,however. He said mining there wasdelayed to do more work on waste rockcharacteristics — a provision of U.S.Bureau of Land Management approval ofthe expansion project.

The Blue Star Pit connected withGenesis back in the 1980s, Bennett said.

“Really, all these areas are part of theGenesis permitting. Originally, we hadthree phases, but now we’ve pulled outthe small areas for quick placement of orefor the leach pads this year,” said EricBates, also a senior mine engineer forNewmont.

The original three phases were calledSilver Star, Gold Star and Bob Star.

“Ore tons are still critical but aremoved out into the 2013-2014 timeframe,” Bennett said. “We will finishGold Quarry phase 4 in 2013 so ore fromGenesis will become critical then.”

“At the end of the day, we will still endup with the ultimate pit shapes. It all fitswithin the footprint of the original stars,”Bates said. “We will backfill pits asplanned. Silver Star, Gold Star and Beastwill be backfilled.”

In other words, once Gold Quarry inthe South Area finishes phase 4 and isstripping phase 7, the emphasis will shiftto the North Area to the Genesis area thatis now referred to as the “stars” area.Bates said the focus will be on Silver Star


Newmont miners busy north of Carlin

AABBOOVVEE:: A 240-ton Caterpillar haultruck receives a load of material froma loader at Newmont Mining Corp.’snew Widge Pit that is part of the com-pany’s expansion project in theGenesis District north of Carlin.

LLEEFFTT:: Geologist Elizabeth Bengemaps blast holes in February atNewmont Mining Corp.’s new WidgePit in the Genesis District.

Adella HardingMining Quarterly


and then on Gold Star.“Gold Quarry comes back in the 2016-

2017 time frame,” Bennett said.

MMiinniinngg CCaarrlliinn PPiittNewmont also is back at the original

Carlin Pit, and Bennett said the companyis calling the new layback the East Carlinsurface pit. This area is targeted for com-pletion some time in 2013.

The mining there will take out the cur-rent Carlin East portal that leads to theLeeville underground mine, but therestill will be a secondary Leeville access atPete Bajo, which will go all the way toLeeville.

“We had to coordinate with the under-ground, Carlin East and Leeville, becauseCarlin East serves as an access and venti-lation for Leeville,” Bates said. “Part ofthe project will be driving a new drift tomove the access.”

The surface facilities at Carlin Eastunderground also had to be relocated.

“It’s been a lot of work to this point tomine the layback,” Bates said.

There also is backfilling at one end ofthe Carlin Pit from the mining at the EastCarlin layback. The current backfilling ison private land, but he said Newmontwill submit a plan to the BLM for back-filling on the public land at the mine.

Newmont finished mining the Peteopen pit in December 2009, and that areawas then turned over to the undergroundmining people for the Pete-Bajo Mine,Bennett said. Reclamation is under wayon the Pete waste dump.

The surface operations then turnedLantern 3 over to the underground latelast year, but had been sharing the pitwith the Exodus underground operationsuntil that point. The Exodus portals arein Lantern 3 pit walls.

“Now, Exodus is working unhinderedby us,” Bennett said. “It got prettycrowded.”

The surface mining took out anexisting portal at Exodus that had to berelocated.

Lantern 3 and North Lantern, alsomined out, could be joined in a latermining project, however.

Bates said Newmont is working onbaseline studies and a plan of operationsto later submit to the BLM for this poten-tial project.

“One of the great things about thework here is we’re on a prolific goldtrend. With the gold price rising, projectsare coming out of the woodwork,” saidBates.

The portal for the Deep Star under-ground mine is in the Silver Star Pit, but

AABBOOVVEE:: The Silver StarPit, originally called theGenesis Pit, will bemined again as part ofNewmont Mining Corp.’sexpansion project in theGenesis District of theCarlin Trend.

LLEEFFTT:: Eric Bates, left, andNate Bennett, seniormine engineers forNewmont Mining Corp.,check a blast pattern atthe East Carlin expansionof the Carlin Pit in New-mont’s North Area.


See NNEEWWMMOONNTT,, 28


Newmont ...Small Mine Development finished min-ing there at the end of last year.

Bates said the biggest things for thesurface operations north of Carlin in 2011were completion of the remediation ofthe pit slide area at Gold Quarry,resumption of mining at Gold Quarry,mining in the North Area and “prep workfor the bigger star projects.”

Later expansion at Gold Quarry forphases 8-10 will require an environ-mental impact study, Bates said, but noplan of operations has been filed with theBLM yet.

GGoolldd pprroodduuccttiioonnAll of Newmont’s Nevada operations

combined, surface and underground,produced 1.741 million ounces of gold in2011 at a cost of $603 per ounce,according to Newmont’s productionreport.

The Nevada mines produced 1.735 mil-lion ounces in 2010.

Newmont forecasts that Nevada mineswill produce between 1.725 millionounces and 1.8 million ounces of gold this

year at a cost of $575 to $625 per ounce.Companywide, gold production totaled

5.2 million ounces in 2011, and the forecastfor gold production this year is 5 millionto 5.2 million ounces, stated Newmont.

Newmont stated it used a gold price of$1,500 an ounce and a copper price of$3.50 per pound, along with an oil priceof $90 a barrel, for the 2012 forecasts.

The Colorado-based company’s fore-cast for copper production this yearshows a downturn to between 150 millionand 170 million pounds, compared withfull-year production of 206 millionpounds in 2011.

“Copper production is expected todecline in 2012 largely as a result of BatuHijau entering the stripping campaign(removing waste layers) in order to accessthe next layer of ore,” said Newmontspokesman Omar Jabara. “This hasalways been part of the mine plan forBatu Hijau.

“Also, copper production was higherthan expected in 2011 at Batu Hijau due tothe delay in the onset of the rainy season,allowing us extended access to the ore inthe bottom of the pit,” he said.


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyA Pit Viper blast-hole drill rig operates at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Carlin Pit, where the EastCarlin layback is under way.

Companywide, Newmont produced 1.3 million ounces of gold and 48million pounds of copper in the fourth quarter of 2011, down from 1.4 mil-lion ounces of gold and 74 million pounds of copper in the 2010 quarter.

Companywide, costs applicable to sales for the fourth quarter averaged$606 per ounce of gold and $1.58 per pound of copper produced, with the2011 costs at $592 per ounce for gold and $1.26 per pound of copper.

Costs will be up this year, however, according to Newmont, to between$625 and $675 per ounce of gold and $1.80 to $2.20 per pound for copperproduction.

Newmont’s average realized gold price for the fourth quarter of 2011 was$1,670 per ounce, compared with $1,368 per ounce in the 2010 quarter.

The average realized copper price was $3.41 per pound in the 2011quarter, compared with $4.52 per pound in the 2010 quarter.

The company reported the average realized gold price for all of 2011 was$1,563 per ounce of gold and $3.54 per pound of copper, while the averagerealized price for gold in 2010 was $1,222 per ounce, and the realizedcopper price was $3.43 per pound.

The company also reported consolidated capital expenditures of $3 bil-lion for last year and forecasts spending between $3 billion and $3.3 billionthis year.

This year’s spending includes 40 percent for sustaining operations and60 percent for growth projects, including further development of theAkyem Project in Ghana and potentially the Conga Project in Peru,Newmont stated.

The company suspended development of the Conga Project on Nov. 30,2011, because of protests, and Newmont’s already approved environ-mental impact study of the project in the vicinity of Newmont’sYanacocha Mine was under review as efforts continue to resolve theissues.

Buenaventura is a partner with Newmont in the Peru projects.Newmont stated in footnotes to its production report that if it drops its

Conga plans, the company may reallocate capital to development alterna-tives in Nevada, Australia, Ghana and Indonesia.


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyDerek Sikes, left, of Newmont Mining Corp.’s external relations department, looks out over the new Pay Raisemining area as Eric Bates, a senior mine engineer, describes the project.


Rocky Pray, proj-ect manager forNewmont MiningCorp.’s EmigrantProject south ofCarlin, talks aboutconstructionprogress. The newprocess plant isat left and newleach pad at right.



CARLIN — Newmont Mining Corp. plans to startmining at Emigrant south of Carlin in April, so the siteis bustling with construction projects now.

Plans call for starting mining on Phase 1, and all thepits — eight planned — are named as phases at Emi-grant, which will employ roughly 120 people, ac-cording to Rocky Pray, the project manager forEmigrant.

“We still have quite a few to hire,” he said. “We willstart with 25 operators and 25 mechanics. Later wewill go to 145 people.”

The current life of the mine for Emigrant is 10 years.Employees are receiving their training at New-

mont's Gold Quarry Mine north of Carlin, on the 150-ton Caterpillar haul trucks rebuilt for Emigrant and tobe moved to Emigrant soon.

Pray said there will be six or seven haul trucks atEmigrant, which will be a heap leach operation.Emigrant is a low-grade ore deposit that will be minedin the pit phases, with the mined-out pits backfilledso that only the final pit won’t be covered again.

“We will start with a waste rock dump that will bereclaimed,” he said. “On the pits, we’re going from the

Mining to start soon at Emigrant


southern area north. One of the last will beat the highest elevation.” The top of theEmigrant site is at 7,400 feet.

Emigrant is expected to produceroughly 80,000 ounces of gold a year,according to earlier reports from New-mont.

Contractors are completing the interiorof the processing plant now that the steelstructure is in place, the leach pad isnearing completion, a haul road is underconstruction at Emigrant, and construc-tion work continues at the shop andadministration facilities at the Rain Minethat is now called Emigrant.

Newmont’s construction manager, RickStewart, said the contractor workforcepeaked at 120.

Development has moved right along.“We started moving dirt last April and

in 15 months from then will be pouringgold,” said Kyle Empey, the project admin-istrator.

Pray said the carbon-in-leach plant willbe commissioned in June.

“We expect to see the first ounces inJuly, and the first commercial operationswill be in late August,” Pray said.

Development at Emigrant is a boon toElko County too. Newmont’s Carlin oper-

See EEMMIIGGRRAANNTT,, 33

A bulldozerworks on a haulroad in the fore-ground at themining site atNewmont MiningCorp.’s EmigrantProject south ofCarlin. A pit wallis starting in thesunlit area in thebackground.



Emigrant ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 3311

ations except for Rain, when it was open, and nowEmigrant, are in Eureka County.

“We’ve been working extensively with ElkoCounty on building permits,” Pray said.

At the former Rain site, contractors in mid-February were increasing the door size on the shopfor larger haul trucks and building a lubricationstorage building. Continental Engineering is theoverall contractor for the steel work.

From the shop, it is two miles to the Emigrantready line for haul trucks and three miles to thenew processing plant.

The steel processing plant is erected and workhas started inside, and High Mark Constructionhad nearly completed the leach pad. Newmont’screw is using bulldozers to clear grub where themining will be.

“Phases I and II are cleared and grubbed, andwe’ve established the first high wall,” Pray said.“And we’re building a road from where the con-tractor left off for the north haul, for pit access.”

The outlet structure for the permanent diver-sion of a stream also is complete. The stream willbe diverted as part of the mining project that theU.S. Bureau of Land Management Elko District

Work is underway in theinterior of thenew steelstructure thatwill becomethe ore pro-cessing plantat NewmontMining Corp.’sEmigrant goldmine projectsouth ofCarlin.


See EEMMIIGGRRAANNTT,, 34


approved after extensive study.Run-of-mine ore will be placed on the leach pad, processed at the plant and

the carbon transported to Gold Quarry for final processing and refining.Ashley Chancellor, metallurgist for Emigrant, said there also is a small labo-

ratory being built at Emigrant, but the main lab support for Emigrant will be atGold Quarry.

“What we do here will be heap leaching solution samples,” she said.Pray said the first equipment deliveries for the process plant were expected in

the last part of February.Stewart said in mid-February that the earthworks infrastructure was 95 per-

cent complete at Emigrant, and Pray said the leach pad work was 95 to 98 per-cent complete and would be done by March 1. The pad will hold roughly 100million tons.

A ready line is already completed for the haul trucks, and a rebuilt Hitachihydraulic shovel is on site, with an 18-cubic-yard bucket as well as a new AtlasCopco blast-hole drill, and Pray said Emigrant also is getting a new Caterpillarloader with a 16-cubic-yard bucket.

Also at Emigrant, there is still exploration drilling but mainly definitiondrilling, and the Gold Shape mineral resource has potential, depending uponthe gold price, Pray said.

Exploration on the other side of Rain is being done by Premier Gold, whichhas an agreement with Newmont and plans an underground operation from themined-out Rain Pit or nearby.

“We’ll look at sharing the property,” Pray said regarding the former Rainfacilities site.

Newmont also maintains the 13 miles of access road from the Carlin-EurekaHighway to the gate.

Emigrant ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 3333

CARLIN — Premier Gold Mines Ltd. plansto go underground to explore and then mineat Newmont Mining Corp.’s Rain Mine sitesouth of Carlin under a joint venture agree-ment.

“This is exciting,” said Premier ChiefOperating Officer Paul Huet. “It will be a bigleap for us” to turn Premier into a miningcompany. “Our hope and intention is tobuild up to 800 to 1,000 tons a day.”

Ontario-based Premier will acquire a 55percent interest and be the project operator,and Newmont will acquire a 45 percentinterest in the joint venture, according toPremier.

The company also announced thatNewmont agreed to process the ore at a pre-arranged milling rate. The processing facili-ties are within 20 miles of the property.

Huet said the planned underground oper-ation also has the benefit of infrastructure

already in place.Under the joint venture plan, Premier and

Newmont will each contribute lands alongthe “Rain Trend” to consolidate the RainMine and Saddle and Tess gold deposits.

Newmont operated Rain from 1988 and2000 as an open pit and underground oper-ation, with more than 950,000 ounces ofgold produced over the years.

There is no mining now, but Newmont isupdating and expanding the Rain truck shopand offices for the nearby Emigrant Project.Newmont is developing Emigrant into a sur-face mine.

Premier will acquire the 55 percent own-ership by contributing one section of land,waiving its existing right of payment underthe Rain and Emigrant royalties and con-tributing $20 million in development ex-penditures.

Newmont will acquire its 45 percentinterest by contributing three land sections,full site access to the infrastructure andaccess to contractor and supplier relation-ships and discounts, according to Premier’sannouncement.

Premier stated the Saddle-Tess golddeposit is along strike from the undergroundramp of Rain, and there may be open pitresources available. The company said thisdeposit is one of the most prospectivedeposits not yet developed on the CarlinTrend.

Premier to goundergroundat Rain Mine


BByy JJOOHHNN LL.. DDOOBBRRAA

Gold markets have been relatively quietsince hitting a high at $1,895 in September(London PM fix). There has been a gradualslide into the low $1,700 range after theU.S. Congress raised the limit on thenational debt at the end of 2011.

In my last contribution, I predicted thatgold prices would fall back after that runup, but it was an easy call. Central bankswere dumping dollar-denominated assetsand buying gold. The only reason dollardenominated assets and the dollar did notsink more is that the Euro and other cur-rencies were weaker thanks to the Greeks,and others.

But the story moves to the second verse,and the second verse is much like the first,but with a twist. The U.S. Congress willsoon be taking up another measure to raisethe debt limit. And, in case you haven’t

noticed, it’s an election year. This is likelyto be another down-to-the-wire partisanbattle that could very well spark anothergold rally. But, like the last (the first verse),I wouldn’t get too excited about it. It willbe short-lived because Congress willraise the debt limit or face significantshort term consequences — downgradesof the U.S. credit ratings, dollar devalua-tions, etc.

The twist comes from the unusual mixof circumstances created by U.S. andEuropean Union sanctions imposed onIran because of its nuclear program andthe growing demand for oil by developingcountries without domestic oil resourceslike India and China. Because of the U.S.and E.U. sanctions, banks that do businesswith Iran will be barred from engaging infinancial transactions with banks in theU.S. and E.U.

Sanctions like this worked effectively

against North Korea several years ago, butNorth Korea doesn’t have much to sell.Iran, obviously, has oil, and India andChina want it. India and China also wantto trade with the U.S. and E.U., and thisrequires financial intermediaries, i.e.,banks.

So what to do? Numerous websites (justGoogle “gold for oil” and you can seethem) were reporting at the end of Januarythat India and China are negotiating withIran to buy oil with gold. The govern-ments, of course, are denying it.

Some of the reports express doubts onthe practicality of the scheme and, indeed,it would involve high transaction costs.But, the scheme is simple. Iranians takethe physical gold to Dubai (or somewhereelse) and sell if for cash — dollars or euros,e.g. Then take the cash and deposit it in abank in an Iran friendly country like Russiaand use it to buy military supplies or othergoods from Russia.

Alternatively, they could simply pay fortheir purchases with gold. Even a humbleeconomics professor can figure out thatthere are no fingerprints left after thisdeal. Iran’s problem, however, is thatthere are a limited number of countriesand banks that will deal with it on thisbasis.

But, the natural question is what will

this do to the price of gold? In the shortrun, not much. The annual oil tradebetween Iran and India would only requireabout 7.2 million ounces, according to onesource. India easily has that much and canbuy more. Twenty-two million ounces selleach month in the London Bullion Market,so the market is highly liquid.

The larger question for the long run iswhat this precedent would mean for theuse of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currencyand the use of gold in international finan-cial transactions. If the practice gets morecommon in the long run, that could haveimplications for the price of gold.

It certainly “sends a thrill up the leg”Gof gold bugs, hard money advocates, etc.,for perverse reasons. But then, JohnMaynard Keynes did say gold was a “bar-barous relic.” That is the reason that one ofthe sites that turns up in a Google search ispresidential candidate Ron Paul’s. He haslong been an advocate of cutting back theauthority or eliminating the FederalReserve and returning to the gold stan-dard. I don't think that will happen, butthe gold for oil deal gives them hope.

———————Dr. Dobra is director of the Natural

Resources Industry Institute and asso-ciate professor of economics at theUniversity of Nevada, Reno.

VIEWPOINT

Gold for oil?


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyCindy Jones, general manager of Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester Mine in Pershing County, explains inFebruary where ore is being mined. Below is the new backfill area in the Rochester Pit.


LOVELOCK — Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester Mine inPershing County is back in full production after a year of constructionand getting back in gear to mine and process silver.

“We’re looking great. In 2011, we ramped up from 30 people to nowaround the 225-226 range,” said Rochester General Manager CindyJones. “We’re in full production. We’re off and running and goingstrong.”

The employees range from experienced miners who came back toRochester or came to the mine for the first time last year to those whohad to be trained on site, including young people just out of highschool, she said.

“We’ve done quite a bit of training. Sixty percent of the workforce isfrom Pershing County, and we have people who came out of the con-struction industry and still live in Sparks or Reno, and some come fromFernley and Fallon,” Jones said in February.

Rochester also was the first to pick up miners when the gypsum

FULL STEAM AHEAD AT

Rochester

See RROOCCHHEESSTTEERR,, 38

plant at Gerlach went out of business last year, she said.Rochester’s production is 98 to 99 percent silver, and

the rest is gold, depending upon where in the pit themining is occurring, Jones said. Some areas may behigher in gold ore.

“We’re a silver mine. We have been a silver mine over25 years,” Jones said.

The mine marked its 25th anniversary last September.Rochester was in residual leaching before receiving

U.S. Bureau of Land Management permits to resumemining on site, after ending mining in August 2007when Coeur ran out of leach pad space. Rochesterreceived the main BLM permit in October 2010 and thefinal permits in February 2011.

High silver prices in the range of $30 an ounce andabove, as well as high gold prices, “definitely helps”with Rochester’s new operations, Jones said, but shecautioned that costs have gone up for diesel, tires, sup-plies and labor.

Mining is in the Rochester Pit at the south, north andwest ends. The east end is where the crusher is located.The mining includes removing the end pit backfill toprocess again now that prices are higher.

“Where it wasn’t ore then, it is ore today at theseprices,” said Jones, who has been with Coeur since May2005.

Silver has been in the range of $30 to $34 an ounce in

2012, while gold has been in the range of $1,700 to $1,750per ounce.

Before full production began, a buttress had to beconstructed at the south wall for the conveyor system,and miners are now building a new lift of waste ore in

the original area of the Rochester Pit.New ore is now going on the new leach pad, although

there is still work to be completed on this stage 3 pad.Peavine Construction out of Sparks is doing the leachpad construction. This is that company’s first mining


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyA long conveyor system takes ore from the crushers to the load-out spot at the end for placement on the new Stage 3 leach padat the Rochester Mine in Pershing County.

Rochester ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 3377

project, Jones said.Comanco installed the liner, which mainly came from

Fernley, where it is manufactured.The ore goes to the refurbished Overland crusher

system and then onto a conveyor that takes it to theleach pad area, where a haul truck loads the ore for thefinal trek to the pad.

Rochester’s eight new 100-ton Caterpillar haultrucks are all in action, and the mine has two newCaterpillar loaders with 18-yard buckets and two bull-dozers, also Caterpillars from Cashman Equipment.Jones said Rochester also has two new blast-hole drillsfrom Cate Equipment.

“Cashman Equipment has six people on site formaintenance and repair,” she said. “They help us withthe new fleet and we also have our own mobile mainte-nance crew.”

Purcell Tires has two representatives on site, Jonesalso said.

Rochester had two haul trucks that were on sitebefore the resumption of mining, and they are used pri-marily to haul the ore to the leach pad from the con-veyor.

The conveyor system is roughly one mile long and wasconstructed from new and old segments, and Rochesteris installing new fabric covers over the conveyor belt.

“This helps with the weather and air quality,” Jonessaid.

Rochester also is planning for expansion. The currentplan of operations takes Rochester into 2017, and the


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyA haul truck fills up at the end of the conveyor system with finely crushed ore to take to the leach pad at Coeur d’Alene MinesCorp.’s Rochester Mine in Pershing County.See RROOCCHHEESSTTEERR,, 40


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyLoaded haul trucks head out in February at Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester silver minenear Lovelock.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyA haul truck dumps ore at the start of the crusher system at the Rochester silver mine nearLovelock. Once the ore is finely crushed, it goes on a leach pad.

latest plan is for the next phase ofmining.

Jones said Rochester completed thebaseline studies for the expansion lastyear and is about to submit the plan ofoperations to the BLM’s Winnemuccaoffice to start the permitting process.The new plan would allow more leachpad space.

The new stage 3 pad now can hold 50million tons of ore, while the stage 2 padis still in residual leaching, as is the stage4 pad. Stage 1 is reclaimed. Stage 3 is avalley fill pad with an external drainingsystem. In addition to the pregnant (withsilver) and barren ponds, there is a con-tingency pond.

“We have realized we will get moretons than the new leach pad can hold as

Rochester ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 3399

we do more mining, and exploration only adds to thevalue,” Jones said.

“We’ve got a full-blown exploration program thisyear,” she said.

Rochester has three O’Keefe Drilling rigs on site.Rye Patch Gold Corp. also is exploring in the area,

after staking the claims around Rochester than Coeurdidn’t renew by deadline. The two companies are in acourt battle.

A district court decision prohibits Rye Patch fromexploring near active mining operations at Rochester,but the company is exploring in the neighborhood onformer Rochester claims.

“I feel at the end of the day, we will succeed,” Jonessaid of the court case.

Additionally, Rochester submitted its final closureplan, even though “we don’t plan to close for 15 plusyears,” Jones said. The closure plan was part of BLM’srequirements when the agency permitted resumption ofmining at Rochester under an environmental assess-ment.

Coeur’s expectation that Rochester will be operatingfor a long time also spurred the company to contractwith consultant Elaine Barkdull Spencer to help theLovelock Chamber of Commerce and the county’s eco-nomic development agency to “get back up and goingagain.”

Rochester’s layoffs when mining ended affectedLovelock, which is the nearest community to the mine.

“Coeur wants the area to sustain itself, whethermining is around,” Jones said.

On the safety front, Jones said Rochester has gone1,740 days without a lost-time accident.

At the corporate level, Coeur announced in Januarythat Randy Buffington is the new senior vice presidentof operations overseeing the company’s silver and goldmining operations worldwide. Buffington was generalmanager at Barrick Gold Corp. operations, including the

Goldstrike Mine north of Carlin.In addition to Rochester, Coeur owns the San

Bartolomé Mine in Bolivia; the Palmarejo silver/goldmine in Mexico and the Kensington Gold Mine inAlaska.


Coeurd’AleneMinesCorp.’sRochestersilver minein a valleyin PershingCounty isnow usingthe newStage 3leach pad.

Ross AndresonMiningQuarterly


ELKO — Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.and Rye Patch Gold Corp. expect the nextdistrict court action in Lovelock inNovember over their claims dispute.

“The trial is expected to run for ap-proximately two weeks in early Novem-ber,” said Stefany Bales, director of cor-porate communications for Coeur.

She said the discovery process is underway, during which both sides are gath-ering evidence.

Rye Patch filed claims in the Rochestervicinity late last year, after the companydiscovered Coeur hadn’t paid its claimfees, and the two companies ended up incourt.

“We decided to stake the open ground,”said Rye Patch President and ChiefExecutive Officer Bill Howald.

They are now working under a rulingthat prevents Rye Patch from exploringnear Rochester operations but allows RyePatch to explore outside the mining area.

“It is a high threshold to achieve an

injunction. We are pleased with the out-come of the hearing in December and arecontinuing to prepare for trial inNovember. In the meantime, operationscontinue at the Rochester Mine,” Balessaid.

“The undisputed facts are they didn’tpay the claim fee on 541 claims, and theydidn’t realize that for three months whenI called and told them,” Howald said in aninterview in February.

The court action was over 402 seniorLH claims, according to earlier reports.

Rye Patch has two drill rigs operatingon the Rochester claims, but can’texplore 1,828 acres of the claim area thatcovers 7,493 acres. The prohibited areaincludes the open pit, leach pads andwaste dumps.

Howald said that by law the claimswere open when Coeur failed to file.

As for a possible settlement withCoeur, Howald said “the ball is in theircourt.”

“We will continue to pursue our legalcomplaint against Rye Patch Gold, filedon Dec. 5, 2011, to protect our rights in

the disputed unpatented claims at themine. We assert valid possessory rightsand superior title in the legal dispute.Any potential discussions of settlementwould be speculative at this point,” Balessaid.

Coeur stated in a December an-nouncement that the company filed alegal complaint in Pershing County,

asserting that its unpatented claims arevalid and that it has a valid possessoryinterest in such claims.

The company is seeking damages andan injunction preventing Rye Patch Goldfrom interfering with its claims.

Rye Patch filed a suit in district courtin Reno, but Howald said the two law-suits have been consolidated.


Coeur, Rye Patch go to trial in NovemberCrushed oremoves along thelengthy conveyoron its way to beleached at thenew Stage 3 padat Coeur d’AleneMines Corp.’sRochester Minenear Lovelock.



Rye Patch Gold Corp.This map shows the projects Rye Patch Gold Corp. has in northern Nevada, including onthe Oreana Trend and on the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend.


ELKO — Rye Patch Gold Corp. currentlyis drilling on claims near Coeur d’AleneMines Corp.’s Rochester Mine in PershingCounty, but the company plans moredrilling at other projects, including nearBarrick Gold Corp.’s newest discoveries atthe Cortez Mine.

“We’re looking for mineral resources,”said Rye Patch President and ChiefExecutive Officer William Howald. “We’regood at finding gold. It’s a good hand-in-glove fit.”

The exploration company has 3 millionounces of gold and 40 million ounces ofsilver resources at its Wilco, Lincoln Hill

and Jessup projects in Pershing County,but hopes to expand the resources withcontinued exploration.

High prices for gold and silver areenticing, and Howald said there “really aresupply and demand issues with gold. Theprice goes up when there is a strong dollarand when there is a weak dollar, whenbonds are strong and with lower bonds.

“Gold miners can’t find it as fast as theycan mine. Gold is hard to find, and it isgetting harder to find,” he said.

When it comes to hunting for gold andsilver, Howald is sold on Nevada.

“There is great infrastructure. There isrule of law here. It is certainly one of the

Rye Patch focuseson finding gold

See RRYYEE PPAATTCCHH,, 44


best places to mine in the world,” he said ina telephone interview in February.

The gold price was in the range of$1,700 to $1,750 an ounce in the first partof February.

Rye Patch’s resource total that includes1.2 million gold equivalent ounces ofmeasured and indicated resources and 2.7million ounces of gold equivalent inferredresources doesn’t include the controver-sial claims near Rochester, however.

Rye Patch filed on 541 claims whenCoeur d’Alene Mines failed to pay claimfees by deadline last year, according toHowald. Rye Patch also staked another 60claims in the vicinity in January.

“They didn’t pay the claim fees, andthey didn’t realize that for three monthsuntil I called and told them,” said Howald,who is locked into a lawsuit in districtcourt in Lovelock over the claims.

A court ruling allows Rye Patch to ex-plore on claims that are outside theRochester operations area but not withinthe mine site because of safety issueswhile the lawsuit is pending furtheraction. The prohibited area is 1,828 acres,including the pit, waste dumps and leachpads.

Rye Patch has two drill rigs operatingnear Rochester, one at the Mystic discoveryand one on the Northwest Rochestertarget, but the company has been on theOreana Trend since 2006, Howald said.

The company has claims from Inter-state 80 south to the Rochester Mine.Including the Rochester claims, the com-pany has 1,100 claims in Pershing County,as well as 200 in Churchill County and800 claims in Eureka County south ofBarrick’s Goldrush and Red Hill discov-eries.

Howald said Rye Patch is in a joint ven-ture with Barrick and US Gold on thePatty Project, where Rye Patch is earningin for 60 percent of the project. Barrickwill have 24 percent and McEwen Mining,formerly called US Gold, 12 percent.Chapleau Resources would have 4 per-cent.

He said the Patty Project has potential.When he worked for Placer Dome, lateracquired by Barrick, there was more than300 feet of 0.012 ounces per ton of goldfound there in 2005.

“We had a little different idea of what’simportant. Now, with Barrick’s announ-cements, we will follow up those ideas,”Howald said.

Rye Patch also has the Garden GatePass Project in the vicinity.

He said drilling found thick intercepts

of Carlin-style rock that wasn’t ore-grade, “but we hit gold.”

Howald said Rye Patch plans to drill atPatty and Garden Gate this summer.

Barrick is on three sides of GardenGate, which involves five square miles ofland and is roughly five miles south ofPatty and about a mile and a half awayfrom Goldrush.

They are on the Cortez Trend that wasalways viewed as “the little sister to theCarlin Trend,” but is fast becoming amajor gold producer with the CortezMine encompassing the newest CortezHills operations, the earlier Pipeline siteand now the new Red Hill and Goldrushdiscoveries

Barrick produced 1.4 million ounces ofgold in 2011 at Cortez.

On the Oreana Trend, Rye Patch plans aresource update, and the company will beputting out a new resource for the LincolnHill Project, according to Howald.

“Wilco has over 3 million ounces ofgold equivalent, and the majority is oxide.It’s along the interstate and good infra-structure. The metallurgy is very posi-tive,” he said. “We will drill more atWilco.”

At Lincoln Hill, “we keep getting goodsurprises,” Howald said, adding that thecompany plans more drilling there.

The Gold Ridge Project also is in thearea and a newer project, where drillinghas found “potentially another deposit,”he said.

The Gold Ridge Project is west of Lin-coln Hill.

“We’re really excited about Rochester,”he also said, pointing out that even Coeurstated that the claims Rye Patch nowholds represent a portion of the com-pany’s reserves and resources.

“We have new drill holes and newideas,” Howald said.

The company announced in Januarythat it planned 30,000 feet of drilling atMystic and Northwest Rochester in theinitial campaign but later planned moredrilling at Limerick Basin, IndependenceHill and Black Ridge Fault.

The Rochester area is mainly silver, butWilco is more gold and Lincoln Hill ismore gold but with good silver grades.

Howald also said the company has beenfortunate to have good relations withdrilling companies so it is able to book rigfor its projects at a time when so muchexploration is under way in the state.

In total, Rye Patch controls 25.5 squaremiles of land in Nevada. The company hasan office in Reno and corporate office inVancouver.

Rye Patch ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 4433


BByy AANNDDRREEAA GGLLOOVVEERRMining Quarterly

ELKO — Hiring growth in the miningindustry is not expected to level off anytime soon — providing trained workers achance to work in the competitive in-dustry.

Newmont Mining Corp. and BarrickGold Corp. created large gains in hiringduring 2011, and the trend is continuing.Both companies have released the esti-mated number of new employees theyexpect to hire for their respective Nevadaoperations — and each expects largegains.

“I know the interest is on employ-ment, investment, what does that futurelook like,” Mary Korpi, Newmont’sdirector of external relations, said inJanuary.

In Newmont’s Nevada operations, 600positions were filled throughout 2011,with 200 being for new jobs.

Barrick’s job growth was more thandouble Newmont’s in 2011 — with 1,450

positions filled. Of these, 871 werenew positions, and the turnoverwithin Barrick was about 13 per-cent, including retirements.

This increase in hiring was duein part to the development of theCortez Hills operations and theexpansion at Bald Mountain,according to Lou Schack, directorof communication and commu-nity affairs with Barrick.

Barrick’s numbers for theupcoming year are lower than in2011, while Newmont’s are hold-ing steady.

Korpi said Newmont antici-pates hiring an additional 600employees this year, of which 200to 300 of the openings will be dueto new jobs.

Barrick’s turnover should bearound 500 employees, with the additionof 300 new positions.

The largest gains will be at Goldstrike,with the addition of 120 new employees.The remainder are scattered throughout

a number of mines, including BaldMountain with 30 new positions, 40 atCortez, 10 at Ruby Hill and 40 at Tur-quoise Ridge.

Of the 3,800 people Newmont em-ploys, Korpi estimated they lived in a

“50/50 split” between Carlinand Elko, and Battle Mountainand Winnemucca. She antici-pated about 150 of Newmont’snew employees for theupcoming year would residewithin Elko.

Barrick’s number of Nevadaemployees is slightly larger — at3,900 — and creates more of animpact on the area.

Schack estimated about 75percent of their Nevada work-force resides in Elko and SpringCreek — or approximately2,900 people.

With the new positions beingcreated during the year, Schacksaid he anticipated more than200 of the individuals filling

them would be living in the Elkoand Spring Creek areas.

Both Schack and Korpi acknowledgedtheir respective companies create both

Barrick, Newmont hiring continues

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyMining projects are providing jobs and boosting the economy innortheastern Nevada. Haul trucks line up in February at NewmontMining Corp.’s Carlin Pit, where an East Carlin layback is under way.

See HHIIRRIINNGG,, 47


BByy AANNDDRREEAA GGLLOOVVEERRMining Quarterly

ELKO — Elko provides a stark dichot-omy with the remainder of the state.

The area has the lowest unemploy-ment rate across Nevada, due mainly tothe high price of gold and a boomingmining industry.

While Las Vegas can’t seem to keeppeople in houses, in Elko there simplyaren’t enough houses or apartments tohold the people coming in — leadingmany individuals to call a hotel a home.

Within Elko city limits, there are1,890 rooms available, split between 31hotels and motels. As a regional hub, thecity frequently is home to guest workers— about 400 workers stayed in Elkothroughout 2010-2011 while working onthe Ruby Pipeline. However, as growthin the mines continues, the number ofindividuals flocking to Elko for mining-related industries grow in stride.

At the Thunderbird Motel, the major-ity of rooms now booked are by thosewho work in conjunction with the

mining industry.“Probably 90 percent of our rooms are

taken by something to do with mining,”said Laura Call, manager of theThunderbird Motel. The motel has 70rooms available, most of which are fre-quently occupied.

The majority of individuals stay any-where from three days to seven days, andmany are repeat customers who areeither employed by a mining or drillingcompany.

“Most of them, they’re only here for ashort period of time,” Call said, who

added that many are only on the job for amonth or two and therefore are notinterested in purchasing a house in thearea.

Call said she can tell growth in themining industry is strong.

“We’ve never been so busy,” she said.The situation at the Thunderbird is no

longer unique.At American Inn, 12 of the 19 rooms

are currently occupied by individualswho work in an industry related tomining.

According to manager Sam Bhakta,the motel generally ranges between 10and 12 rooms occupied by theseextended-stay guests. The amount oftime these individuals tend to stayvaries, Bhakta said. Some stay one week,some 10 days and others two weeks,“then they go home and come back” andrepeat the process.

This process of repeat customers isalso seen at Elko’s Economy Inn, ac-cording to manager Vikash Bhakta.

Of the 18 rooms available, about 10 areroutinely occupied by those who work in

Nevada mining industry fills hotel roomsContractorsand workersstay at Elkomotels andhotels whileworking inthe miningindustry.



mining-related industries.“We mostly have the Boart Longyear

guys,” Bhakta said, who “come on andoff.” He added most of these individualsstay for four days before leaving Elko,and return later.

Drilling workers are also prevalentguests at the Elko Motel.

“Most of them are (with) drillingcompanies, we have a few that work atthe mines,” said manager Aida Mathewsof the individuals staying at the ElkoMotel.

“We have quite a few of them, but theyare on and off,” she added.

Many of Elko Motel’s customers arerepeat customers — staying for a week ortwo before going on break and leaving,only to return later.

Mathews estimated that 25 percent ofthe 32 rooms are taken by occupantsworking in a mining-related field.

For larger companies who plan onbeing in the area for an extended period— such as Ruby Pipeline did for itsworkers last year — they may contractout with a hotel to house their workers.

At the Best Western Elko Inn, 33 of the108 rooms are currently occupied byworkers with Connors Drilling. Thecompany has had a long-standing con-tract with Best Western since the firstfew months of 2011. It is not set to expire

until Dec. 31, 2012.Myron Pree, general manager of Best

Western, said the hotel is willing to con-tract 50 to 60 rooms for extended-stayguests.

“Obviously you reach a point whereyou say you can’t do anymore extendedstay beyond this point, to take care ofour regular customers,” said Pree.

Stockmen’s Hotel & Casino is alsoused by those who are in the area due tomining.

Kim Olinik, general manager ofStockmen’s, said the number of peoplein extended-stay rooms is “prettysteady” — normally averaging between30 and 35 in use during any given week,out of the 141 rooms.

General managers at each hotel wit-ness first-hand the impact that the lackof affordable housing can have onwilling workers, however, each said theystill believe there will never be a timewhere extended-stay becomes non-existent.

“In the last three months I have hadmore inquiries from the big businessesin town,” said Pree, who added that hebelieves they’re “anticipating growth inthe mines, so they’re looking for anyplace and every place they can putpeople while they’re waiting for housesto be built.”

Hiring ...social and economic impacts on Elko,and are well aware of them.

“We understand most of our opera-tions are not located in Elko County, yetElko feels the impact of the operations,”said Korpi.

While Elko receives many of themines employees without receiving thetax benefits — as many operationmines are located in other counties —this year Newmont is working on twooperations that are located within ElkoCounty.

“That will bring people, but for thefirst time in awhile it will actually bringtax dollars from net proceeds tax,” saidKorpi.

Construction on the Emigrant Pro-ject began last year, and production willbegin this year. The construction work-force has averaged 100, Korpi said.

Rocky Pray, project manager at New-mont’s Emigrant, said the mine willemploy roughly 120 people but laterthat number will grow to 145.

A second Elko County mine is also inthe process of becoming operational,

with Newmont preparing to submit aplan of operations to the U.S. Bureau ofLand Management.

Korpi said the current estimate isthat construction at Long Canyon willbegin in 2015, with the mine operatingat capacity by 2017. The constructionperiod should last approximately 18months.

Long Canyon is expected to employbetween 700 and 900 contractorsduring the period of construction. Oncethe project is completed, approximately400 people will be permanentlyemployed at the site.

Other projects and companies willcreate more jobs in the mining industryin the near future, including AlliedNevada Gold Corp. that operates theHycroft Mine in Humboldt County,which expects to add more than 100jobs.

General Moly’s Mt. Hope Project willemploy 400 workers once constructionis complete, but work won’t start untilthe BLM approves the project. GeneralMoly hopes to have permits yet thisyear.



ELKO — Barrick Gold of North Americaand Newmont Mining Corp. have jobs tofill, and they have tips for those hoping tobe hired in light of the thousands of jobapplications they receive.

“It’s competitive and applicants have tohave their ducks in a row,” said Lou Schack,director of communications and commu-nity affairs for Barrick Gold of NorthAmerica.

Barrick’s North American office had 216job openings one day in February. Thecompany received roughly 30,000 appli-cations last year and filled roughly 1,500jobs in 2011.

Newmont received 34,000 applicationsin 2011, but some of them could be fromindividuals applying for more than oneposition, according to Nick Tompkins,manager of talent acquisition.

“So, we had 34,000 applications and600 jobs to fill,” he said.

“The No. 1 complaint people have iswith the application system,” he said,

explaining that Newmont needs a com-puterized system because of the hugevolume of applications. “Candidates saythey never hear anything from Newmontor Barrick, but they get a responsethanking them for applying.”

Candidates who apply for particular

positions also will get a rejection email ifthey aren’t called for an interview, he said.However, those who simply apply to thegeneral interest category won’t hear any-thing after the first thank you.

“Typically, we interview two or threecandidates for one position so there can

only be one winner,” Tompkins said.Tompkins said another track for job-

seekers is to work at a mine for a temporaryjob agency, because they then have a betterchance of getting on full time.

“The point I’d like to make is we’repeople too. We have a lot of empathy. All ofus have had to apply for a job. We knowhow painful and slow it can be, but, simply,the volume of candidates can be over-whelming,” he said.

The Barrick job openings range fromentry level positions that include haultruck drivers, warehouse technicians andlab technicians to skilled positions thatinclude electricians, mechanics and thosethat require degrees, such as mining engi-neers and metallurgists.

“If we are looking for an entry level posi-tion, the first thing we look for is job sta-bility — how long have you held a job. If youjump around to jobs, this doesn’t lookstable,” said Barrick recruiter Helen Magee,adding that Barrick looks for at least twoyears on a job.


Tips for getting work at gold mines

See AADDVVIICCEE,, 50

Helen Magee, arecruiter forBarrick Gold ofNorth America,stands withMax Mitchell ofPahrump, whowas filling out ajob applicationin mid-Februaryat the Barrickoffice in Elko.


Dana Pray, recruiting manager forBarrick Gold of North America, said thecompany trains supervisors that “pastperformance predicts future performance.If you are moving every few months, thereis nothing worse on your resume.”

Barrick spends roughly $30,000 train-ing workers, and that doesn’t count payand benefits so stability is important,Schack said.

“We wonder why they are leaving a job.We want to pick the best applicants so wetend to gravitate toward candidates with asteady job history,” Tompkins said.

Barrick also wants to know about appli-cants’ safety records and attitudes onsafety.

Recruiter Amy Lewis said Barrick asksapplicants about any safety violationsand whether they have stepped up to theplate to stop potential unsafe acts on thejob.

“It is your job to stand up and saysomething, to be a courageous leader,” shesaid.

Recruiters also want to know about theattendance record of applicants, such aswhether they take a lot of days off, espe-

cially those last-minute calls, Pray said,explaining that workers on rotating shiftshave a lot of days off in a month to catchup on their rest.

Magee said honesty also is importantfor applicants, commenting that a sur-prising number of people lie on theirapplications, not realizing they will becaught in that lie because of Barrick’sextensive background checks.

“So, don’t lie to us,” Pray said.Tompkins said Newmont has a policy

of not hiring felons or those convicted ofcertain high misdemeanors, and thebackground check will show convictions.People who had arrests when they werejuveniles also might be surprised to knowthose actions show up too.

Those with juvenile records may behired, if they are honest about their con-victions, he said.

Applicants should know that if theymake it through the initial application andinterview process and receive a job offer,they still face drug testing, backgroundchecks and calls to references. Offers arecontingent on the results.

“We are a drug-free environment. We dohair testing that goes back three months.We also do an alcohol test,” Pray said. “Weare going to start testing for spice.”

Newmont follows similar procedures,Tompkins said.

Barrick and Newmont only have somany openings for those who need train-ing, however, and continues to recruit forskilled workers, including electricians,mechanics, underground miners and min-ing engineers and metallurgists.

Lewis said the goal is to hire locally, butrecruiters go out of state when they can’tfind the skill sets needed to fill openings.They go to job fairs and to career fairs atcolleges and universities.

Barrick also is heavily involved in edu-cating people to develop the needed skills,including providing scholarships and con-tributions to Great Basin College, the re-cruiters said.

While applicants can fill out applica-tions for any number of jobs, Pray saidBarrick prefers they “take charge of theirown job search” and apply only for jobsthey know they might qualify to hold.

“We like to hire people with goals andobjectives,” she said.

“Barrick strives to pick the candidateswho are best for a position,” Lewis said.

Tompkins offered pointers that militarycandidates explain what they did in themilitary in layman’s terms, and that allapplicants go into detail about the tasksthey performed in prior jobs.

He also said applicants should show upfor an interview on time and appropriatelydressed, and they should bring copies of

their resumes.Lewis recommended applicants be

patient, and if they don’t get a job now,they can try again later because often thereis more than one candidate for a particularjob, and they can’t all be picked.

All job postings are on the Barrick web-site and updated at least twice a week, Praysaid.

Barrick outlined its application process,and Tompkins said Newmont’s is similar:

• Go online and create a user profile atwww.barrick.com. Applicants can attachresumes, and those are helpful but notrequired. There are computers in the lobbyat the Barrick office in Elko and people canhelp potential applicants get started. New-mont has a kiosk in its lobby.

• Apply for positions you are qualified tohold, then “sit back and wait for a call,”Lewis said. A recruiter will screen the topcandidates and schedule interviews.

Anderson said it’s important candidateshave email addresses and voicemail so theycan be contacted.

• Give an interview, if called. Magee saida panel interviews candidates, and appli-cants will be contacted after the interviewprocess is complete.

The hiring decision lies with the depart-ment supervisor, while the recruiters findthe best candidates, “so the decision is notjust made by one person,” Magee said.


Advice ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 4499


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlySpectators look at Komatsu equipment during the 2011 Mining Expo at the Elko Convention Center.


ELKO — The Elko Mining Expo June 7-8 will be buzzingthis year as excitement grows about the Nevada mining in-dustry’s growth and high gold prices.

“Gold and silver prices definitely help, as does the factthat there are so many projects starting or under way,” saidJennifer Knight, event coordinator for the Elko Conventionand Visitors Authority that puts on the annual Expo.

Gold prices were in the range of $1,700 to $1,750 perounce in February. Silver was in the range of $33-$34 anounce.

Knight said she believes this is the best time for vendorsto market their products, when there is major activity inNevada but the economy is still down in many areas of thecountry.

Mining companies in Nevada are planning expansionsand new mines, and exploration drilling is up in the state.

“No one can afford to miss the Elko Mining Expo,” Knightsaid.

They may not all get to exhibit, however. The ECVA isoffering a record number of booths, 496, but they may allbe sold out, although the staff at the Elko ConventionCenter will know more after March 12. That’s the deadlinefor last year’s exhibitors to decide whether they are re-turning to the Expo.

Elko Mining Expo has most booths ever


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(907) 452-6631Fax: (907) 451-8632

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#D-2Anchorage, AK 99502

907-245-.3123

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyBarrick Gold Corp.’s booth at the 2011 Elko Mining Expo featured a miniature haul truck filledwith candy. Elko High School woodshop students made the truck. Grabbing candy, from left, areJoey MacDiarmid, Chloe Patzer and Abby MacDiarmid.

“I’ve got over 100 on the waiting listfor the mining mall and the same thingwith the exterior booth space,” Knightsaid.

The ECVA added 40 10-foot by 10-footbooths to the Elko Main City Park site,where booths were set up for the first timelast year.

“We had 48 last year, and they did sowell, we added the additional 40,” Knightsaid, adding that the ECVA also is addingthe larger 20-foot by 20-foot booth spacealong College Avenue.

The Expo sold 445 booths at the 2011Expo, which was the biggest to date.

Elko Mining Expo events begin with thegolf tournament at Ruby View Golf Courseon June 4-5, and she said the tournament is“filling up quickly.” Registration didn’topen until February.

An awards barbecue will begin at 5:30p.m. on June 5, after the tournament ends.

The Expo kickoff banquet will be on June6 at Stockmen’s Hotel & Casino, withcocktails at 6 p.m., to be followed bydinner.

Knight said plans are under way for aguest speaker, but she couldn’t disclosemore details in February.

Then, the Expo itself will be from 9 a.m.to 5 p.m. June 7 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 8at the Elko Convention Center.

Knight said a product showcase that was

started last year will be back, featuringdemonstrations of 15 to 30 minutes each.The showcase is free to exhibitors but theyneed to sign up at the convention center.

The Minor Miners games for childrenalso will be back from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.the two days of the Expo.

The ECVA board agreed in January to usea new vendor for the tents and canopiesthis year, Source One out of Las Vegas,which will put the mining mall up underone tent roof, rather than have adjoiningtents. Source One also plans to be on sitethroughout the Expo to help exhibitors,Knight said.

Exhibitors for the outdoor booth spacescan rent canopies, tables and chairs fromSource One. Knight said it is better to gothrough the chosen vendor because of firecodes. All canopies and tents have to becertified because a fire official will be doinginspections.

Source One will do the set up and teardown.

Those interested in exhibiting at theElko Mining Expo or getting on a waitinglist can contact the convention center at775-738-4091 or go online to www.ExploreElko.com for the links to registra-tion packets and advertising opportuni-ties. Source One also has a link.

“We’ve added advertising to the pro-gram book this year,” Knight said.



ELKO — Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. plans to begin itsStarvation Canyon underground project in Elko Countythis spring as part of expansion at Jerritt Canyon.

“We would like to start development in April, de-pending on contractor availability, to do the portal anddecline,” said Yukon-Nevada’s chief operating officer,Randy Reichert.

Starvation Canyon will be quick to go into production,with the current estimate for gold production inSeptember. The ore is easy to reach.

“We only need to go 700 feet, and we’re already at ore,and at 1,500 feet, we will be in full production,” Reichertsaid.

The underground Starvation Canyon Mine will need asecondary access before it can be in full production, how-ever, he said.

Starvation Canyon will be a new mine at Jerritt Canyon,where mining has been under way since the 1980s.

Current gold production is coming from the SSX-Steerunderground mine that Yukon-Nevada put back into pro-duction late last year, and the Smith Mine that Small MineDevelopment has been operating for a couple of years.

“SMD is doing quite well, increasing production to1,200 tons per day in another month or two months,”Reichert said.

Yukon-Nevada is still awaiting delivery of new haultrucks for SSX-Steer before the mine can reach full pro-duction, but Reichert said the company expected Sandvikto deliver one 30-ton truck in February, another in Marchand three more in April or May.

All the ore going through the Jerritt Canyon mill is nowfrom production and stockpiles on site, Reichert said.Jerritt Canyon isn’t milling any ore from Newmont MiningCorp. operations at this point but was doing so last year.

The mill is back in full operation after a shutdown onJan. 6 to complete refurbishment that included a newlocation for the dryer and a new dryer for more efficientwinter operations, and a bag room and new scrubber.

“Then, we reconfigured the conveyors in the finecrushing between the secondary and tertiary crushers,”Reichert said in a February phone interview.

The mill was fully operational on Feb. 3.“We’re optimistic at this point we will be able to really

run hard, now,” he said.The company reported the March mill production is

expected to average 3,900 tons per day with gold produc-tion of approximately 12,500 ounces. This would translateto roughly 150,000 ounces of gold production in a year’stime.

With the growth, Yukon-Nevada has been activelyrecruiting for underground miners, engineers and“across-the-board, but underground miners are the pri-mary target,” Reichert said.

Yukon-Nevada also is looking into housing because ofthe shortage in Elko, and he said there is potential for asmall camp for the underground miners.

The company also continues exploration, with resultsfrom West Mahala drilling showing good grades andshowing potential for access from SSX.

“It’s really firing up to be a very sizable deposit,”Reichert said.

Results from one hole showed an intersection of over150 feet at just under 0.2 ounces per ton of gold, andanother showed 100 feet of 0.19 opt.

Yukon-Nevada has spent roughly $220 million to $240million on Jerritt Canyon, Reichert said.

Yukon-Nevada recently announced a forward gold pur-chase agreement with Deutsche Bank AG, London branch,that includes a $20 million prepayment that can be usedtoward Jerritt Canyon projects.

The agreement is a forward contract structured todeliver 27,950 ounces of gold over a 43-month term in theamount of 650 ounces per month starting March 31.

Shaun Heinrichs, chief financial officer, said there stillwill be additional funds coming into the company fromgold sales under the agreement.

The prepayment is for roughly $716 per ounce of gold,and the remainder of the purchase price will be paid uponcompletion of monthly gold deliveries and will be equal tothe amount that the gold price exceeds $850 up to a max-imum gold price of $1,750.

Starvation Canyon work may begin soon


A Caterpillarloader fills a150-tonCaterpillar haultruck inFebruary in thenew South Pitarea at JipanguInternational’sStandard Minein PershingCounty.



IMLAY — Jipangu International is developingthe South and South-South pits that will com-bine to make one large pit at the Standard Mine.

“We will take out all of the original StandardPit from the 1950s,” said Joel Murphy, generalmanager of the Standard and Florida Canyonoperations in Pershing County and president ofU.S. operations.

The latest mining at Standard started in theNorth and Intermediate pits, which have beenmined out and backfilled so no pits are visible atthose locations.

Jipangu just completed expansion of theStandard leach pad on Feb. 8, providing an addi-tional 35 percent capacity.

All the ore at Standard is crushed, and themine also just commissioned the second half ofthe crusher plant on Feb. 8, Murphy said. Thecrusher system is in the mined-out Cordex Pit.

The current Standard mine life is about twoyears or more as now permitted, he said.

When mining was under way earlier atStandard for a three-year period, the ore wasrun-of-mine, which means it went straight to

Jipangu mining South Pit at Standard Mine


the leach pad without crushing.Carbon from the leaching at Standard is

processed at Florida Canyon five miles away.The earlier mining at Standard ended in 2007,

but residual leaching continued.Meanwhile, residual leaching continues at the

Florida Canyon Mine, and plans are under way toresume mining at Florida Canyon.

The company has turned in a plan of operationsto the U.S. Bureau of Land Management inWinnemucca for a new leach pad and expandingexisting pits, Murphy said.

“That will last us 10 years, and we have almosteight to 10 years of reserves beyond that, that is notin the plan,” he said. “As long as gold stays above$1,000 we could be here another 30 years.”

With the current prices, most of a waste dumpon top of ore at Florida Canyon also will beprocessed as run-of-mine leach material.

“Gold at $1,700 pays for a lot of processing,” hesaid.

On the other hand, costs are up for diesel, tires,belts for the crusher and other supplies. Murphysaid a B.F. Goodrich tire used to cost $8,000 for a150-ton haul truck but now a Ukrainian bias-plytire for the same size truck runs $17,500.

Jipangu has roughly 160 employees but is bud-geted for 173. In the current shortage of workers inthe mining industry, the company has its share ofdifficulty finding people.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyThe crusher system at Jipangu International’s Standard Mine near Imlay is in full operation after the second half was commissioned inFebruary. The crusher is in the mined-out Cordex Pit.See JJIIPPAANNGGUU,, 59


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyJoel Murphy, president of U.S. operations and general manager of Jipangu International’s FloridaCanyon and Standard mines in Pershing County, talks about current operations.

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyJosh Gratwohl works at the atomic absorption machine in the wet laboratory at the FloridaCanyon Mine near Imlay. He was in training at the lab in February.

Jipangu ...“There was a lot of turnover last year.

People go to different mines. They go fora lollipop or a pair of boots,” he joked.

Pay is competitive, and a smaller minesuch as Jipangu’s has to compete with thebigger operations for workers.

“Newmont and Barrick have got a lotof money. It’s hard to compete in the pay

arena,” Murphy said.The Florida Canyon-Standard opera-

tions produced 42,136 ounces of gold in2011 and 49,179 ounces of silver.

Florida Canyon may be small but it hasbeen in operation 25 years, and the com-pany commissioned a gold and silver coin


See JJIIPPAANNGGUU,, 60

for employees to mark the anniversary.Murphy went to work for Pegasus Gold, which opened Florida Canyon,

25 years ago, and he worked at Montana Tunnels and the Mt. Todd oper-ations in Australia, as well as Florida Canyon.

When Pegasus went bankrupt, Florida Canyon continued under bankownership and then under Apollo Gold ownership before Japan-basedJipangu acquired the Florida Canyon and Standard mines.

“We had a three-to-five-year mine life back in 1986,” Murphy said.“This mine has been a good operating, producing mine for 25 years,” he

said.Exploration also continues, with one rig operating at Florida Canyon

but drilling done or planned for Barber Canyon and at Florida Canyon andStandard, according to Murphy.

Along another line, Jipangu agreed to pay a $105,000 fine to the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency late last fall over alleged violations inits Toxic Release Inventory reporting after negotiations, but Murphy saidEPA didn’t have clear guidelines.

“We won on all the principle stuff,” he said.The company issued a statement in November that the payment of the

fine and corrected TRI reports were part of a consent agreement in whichJipangu didn’t admit liability for the alleged violations.

The Jipangu operations at Imlay also continue a good safety record,going more than 1 million manhours without a lost-time accident,Murphy said.

The corporate office in the United States is at Florida Canyon. Thecompany closed an office it had in Denver. Jipangu is a private companybut may go public in Japan in the middle of this year, Murphy said.


Jipangu ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 5599

Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyJason Jahrig pours samples into a bucket in the wet laboratory in February at Jipangu International’s FloridaCanyon Mine near Imlay.


Dave Berreletof Tri-StateElectrical isworking inmid-Februaryon the newNationalOilwell Varcobarite mill atthe North-easternNevadaRegionalRailport atOsino.



OSINO — National Oilwell Varco expects to begin oper-ating late this spring a new mill now under construction atthe Northeastern Nevada Regional Railport.

“Construction is progressing pretty well. We anticipate weshould be able to begin start-up operations in the May-Junetime frame. We’ll have phased development here as demandincreases,” said Bill Smith, vice president of minerals pro-curement and logistics for the company.

“We’re excited. This has long been in planning for us,” hesaid.

NOV will be loading Union Pacific rail cars at the railportwith bulk and bagged product from the company’s baritemine 60 miles north of Wells for use in drilling fluids for theoil and gas industry.

“We will probably have in the neighborhood of 20 to 25people at the time we get started at this location and aboutthat many reporting in from the mine operation,” Smith said.

The company has another mill in Evanston, Wyo., andSmith said the people working there also will report to theOsino office, when it is ready. The Wells office will be relo-cated to the railport.

The barite ore will be coming from the Big Ledge Mine, and

Barite mill under construction at railport

See NNOOVV,, 62


Bill Smith, left,vice presidentof minerals pro-curement andlogistics forNational OilwellVarco, listens asretiring Min-erals ManagerTerral Young,center, talkswith the newminerals man-ager, GaryDaane, in thecompany’s newfacility underconstruction atOsino.


NOV ...the company has several resource proper-ties in this area that would ultimatelysend ore to the railport facility, Smithsaid. Ore from Big Ledge also is trans-ported by truck to the Evanston mill.

National Oilwell Varco was attracted tothe railport site because of the easy accessto the railroad for shipping the bariteproduct, which helps keep costs downbecause “barite is very cost competitive,”Smith said.

Barite can make up 10 to 25 percent ofthe cost of drilling fluids at a well so priceis critical, he said.

First, the ore is mined at the Big Ledgeopen pit and taken about 10 miles fromthe mine to the jig plant for crushing andbenefication, according to Terral Young,who is retiring as the minerals manager.Benefication is basically jigging, washingand separating the ore.

The ore is then stockpiled until it can betransported to Osino and Evanston.

The plant at the railport will be grind-ing the barite to a finish product that canbe shipped in bulk or bags.

“It will be a fully automated plant,” said



Gary Daane, the new minerals managerwho is replacing Young.

Young said two grinding mills will beinstalled initially, but there will be roomfor a third one later.

NOV uses a contract hauler to trans-port the ore to Evanston and to Osinowhen the plant is ready. Scott AndersonTrucking is the current contractor,according to Smith. The company alsouses a contract miner, N.A. Degerstrom,at Big Ledge.

“We’ll start out at the run rate of60,000 tons a year and ramp up to theneighborhood of 200,000 tons or greaterfinished product,” he said.

Barite from Osino will go by rail towarehouse locations all over the country.

“A lot of it is logistics, which ware-house is to be supplied. This area willsupply Ohio and Pennsylvania,” saidSmith, who is based in Houston,Texas.

Barite helps contain pressure from anoil or gas well by increasing the density ofdrilling fluids.

Although gold is big in northeasternNevada, especially with current highprices, barite has been mined in Nevadafor many years.

“Nevada used to be the barite capital ofthe world, and it could be again,” Youngsaid.

The Big Ledge Mine on the Marys River

Ranch was originally mined in 1978, andSpirit Minerals started the mine back upagain in 2007, according to Young.

NOV is getting into the barite miningand processing business to integratebarite into its product offerings.

“It’s a huge company. The fluids por-tion is small but growing,” Smith said.Revenues reported for the full year 2011

were $14.66 billion, according to thecompany’s earnings report.

Smith said the company was making asignificant investment in Nevada with theacquisition of Spirit Minerals, whichowned the barite mine, and the $7 millionto $8 million cost of the mill at the rail-port.

“The building is 98 percent complete,

and the rail spur is complete,” Young said,but the plant equipment has yet to beinstalled.

Smith said there is one spur now butroom for three on the company’s 20-acresite.

Young said Savage Services at the rail-port will move the train cars from theUnion Pacific tracks to the spur forloading.

Michael Clay Constructors is the gen-eral contractor for the project at the rail-port, and Ruby Dome did the earthwork.Snyder Mechanical is doing theplumbing, and Tri-State Electric is doingthe electrical work.

If all goes as planned, Smith said NOVmay begin interviewing for the mill jobs atthe railport in May and hopes to hirelocally. He said there is competition withthe gold mines, but the company is inter-national and offers good benefits. Still,the local crews will be small.

“It becomes family,” he said.“The barite business itself is a tight-

knit community,” said Daane, who joinedInternational Oilwell after working forTata Chemicals in Wyoming. Tata minessoda ash.

“It’s exciting getting involved here withthe building of the plant, starting on theground floor of this processing facility,”he said in February.

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyNational Oilwell Varco’s new barite processing plant is under construction in February atNortheastern Nevada Regional Railport at Osino.


ELKO — The Marigold Mine at Valmyis looking at more growth and a longermine life.

“We’ve extended the mine life byabout seven years to 2024,” said Mari-gold General Manager Duane Peck.“Capital investments will allow us to dothat.”

Marigold has a green light from oper-ator and two-thirds owner GoldcorpInc. and one-third owner Barrick GoldCorp. to spend “in the ballpark” of $80million on new equipment to increasethe mining rate in 2013, he said.

Exploration has added more goldounces to mine with the extended fleet.

“We had a large increase in reserves,”Peck said, with the total reserves forboth owners at roughly 3.5 millionounces of gold now, up about 1.2 mil-lion ounces from the end of 2010.Goldcorp reported its share of Marigoldreserves at 2.32 million ounces.

The reserves went up mainly in the

Red Dot area in the previously minedSection 19 that would be mined deeperthe second time. They also went upbecause of high gold prices that makesdeposits that weren’t economical tomine in the past now economical.

“I would say it was about 50-50 thegold price and drilling,” Peck said.

Marigold produced 153,740 ounces ofgold in 2011 for both owners, he said.

Goldcorp reported Marigold pro-duced 27,800 ounces in the fourth quar-ter for its share, up from 27,000 ouncesin the fourth quarter of 2010, and thetotal cash cost was $799 per ounce,compared with $787 per ounce in the2010 quarter.

If Section 19 is mined, that area isowned by the University of Nevada,Reno, which would receive productionroyalties, Peck said.

Mining Red Dot will require U.S.Bureau of Land Management approval

and likely an envi-ronmental impactstatement, he said.

Another expan-sion plan will re-quire BLM analysisas well, but Pecksaid that could bean environmentalassessment.Marigold plans tochange the per-mitted disturbance

at the Target III area to allow for a pitand new space for a waste dump.

Marigold expects to file a plan ofoperations for Target III with the BLMin early March.

NNeeww EEqquuiippmmeennttThe new equipment isn’t necessarily

for new projects, however. Peck saidwith lower ore grades, more tons haveto be moved for gold production.

Marigold is ordering a new electricshovel, six 320-ton Komatsu haultrucks, blast-hole drills, bulldozers and


Marigold adds seven years to mine life

DDuuaannee PPeecckk


graders to add to the current fleet. Theorders are going in well in advancebecause of the long lead time for equip-ment in the current mining boom, Pecksaid.

Marigold is adding employees too. Hesaid the mine has 296 employees and 28full-time contractors on site now andhas 40 employee positions open. Mari-gold plans to be at job fairs planned inLas Vegas and Reno for returning vet-erans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Currently, Marigold crews are miningin the Target II Pit just north of theBasalt Pit, and they are finishing asmall pushback at Basalt, Peck said in atelephone interview.

Marigold spent close to $10 millionon exploration in 2011 and expects tospend about the same amount this year,he also said.

GGoollddccoorrpp pprroodduuccttiioonnCompanywide, Goldcorp reported

fourth-quarter gold production of687,000 ounces at a total cash cost of$261 per ounce on a by-product basis,which provided record revenues of $1.5billion. That compares with 689,600ounces of gold in the 2010 quarter.

The company posted net earnings of$405 million for the quarter, compared

with $560 million in the fourth quarterof 2010, while adjusted net earningstotaled $531 million, or 66 cents pershare, up from $431 million, or 59 centsper share, in the 2010 quarter.

Goldcorp stated that the adjusted netearnings excluded the effect of a for-eign exchange loss, a non-cash provi-sion for new estimates of reclamationand closure costs at closed mines,impairment charges on certain invest-ments and unrealized gains on deriva-tive instruments.

For the year, Goldcorp reported rev-enues increased 43 percent to $5.4 bil-lion in 2011 on gold sales of 2.5 millionounces.

Net earnings for the year were $1.9billion, or $2.34 per share, comparedwith $2 billion, or $2.79 per share, in2010, while adjusted net earningstotaled a record $1.8 billion, or $2.22per share, compared with $1 billion in2010, according to the earnings report.

GGoolldd rreesseerrvveessThe Vancouver-based company also

reported that proven and probable goldreserves increased 8 percent at the endof 2011 from 2010 to 64.7 millionounces.

In addition to Marigold, reserves in

Nevada include 930,000 ounces at theDee Property in Elko County, whereGoldcorp is 40 percent owner of theArturo Project that Barrick plans todevelop.

“Strong, low-cost gold productionand another year of gold reserve growthprovided a great finish to another solidyear for Goldcorp,” said President andChief Executive Officer Chuck Jeannes.“Our record performance is the resultof strength throughout the mine port-folio, as demonstrated by sustainedoperational excellence at Los Filos inMexico, which led to a record year atthis important operation.”

Los Filos produced a record 336,500ounces of gold in 2011.

Jeannes also said the Martin Mine inGuatemala had a strong quarter andyear as it completed the final, higher-grade portions of the surface operationand moved solely into an undergroundmine.

The flagship Red Lake Mine inOntario had a strong fourth quarter aswell, producing 154,000 ounces at acost of $374 per ounce. Production wasdown, however, from the fourth quarterof 2010, when it totaled 187,000 ouncesof gold, produced at a cash cost of $313per ounce.

Goldcorp’s Penasquito Mine in Mex-ico also was a growing operation as itcontinues final ramp-up, with goldproduction at 82,300 ounces, up from53,900 ounces in the 2010 quarter, andsilver production at nearly 5.87 ounces,compared with 4.6 million ounces inthe 2010 quarter.

Penasquito also produced 46,100pounds of lead, up from 34,400 poundsthe prior year, and 97,900 pounds ofzinc, up from 54,200 pounds in thefourth quarter of 2010.

Jeannes said the company’s forecastfor gold production this year is 2.6 mil-lion ounces “at what we expect to bethe lowest cash costs in the senior goldsector.”

The company also is looking at newgold production in 2012 and beyond,including from the Pueblo Viejo opera-tion in the Dominican Republic.Goldcorp is 40 percent owner, withBarrick the operator and 60 percentowner.

Production will come from CerroNegro in Argentina in 2013, and fromtwo new Canadian projects the fol-lowing year — Cochenour at Red Lakeand Eleonore in Quebec, according tocomments from Jeannes in the earningsreport.


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyControl room operator Larry Allen keeps an eye on the monitors in February at Newmont MiningCorp.’s TS Power Plant at Dunphy.


DUNPHY — The vast majority of elec-tricity produced at Newmont MiningCorp.’s TS Power Plant is going to thecompany’s mining operations in Nevadarather than to NV Energy’s customersacross the grid other than Newmont.

“The amount to NV Energy is de-creasing. About all but 29 megawatts goesto the mines,” said Warren O’Shields,plant manager, mine operations.

The coal-fired power plant on New-mont’s TS Ranch sells 218 megawatts toNV Energy for distribution to the mines.The 29 extra megawatts comes out of the218 megawatts, according to O’Shields.The plant’s gross megawatt production isroughly 243 megawatts, but Newmontuses 25 megawatts to power the powerplant.

A year ago, the power plant was put-ting 203 megawatts on the NV Energygrid, and mines were using 136 of the 203megawatts, but Newmont has increasedgold production since that time.

The power plant saves Newmontmoney, although O’Shields wasn’t com-fortable reporting the amount saved for2011.

“I will say this. The power plant has asignificant impact on the cost of gold perounce,” he said.

Newmont saved $60 million with thepower plant in 2009, according to figuresreported in earlier Mining Quarterly edi-tions.

Newmont took over operation of thepower plant from contract operator DTEEnergy in June 2010, and O’Shieldscredits teamwork for the efficient opera-tion of the plant.

“I think it’s exciting. If you look at theSuper Bowl championship team, eachguy is very good at what they do, butevery other team has good players. It’show these individuals who are very goodat what they do work together. That’swhat wins the Super Bowl, and by thesame token, that is what works for us,” hesaid.

“We all have our duties, and we allhave the same goal,” O’Shields said. “Our

TS Power Plant runs Newmont mines


goal post is energy. We take in coal hereand put out power.”

The power plant employs 63 people,and “turnover has dropped to almostnothing,” he said.

At a time when new mercury regula-tions are going into effect for coal-firedpower plants, the TS Power Plant with itstechnology that was state of the art whenthe plant went into production in June2008 isn’t likely to have the problems ofolder power plants.

“The new regulations on mercurycame out before Christmas. We stilllooking at them,” said Dennis Laybourn,environmental manager at the plant.

O’Shields said the TS Power Plantalready had mercury removal equipmentin place because it is a newer plant, butthe older coal-fired plants will have tospend millions of dollars in retrofittingprojects.

The TS Power Plant also has low CO2emissions, called greenhouse gases.

“We have some of the lowest emis-sions in the country,” Laybourn said,reporting that the plant began reportingCO2 and CO2-related gas emissions tothe U.S. Environmental Protection Agencylast year under new regulations.

The power plant also continues to

Matt Murray, left,senior externalrelations repre-sentative forNewmont MiningCorp., listens asEngineeringManager KudaMutama explainsoperations atNewmont’s coal-fired TS PowerPlant at Dunphy.


See PPOOWWEERR,, 68


Mike Boyle, left,operates aremote rackingunit in theswitch gearroom with thehelp of JakePlummer atNewmontMining Corp.’sTS Power Plant.The robotic unitprevents injuryfrom an arcflash.


Power ...burn cleaner, low-sulfur, low-mercurycoal from Thunder Basin Coal inWyoming, burning an average of 70,000tons a month.

The coal comes to Dunphy via UnionPacific rail cars. Engineering ManagerKuda Mutama said 130 rail cars arrive atthe plant every five days. Newmont takestemporary possession of the cars at thespur to the plant, unloads the coal andreturns the cars to UP.

As part of the process of producingelectricity, the TS Power Plant producesfly ash that Newmont uses at its under-ground operations for backfill, but thepower plant also wants buyers from anycompany, whether a mining or construc-tion company.

“It’s an advantage for us to get rid of it.There is no measurable income from it.We would welcome any users of fly ash,”O’Shields said. “We would be very nego-tiable on the price.”

Coal is burned to 2,200 degrees in theboiler as part of the production process,

See PPOOWWEERR,, 70


after the coal is pulverized to face-powder fine.The electricity goes to the NV Energy grid, and NV

Energy distributes the power to the Newmont opera-tions.

Newmont’s operations from Carlin to Winnemucca usethe power through NV Power, except the Gold Quarryoperations, which gets electricity from Wells RuralElectric Co. The new Emigrant Mine now under develop-ment also gets power from WREC.

O’Shields also said people seeing plumes from theplant visible from Interstate 80 may not realize that whatthey see is “pure water coming out from the watercoolers,” not smoke.

Safety is a priority, and management reported one ofthe projects was an arc flash study that sets boundariesfor work on electrical equipment and how much protec-tive gear is need for each maintenance task.

In the switch gear room, there are placards on eachcabinet door telling what equipment is needed at thatlocation, and electricians use a robotic machine for thesites with the most danger of an arc flash of electricity.

A worker can operate the remote racking unit, as it iscalled, from a distance while also wearing protective gear.

“It takes that worker out of the boundary,” said JustonFreeman, electrical supervisor.

The power plant has gone 650,000 manhours withouta lost-time accident since June 2008.


Power ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 6688

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyNewmont Mining Corp.’s TS Power Plant on the TS Ranch at Dunphy is producing electricity to power the company’s miningoperations in Nevada. Train cars that brought a load of coal are at left.


Joe Driscoll,Great BasinGold Ltd.’s vicepresident forNevada opera-tions, standsoutside theoffice buildingin Winnemuccathat serves asNevada head-quarters.



WINNEMUCCA — The U.S. Bureau ofLand Management expects to release thedraft study on Great Basin Gold Ltd.’sHollister Project in late March.

“Our goal is to have the draft environ-mental impact statement available forpublic comment by the end of March,” saidJanice Stadelman, the project leader forHollister for the Elko BLM District.

“The main purpose is to bring this prop-erty into full production,” said TeresaConner, environmental manager for GreatBasin Gold’s Nevada operations.

She said she is forecasting a record ofdecision in late summer or early fall,depending upon the number of commentsthe draft study attracts.

“We’re building a very robust life-of-mine plan as we speak,” said Joe Driscoll,vice president for Great Basin Gold’s NevadaOperations.

“I feel we have a good road map to get tothe end point by the end of the year,” he said.

He said the hope is to “stabilize out at 500tons per day for the underground operation sowe roll up in the ounces outlook is it could begreater than 100,000 ounces of production.”

Hollister is a high-grade, narrow-veingold and silver mine with test areas of 3 to 4ounces per ton of gold.

“This is one of the richest grade systemsin Nevada,” Driscoll said.

The plan yet to be released includes a newpower line that will allow Hollister toreplace the two generators now providingelectricity for the underground operationnow in test mining, Conner said.

The draft EIS also plans for a new officecomplex outside the mined-out pit wherefacilities are now, new dry facilities forminers and a new warehouse.

Conner said the study additionally looksat proposals for a new ramp or a shaft that

BLM to soon release impactstatement on Hollister Project

See HHOOLLLLIISSTTEERR,, 73


Great Basin Gold Ltd.A Sandvik loader enters the portal at the Hollister Mine in northwestern Elko County. Great Basin Gold Ltd. is awaiting U.S. Bureauof Land Management approval for Hollister to become a full-production mine but test mines now.

Hollister ...would provide secondary access as the mine expands,including to the Hatter deposit.

“Hopefully, we will be expanding in all directions,” shesaid.

Great Basin Gold’s plan is to keep potential new distur-bance to a little more than 30 acres,” Conner said. “Thisarea is highly sensitive.”

Hollister is in the area of the historic Tosawihi Quarrywhere the Western Shoshone mined for chert.

Driscoll said the company also is in discussion with thetribes to reach a conclusion about the Rock Creek landsGreat Basin Gold purchased in 2009.

Great Basin Gold bought 3,629 acres along Rock CreekCanyon and just west of Rock Creek.

“The whole intention was to keep the land from beingdeveloped. That’s their goal too. It’s a spiritual gatheringplace,” Conner said at the company’s Nevada headquar-ters in Winnemucca.

NNeevvaaddaa ooppeerraattiioonnssLooking at current operations, Driscoll said Great Basin

Gold has 250 employees in Nevada, including at Hollister,the Pinnacle assay laboratory in Lovelock and theEsmeralda Mill near Hawthorne.

The mill processes the ore from Hollister. John Davis

See HHOOLLLLIISSTTEERR,, 74


Trucking transports the ore to themill roughly 275 miles from Holli-ster, which is in northwestern ElkoCounty.

The laboratory processes Holli-ster assays but also is open to allcustomers.

“It’s a fully equipped lab. There isessentially a 36-hour turnaround,”Driscoll said, reporting roughly 70percent of the business is outsideGreat Basin Gold.

Production from test miningtotaled 20,727 gold equivalent ouncesin the fourth quarter of 2011, and thecompany also stated it produced97,610 gold equivalent ounces forthe full year, compared with 95,186ounces in 2010.

Great Basin Gold also reported ina production announcement that itexpects similar production this year,although the quarterly productionwill vary because of the high-gradenature of the Hollister ore body. Theaverage gold grade in the fourthquarter was 0.81 ounces per ton.

“We’re seeing about six parts

silver to one part gold,” Driscoll said.He said with the narrow veins at

Hollister, traditional mining meth-ods are necessary, including the useof timber raises and the use ofslushers in place of small loaders topull material to the mill hole.

Loaders muck it out at the bot-tom, Driscoll said.

“This is a timber mine, and wehave specialized miners to workwith timbers,” he said.

A number of the miners comefrom the Silver Valley in Idaho, andthe timbers come from California.

At Esmeralda, the company hasbeen refurbishing the mill with anew strip circuit, and Driscoll saidthe hope is to get it up to a 600-tonfacility. It’s now at 350-tons.

Driscoll joined Great Basin Goldmore than three months ago, comingfrom Newmont Mining Corp.’s oper-ations on the Carlin Trend.

“It’s a good opportunity. I wasunderground manager, and this is abig boost to vice president of Nevadaoperations,” he said at the Winne-mucca office.


Great Basin Gold Ltd.Roger Alford, a mechanic at Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s Emeralda Mill near Hawthorne, works on a project in themill that processes ore from the Hollister underground operations in Elko County.

Hollister ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 7733


WarrenWoods, gen-eral managerof Allied Ne-vada GoldCorp.’s Hy-croft Mine,points out theplannedexpansion ofthe mine onthe aerialphotographat a U.S.Bureau ofLand Manage-ment openhouse inWinnemuccaon the draftstudy of theproject.



WINNEMUCCA — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management istaking public comment through March 12 on Allied NevadaGold Corp.’s expansion plan for the Hycroft Mine as the com-pany continues its growth spurt.

“It’s an exciting time for us as we continue to grow andexpand, and it’s good for employees,” said Hycroft GeneralManager Warren Woods.

The growth will later include construction of a mill, tailingsfacility and deep mining, but first Allied Nevada is permittingthe oxide expansion project covered in the BLM’s environ-mental impact statement released in February.

“This permit is heap leach expansion, and this has gone veryfast,” said Debbie Lassiter, vice president of environmentalaffairs for Reno-based Allied Nevada.

“The next step will be to go immediately back with a plan ofoperations to the BLM for a permit for the tailings pond,” shesaid.

Lassiter said the plan for deeper mining that will requiredewatering will be submitted in mid-2012 for a supplementalEIS.

“We’re starting on pit lake studies and ground water studies

BLM taking comments on Hycroft

See HHYYCCRROOFFTT,, 76


so we will be ready for the plan submis-sion,” she said.

Allied Nevada also is talking withUnion Pacific Railroad about a rail spurfrom the nearby tracks so concentrate canbe shipped from the mill, once it is con-structed and commissioned.

The schedule on the displays at an openhouse the Winnemucca BLM District heldin Winnemucca shows the record of deci-sion for the heap leach expansion may bereleased in July approving the project.

“They have really chosen to make this ashowcase. They have stuck with thedeadlines. I have never seen this before,”Lassiter said of the BLM’s efforts.

The open house in Winnemucca inFebruary drew only three people outsidethe BLM, Allied Nevada and Enviro-scientists Inc. representatives, who pre-pared the EIS for the BLM.

“So far, most of the responses havebeen positive,” said Kathleen Rehberg, theproject leader for the Hycroft expansionfor the BLM. “It’s an existing mine, just anexpansion.”

She said the EIS was the first theWinnemucca office has done on a mine

KathleenRehberg, left, ofthe U.S. Bureauof Land Manage-ment’s Winne-mucca Districtand DebbieLassiter, vicepresident of envi-ronmental affairsfor Allied NevadaGold Corp., talkabout the com-pany’s proposedexpansion of theHycroft Mine dur-ing a BLM openhouse in Winne-mucca on thedraft study of theproject. The lineon the mapbelow Lassiter’sthumb is thePershing Countyline.


Hycroft ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 7755


project in a while, although the office haspermitted projects under environmentalassessments.

The BLM also held open houses on theEIS in Lovelock and Gerlach, and Rehbergsaid Pershing County is excited about theexpansion because it takes Hycroft intoPershing County. The mine now is all inHumboldt County 55 miles from Winne-mucca.

Winnemucca BLM’s Black Rock FieldOffice manager, Rolando Mendez, saidearlier in February that he has “full confi-dence in the process, content andanalysis” for the Hycroft expansion, andhe hadn’t had indications of any majorconcerns with the project.

Allied Nevada also isn’t expecting anymajor issues with the proposed expansioncovered in the EIS.

The project outlined in the draft study isfor expansions above the water table,according to Mendez.

Allied Nevada’s plan to construct themill and a tailings pond and mining belowthe water table for sulfide ores may movealong fairly quickly, with the mill to bebuilt on private land.

“There is some leeway on private landvs. BLM. We could put the crusher andmill on private ground to speed it up andtake advance of gold prices,” Woods said.

Allied Nevada already is orderingequipment for the next expansion and millbecause it takes so long for manufac-turing.

“We have to assume the risk and orderbecause of the long lead times,” Woodssaid.

The company reported it had spent orcommitted $354.9 million for mining andprocessing equipment, and the cost iscovered through cash and $300 million inequipment lease financing.

The advance orders cover ball mills,grinding mills and crushing units.

Meanwhile, Hycroft is mining in theBrimstone Pit and Cut 5, “a new area

we’ve opened up,” said Woods at the openhouse in Winnemucca.

Construction under current permittinghas included leach pad expansion andreclamation work on the older Crofootpad.

“Last year, we had 1,500 contractors,”Woods said, talking about the numberover the year’s time. The mine also hasgrown to 275 employees, and once the EISis approved, there will be more construc-tion.

“We’ll be constructing the new northpad, actually an extension of the currentpad that’s primarily on private land now,”he said.

Two Merrill Crowe ore processingplants will be built, one at the south end,where a new pad will be constructed, so inthe end there will be three plants onHycroft.

“The EIS also allows us to expand thepit,” Woods said.

He said leach and waste-rock dumpspace are critical.

“We have over 10 years of material forthe pads,” Woods said.

Allied Nevada also announced theHycroft Mine produced 104,000 ouncesof gold and 479,440 ounces of silver in2011, compared with production of103,700 ounces of gold and 234,000

ounces of silver in 2010.“We are extremely pleased with the 2011

operating results at Hycroft, despite theequipment delivery challenges the mineencountered throughout the year,” AlliedNevada President and Chief ExecutiveOfficer Scott Caldwell said in the produc-tion announcement.

The company reported 2011 produc-tion met guidance for the year, but pro-duction will go up this year with the con-tinued expansion.

The forecast is to produce between180,000 and 220,000 ounces of gold andbetween 750,000 and 850,000 ounces ofsilver in 2012 as the mine continues toexpand.

In the production report, the companyalso reported the silver to gold productionratio of 4.6:1 in 2011 was significantlyabove the expected 3:1 ratio, but theadjusted cash cost of roughly $490 perounce for 2011 was in line with forecasts.

The adjusted cash cost for 2012 isexpected to be in the range of $475 to $495per ounce, with silver as a byproductcredit.

The mining fleet grew in 2011 and nowincludes seven 320-ton haul trucks, and“nine more of those are coming this year,”Woods said. Hycroft also has two newHitachi hydraulic shovels.

“There is some leewayon private land vs.

BLM. We could put thecrusher and mill on pri-vate ground to speed it

up and take advanceof gold prices.”

—— HHyyccrroofftt GGeenneerraall MMaannaaggeerr WWaarrrreenn WWooooddss



ELKO — Round Mountain Gold Corp.still expects to begin pouring gold inAugust at the new Gold Hill satellite minein Nye County, where construction con-tinues on the project.

Gold Hill is roughly five miles north ofthe Round Mountain open pit and facili-ties but is connected by a road.

“Gold Hill will essentially be a ‘standalone’ operation with the significantexceptions of management and mainte-nance. To that end, construction is wellunder way on the leach pad and plant,”said Randy Burggraff, general manager ofRound Mountain Mine operated byKinross Gold Corp.

He said mining has started with removalof rock and dirt from the pit site for leachpad construction, but production mininghasn’t started.

“Leach pad construction takes advan-tage of materials from the mining foot-print, so in that sense mining has alsostarted,” Burggraff said on Feb. 21. “Aslight delay in permitting combined withcold weather in mid-December andJanuary slowed placement of compactedfills. However, we are still on schedule topour some gold in August 2012.”

Meanwhile, mining continues at RoundMountain with gold production similar inthe fourth quarter of 2011 to the fourthquarter of 2010, according to the Kinrossearnings report.

Round Mountain produced 43,584ounces of gold for the company, whichowns 50 percent of Round Mountain.Barrick Gold Corp. owns the remaining 50percent.

The mine produced 43,521 ounces forKinross in the fourth quarter 2010.

Kinross reported cost of sales weredown in the 2011 quarter at RoundMountain to $597 per ounce, comparedwith $759 in the 2010 quarter.

For the year, Round Mountain produced187,444 ounces for Kinross, comparedwith 184,554 ounces in the fourth quarterof 2010. Costs for the year were $697 perounce, up from $625 per ounce in 2010.

North American production totaled156,346 ounces in the fourth quarter,including production from Fort Knox inAlaska and Kettle River-Buckhorn inWashington, compared with 181,915

ounces in the 2010 quarter.Production from the North American

operations was down for the year at652,530, compared with 733,093 in the2010 quarter, according to Kinross. Costsfor the year were at $619 per ounce, upfrom $506 in 2010.

The Toronto-based company reportedcompanywide production in the 2011quarter was 643,288 gold equivalentounces, down 5 percent from the 2010quarter, mainly due to an expected reduc-tion in grades at several mines.

Cost of sales companywide were at$636 per ounce in the quarter, comparedwith $549 per ounce in the 2010 quarter.

The average realized gold price was$1,601 per ounce in the fourth quarter, upfrom $1,333 per ounce in the 2010 quarter,Kinross reported.

The company’s gold equivalent produc-tion for the year was 2.61 million ounces,up 12 percent over the prior year, and rev-enue was up 31 percent to $3.94 million forthe year.

Kinross announced a net loss of $2.78billion, or $2.45 per share, in the fourthquarter of 2011 because of a goodwillwritedown on the Tasiast Project in WestAfrica, but the company’s adjusted netearnings were up 24 percent.

Revenue was up 3 percent for thequarter to $949.3 million, and Kinrossincreased its semi-annual dividend to 8cents per share from 6 cents.

The fourth-quarter loss compared witha loss of $72.9 million, or 6 cents per sharein the 2010 quarter, while adjusted netearnings excluding the impairmentcharges totaled $196.6 million, or 17 centsper share, compared with adjusted netearnings of $158.5 million, or 14 cents pershare, in the 2010 quarter.

Kinross acquired Tasiast from Red BackMining for $7.1 billion in 2010, but the car-rying value has been affected by cost pres-sures for labor and materials, according tothe company.

Although Kinross took a charge onTasiast, development of the mine is still apriority, according to Kinross Presidentand Chief Executive Officer Tye Burt.

“Tasiast remains our first developmentpriority in a measured and prudent planfor capital allocation and growth designedfor long-term value and financial strength,”he said in the fourth-quarter earnings an-nouncement.

Development continueson Gold Hill gold mine


BByy DDYYLLAANN WWOOOOLLFF HHAARRRRIISSMining Quarterly

ELKO — High Mark Constructionrooted itself to the Elko area last Sep-tember when it moved locations to com-pany-owned land. But being rooted toElko could also be a metaphor for thekind of company High Mark has beensince its beginning.

“The one thing that we do ... we arevery family oriented,” said RichardKatsma, owner and president of HighMark Construction. “We are not a unioncontractor. A lot of the people we haveworking for us have worked here for yearsand years and years. They got family, kidshere, houses here.”

Katsma said he once was a contractedemployee for a construction companywhere he saw workers stay for the lengthof the contract and then move on toanother job in another city. He decided tomake High Mark something more stable.

High Mark found success in the areaand began to grow.

“We enjoy working in Elko, we enjoy

supporting Elko, we keep our businessvirtually in town,” he said.

And that business commitment seemsto have paid off, but Katsma is quick tocredit his crew to the success his com-pany has seen.

“We got where we did from our em-ployees and our supervision,” Katsmasaid. “I’m not the person who got us here— we got us here. Extremely good people.We couldn’t do it without the core groupof people, by far.”

It wasn’t long ago when Katsma beganHigh Mark with only a pair of employeeswith zero pieces of owned equipment. In1998, after spending time working con-struction in the area, associates sug-gested to Katsma that he open his ownmine construction business. Katsmatook the suggestion seriously and soonopened High Mark.

“There was only two of us at the time,”Katsma said.

High Mark tried to find its niche as alocal business that provided top notchwork.

“There were real large contractors and

real small ones, (when he began),” hesaid.

He was told the large contractors costtoo much particularly for the medium tosmall jobs, and very the small contractorsdid not have high enough quality.

His goal was for High Mark to hit thebest of both sides with affordable pricesand quality work, despite starting small.High Mark employees kept working hard

High Mark family-oriented company

See HHIIGGHH MMAARRKK,, 80

High MarkConstructionPresidentRichardKatsma sitsat his officedesk at 3755ManzanitaLane.

Dylan WoolfHarrisMining Quarterly


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyHigh Mark Construction works in mid-February on Newmont Mining Corp.’s new leach pad at the EmigrantProject south of Carlin.

High Mark ...and building business relationships, he said.

High Mark continued to hire people and buy its own equipment by win-ning bids for mine work.

Currently, High Mark has a steady employee base.“We employ about 125 people on the average,” said Katsma. “We grew a

lot last year, from company size probably 35 percent last year.” Katsmasaid his gut feeling was that “because of the quality of work we have done,and the service we have done, our clients have forced us to get larger.

“Now we can park all of our employees,” Katsma said of the benefits ofthe new location, adding the new building has more office space, a biggershop, and enough room to store High Mark’s 60 pieces of heavy equip-ment and other supporting equipment.

Despite moving all the equipment, personnel, and the offices, Katsmasaid the move was “relatively painless,” and that the new location is agreat fit.

High Mark buses its employees out to multiple Newmont Mining Corp.and Barrick Gold Corp. surface mines where High Mark has built leachpads, done site development and reclamation projects, road building, andother construction jobs.

“We come very close to performing all aspects of support for the mine,”Katsma said.

And High Mark is an appropriate moniker, though the origin storybehind the name High Mark, Katsma said, is long and not particularlyinteresting — having something to do with snowmobiling — but he’sreappropriated it to fit the company. “How I like to put it now (it’s) ourcatch logo: Set your highest mark in quality, safety, and production,” hesaid.




ELKO — Evolving Gold Corp. is opti-mistic about its flagship Carlin-Hum-boldt projects on the Carlin Trend.

“Three holes have intersected under-ground grades and thicknesses of gold,”Steven Koehler, chief geologist for Evolv-ing, said about the Carlin Project.

“The stuff we are doing at Carlin-Humboldt most likely will be an under-ground setting,” he said.

Currently, Evolving has one drill rig onthe Carlin Trend.

“We’re going to keep one rig for prob-ably all year,” Koehler said.

“It’s devilish tough now to get a drillingrig of any shape or size. We have to planfour to six months ahead to get a drill rig.There is lots of competition out there,”Koehler said.

The best results from drilling at Carlinincluded:

• Drill hole CAR-007 intersected 10 feetof 0.371 ounces per short ton of gold from2,489 to 2,499 feet.

• Drill hole CAR-007 intersected 15 feetof 0.905 opt gold from 3,089 to 3,104 feet.

• Drill hole CAR-010 intersected 33.1feet of 0.324 opt gold from 2,925.7 to2,958.8 feet.

Koehler said the Carlin Project is in thearea of Newmont Mining Corp.’s Emigrantdeposit now being developed for mining,Newmont’s Rain deposit that was earliermined and Premier Gold’s Saddle Projectnear Rain. These are all south of Carlin.

The Carlin and Humboldt projects areseparate but referred to as one large landpackage, Koehler said. The package coversabout 56 square miles.

He said Evolving Gold has the secondlargest land-holding package on theCarlin Trend after Newmont.

The land package south of Interstate 80is made up of roughly two-thirds theHumboldt Project 100 percent controlledby Evolving. One-third is the CarlinProject, which is subject to a Newmontagreement, according to the company’swebsite.

Along with the Carlin-Humboldt landpackage, Evolving Gold also has the JakeCreek Project roughly six miles east ofNewmont’s Twin Creeks Mine in Hum-boldt County.

“We’re done drilling for the momentand waiting for assays,” Koehler said.

The best result from Jake is one holethat intersected 95 feet of 0.039 opt goldat 740 to 835 feet, according to Koehler.

The company also has the RattlesnakeProject in Natrona County, Wyo., thatAgnico-Eagle is funding and exploring.Koehler said that project “is definitelygoing in the right direction.”

Core drilling during 2011 at Rattlesnakeidentified high-grade gold mineralizationat a new target at South Stock, identified anew porphyry target at Northeast Stock,expanded the North Stock mineralization,and confirmed the porphyry targetbetween North Stock and Antelope Basin,according to an Evolving Gold announce-ment in January.

Looking at exploration in Nevada,Koehler said the number of junior explo-ration companies “has expanded dramat-ically. I think in terms of bringing moremoney and value to the state of Nevada,it’s been great.”

He said this is a great time to beexploring, when gold price are above$1,700 an ounce.

“It’s a career opportunity. That’s ex-actly why Evolving Gold is aggressive,”Koehler said. “It’s a fun time to be in thebusiness.”

“Nevada continues to give up a lot ofounces, and we see quite a few new dis-coveries in the state,” he said.

Evolving, which has its headquarters inVancouver, a U.S. office in Longmont,Colo., and an exploration office in Carlin,is focused on exploration and not onbecoming a mining company, Koehlersaid.

“We’re an exploration company thatdoesn’t have any interest really inbecoming a mining company,” Koehlersaid. “We try to reward shareholdersthrough drilling and discovery. We knowwe’re not miners.”

Evolving Gold drillson Carlin Trend

elkodaily.com/mining



ELKO — “I’m quite excited about theopportunities ahead for us and excitedabout the broader gold market as well,”Royal Gold President and ChiefExecutive Officer Tony Jensen said.

He said he believes the macro-eco-nomics case for high gold prices is still inplace and the Federal Reserve’s softmonetary policy “bodes well for gold.”

Jensen also said the World GoldCouncil reports gold demand is up, andthat’s good for a company that has royal-ties on gold production, along withsilver and copper.

Royal Gold’s revenue comes roughly10 percent from copper and 5 percentfrom silver, but the majority is on gold.

The company provides financing foremerging mine projects “similar to whata bank might provide but we take a per-centage of production,” Jensen said.

The Denver-based company has roy-alties in Nevada and would like to add tothose, he said, but more recent projects

are in Mexico and Chile.The Nevada royalties are at

the Robinson, Leeville, Gold-strike, Cortez, Bald Mountainand Marigold mines, and theresoon will be royalties from theGold Hill Mine nearing com-pletion at Round Mountain,Jensen said in a telephoneinterview.

William Zisch, vice presi-dent of operations for RoyalGold, said in the company’searnings teleconference thatGold Hill will provide a 2 percent slidingscale royalty.

“We anticipate production in the thirdquarter of this year,” he said.

Kinross Gold Corp. operates RoundMountain and is 50 percent owner.Barrick is the other owner.

“We also have a piece of ground atTwin Creeks and at Pinson as well,”Jensen said.

According to the Royal Gold earningsreport for the quarter ending Dec. 31,higher gold prices increased revenue

from Newmont Mining Corp.’sLeeville Mine north of Carlin,which provided $3.1 million inroyalty revenue on 102,946ounces of gold, comparedwith $2.59 million on 105,998ounces of gold the prior year.

Barrick Gold Corp.’s CortezMine provided $2.66 millionin royalty revenue on 23,609ounces of gold, down from$7.64 million on 89,445ounces of gold in the 2010quarter.

Cortez production in the 2011 quartercame mostly from the new Cortez Hillsoperations, where Royal Gold doesn’thold a royalty. Royal Gold’s royalty is onthe Pipeline mining complex.

Quadra FNX Mining Ltd.’s RobinsonMine provided $1.95 million in royaltyrevenue on 7,193 ounces of gold and 21.1million pounds of copper production inthe 2011 quarter, compared with $3.46million in revenue on 12,655 ounces ofgold and 24.7 million pounds of copperin the 2010 quarter.

Royal Gold stated Quadra FNX attrib-uted the downturn at Robinson to bothplanned and unplanned mill mainte-nance issues and a localized pit wallfailure that resulted in delaying access toareas of high-grade ore at the bottom ofthe Ruth pit.

This was partially offset with produc-tion from stockpiled ore, however, andQuadra FNX is now mining the highergrade benches at the bottom of the RuthPit.

TTwwoo aaccqquuiissiittiioonnss“We also had a very productive

quarter furthering our growth projectswithin the portfolio with the acquisi-tion of an additional interest at the Mt.Milligan Project and completing atransaction on the Tulsequah ChiefProject, both located in BritishColumbia,” Jensen said in the earningsreport.

The company acquired an additional15 percent of the payable gold to be pro-

Royal Gold CEO optimistic on market

TToonnyy JJeennsseenn

See RROOYYAALL GGOOLLDD,, 85


duced from the Mt. Milligan copper andgold project for $270 million and cashpayments of $435 for each payable goldounce produced to bring the total to 40percent ownership of the payable gold.

The total cost is $581.5 million, andRoyal Gold stated it has paid $364.6 mil-lion of that amount so far, with quarterlypayments ahead.

The company acquired 12.5 percent ofthe payable gold and 22.5 percent of thepayable silver on the Tulsequah ChiefProject in December for $60 millionand $450 per-ounce payments onpayable gold

NNeett iinnccoommeeRoyal Gold announced record net

income of $23.4 million, or 42 cents perbasic share, on record royalty revenueof $68.8 million for the quarter endingDec. 31.

The 28 percent increased incomecompares with net income for thequarter ending Dec. 31, 2010 — thesecond quarter of Royal Gold’s fiscalyear — of $18.3 million, or 33 cents per

share, on royalty revenue of $56.3 mil-lion.

“We are pleased to have recordedanother solid quarter of financial re-sults. This marks the third consecutivequarter of record revenue and netincome for Royal Gold as our growthprofile continues to deliver financialresults,” Jensen said in the earningsreport.

Higher gold and silver prices helpedboost revenue.

The average price of gold for thesecond fiscal quarter was $1,688 perounce, up 23 percent from $1,367 perounce for second fiscal quarter of 2010.

The company reported quarterly rev-enue increases were largely driven byincreased production from Andacolloin Chile and Voisey’s Bay in Canada,new production from Holt in Canadaand Canadian Malartic Mine and con-tinued ramp up at Peñasquito in Mex-ico.

TToopp rreevveennuuee ggeenneerraattoorrssLooking at the top 11 revenue genera-

tors, Royal Gold reported Teck’s An-

dacollo Mine provided $16.18 million inrevenue on 13,070 ounces of gold, basedon a 75 percent net smelter royalty,compared with $11.33 million on 11,087ounces of gold in the 2010 quarter.

Vale’s Voisey’s Bay was the second-highest royalty provider, generating$12.04 million for Royal Gold in the2011 quarter on 27.4 million pounds ofnickel and 78.6 million pounds ofcopper, compared with $8.6 million on22.5 million pounds of nickel and 39.6million pounds of copper in the 2010quarter.

Goldcorp Inc.’s Penasquito Mine pro-vided $6.31 million to Royal Gold on67,827 ounces of gold, 5 million ouncesof silver, 40.2 million pounds of leadand 78.4 million pounds of zinc.

That is up from the $5.85 million inthe 2010 quarter on 54,775 ounces ofgold, 5.1 million ounces of silver, 38.3million pounds of lead and 58.1 millionpounds of zinc.

St Andrew Goldfields paid $4.23 mil-lion to Royal Gold on its productionfrom the Holt Mine of 11,461 ounces ofgold. This is the first year for the royalty,

according to the earnings report.Alamos Gold’s Mulatos Mine in

Mexico provided $3.57 million in royaltyrevenue to Royal Gold on 43,223 ouncesof gold, compared with $3.04 million on47,834 ounces of gold in the 2010quarter.

Revenue to Royal Gold from theLeeville, Cortez and Robinson opera-tions were next on the list of 11 top pro-ducers.

They were followed by MinefindersCorp.’s Delores Mine in Mexico, whichprovided $1.67 million in royalty revenueon 20,663 ounces of gold and 900,000ounces of silver, compared with$870,000 on 13,741 ounces of gold in the2010 quarter and 500,000 ounces ofsilver.

Osisko’s Canadian Malartic Mine pro-vided $1.53 million in revenue on 54,141ounces of gold, according to the report.There was no royalty the prior year.

Inmet Mining Corp.’s Las Cruces Minein Spain provided $1.48 million on 28.1million pounds of copper, comparedwith $990,000 on 16.7 million poundsthe prior year.


Royal Gold ...


Bruce Hansen,left, chief execu-tive officer ofGeneral MolyInc., talks in Jan-uary with SteveDrimmer, whosefamily hasowned the Mt.Hope Projectsite for years,following a U.S.Bureau of LandManagementhearing at theEureka OperaHouse on thedraft study ofthe project.



EUREKA — General Moly could receive approval latethis year for its Mt. Hope molybdenum project in EurekaCounty, which drew a number of positive comments.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Battle Moun-tain District had already received 300 public commentson the draft environmental study by Feb. 21, according toAngelica Rose, the BLM’s project manager for Mt. Hope.

“There are a couple of different kinds of form letters sothe majority falls into the form letter category. They areactually in support of the project,” she said.

Issuance of the final EIS and record of decision willfollow, after the BLM addresses the comments.

“We’re hoping to issue the final environmental impactstatement by the end of this year with the record of deci-sion to follow,” Rose said. “It all depends on the com-ments received and if they need additional modeling orbaseline monitoring.”

The BLM’s deadline for public comments on the draftenvironmental impact statement on Mt. Hope was March 1.

“We just want to thank everyone who has commentedon the draft EIS and shown an interest in the project andsupported it,” said General Moly’s manager of externalcommunications, Zach Spencer.

The 300 comments include ones the BLM recorded at

Mt. Hope study draws extensive comments


public hearings in Eureka and CrescentValley in January, Rose said.

General Moly plans a long-life molyb-denum mine that would employ 400workers once it goes into production.The mine would be 21 miles north of thetown of Eureka.

Those hearings drew large crowds. Anumber of speakers were in favor of theproject, but there was opposition as well.

Businessman Scott Raines said at theEureka hearing the project will have a“very positive impact” on Eureka.

“This mine will have minimal impactsin comparison to many other projects.Ya, there will be a hole in the ground, butthere will be sufficient mitigation,” hetestified.

“I feel General Moly will be a very pos-itive influence,” local businesswomanMaribeth Robinson testified, adding thatthe creation of jobs at this time is impor-tant. “It’s well past time for EurekaCounty Commissioners to stop hinderingthe project and work with General Moly.It’s time for us to get behind this projectand realize the benefits.”

Eureka County Commissioners stillhave concerns about the project’simpacts.

“We continue to support the Mt. HopeProject as any other mine done right,”Eureka County Natural Resources Man-

ager Jake Tibbitts testified.He said, however, there are places

where the draft environmental impactstatement conflicts with the county’s

policies, especially because of the largescale of the project, and the countydoesn’t believe the mitigation of impactsin the EIS is enough.

“We need the issues properly fleshedout and mitigated up front,” Tibbitts said.

The county also is worried about thesocio-economic impact from Mt. Hopeto the historic town of Eureka, which hasroughly 600 residents, Eureka CountyCommission Chairman Leonard Fior-enzi said after the hearing.

Fiorenzi said he expects only about 30percent of the Mt. Hope employees tolive in Eureka, “but 30 percent ofemployees will be a huge impact toEureka.”

“The BLM was impressed with theturnout for these two meetings,” JonSherve, assistant field manager for min-erals for the Battle Mountain office, saidin a statement.

The BLM reported roughly 120 peoplesigned in for the Eureka meeting and 75were at the Crescent Valley meeting.

General Moly Chief Executive OfficerBruce Hansen stated he was pleased withthe turnout at both open houses andhearings.

“I was very proud to hear communityleaders from Eureka stand up in supportof the Mt. Hope project. Their support isa testament to the hard work of our teamin Nevada and our commitment tomining done right within the Eureka

Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyBob Burnham, left, a Eureka County farmer and school board member, talks with BobPennington, chief operating officer of General Moly, at the Eureka Opera House following a hear-ing on the proposed Mt. Hope Project.

See MMTT.. HHOOPPEE,, 91


Pilot Gold Corp.Pilot Gold Inc. is exploring the Kinsley Mountain Project in southern Elko County 55 miles southeast of the Long Canyon Project.


ELKO — Pilot Gold Inc. has a saying that its KinsleyMountain exploration project is “in the shadow of LongCanyon.”

The company is exploring in southern Elko County atthe long-closed former Alta Gold mine that President andChief Executive Officer Matt Lennox-King said hasstarted to look like another Long Canyon.

Many of those on the Pilot Gold team were in on thediscovery of the Long Canyon deposit in the PequopMountains between Wells and West Wendover, and PilotGold was spun off when Newmont Mining Corp. acquired

Pilot Goldfocuseson Kinsley

See PPIILLOOTT GGOOLLDD,, 90


Fronteer for $2.3 billion.Newmont plans to mine at Long

Canyon, and the company is looking atstarting construction in 2015.

“Kinsley hosts the same type of rocksas Long Canyon. If a trend is developing,we will be part of the trend,” Lennox-King said in February. “We really likenortheastern Nevada. There is greatpotential for more discoveries at Kinsley.”

Vancouver-based Pilot Gold expects tostart drilling again on March 15, startingwith one drill and ramping up to threedrill rigs for 3,600 feet of drilling, he said.

The company drilled six preliminaryholes at Kinsley in the last season “toreally get a good handle” on the poten-tial, Lennox-King said.

The drilling found impressive intervalsof gold mineralization at Kinsley Moun-tain, according to the company.

The best results were 0.2 opt gold over60.37 feet, including 0.42 opt over 25.6feet, on one hole; 0.23 opt over 24.6 feet,including 0.48 opt over 10.5 feet inanother hole; and 0.22 opt over 28.54feet, including 0.425 opt over a little lessthan 10 feet, on a third hole.

Lennox-King also said Pilot Goldplans to file a plan of operations with theU.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Elkooffice for extended drilling in the areaand for future drilling needs.

Pilot Gold acquired Kinsley Mountainlast September in a deal with AnimasResources, purchasing that company’soption agreement with Nevada SunriseGold Corp. for $350,000 and futureshares to earn a 51 percent interest byspending $1.5 million.

“We expect to do that by April,” Lennox-King said, adding that the next step is tobring the option up to 65 percent byspending $3 million within five years.

Pilot Gold also recently acquired 9.9percent of Nevada Sunrise by purchasing6.25 million units of the company for 12cents per unit in a private placement thatfollowed an earlier 16.7 million units thatconsists of one share and one half of ashare purchase warrant, according toNevada Sunrise.

Kinsley still has gold resources fromwhen Alta Gold mined the site before thecompany went bankrupt in the late 1990sand shut down the mine. The site hasbeen reclaimed, but roads are still there,and there is exposure to the open pits,Lennox-King said.

“It’s great geology,” he said, reportingthe company has 5,400 acres of property,

including 128 claims staked to the north.“The main focus will be Kinsley this

year,” Lennox-King said. “Our goal is toestablish a resource by the end of the yearfor Kingsley Mountain contingent onsufficient drilling, of course.”

Moira Smith, the company’s chiefgeologist and formerly chief geologist forFronteer in Nevada, is optimistic aboutKinsley Mountain, according to a Feb-ruary announcement on the results fromthe six holes.

“Our technical team carries forwardFronteer Gold’s in-depth, workingknowledge of Long Canyon and ourstrategy in Nevada was to identify aproject with the same attributes andexploration potential as Long Canyon,”she said.

“I believe Kinsley Mountain has theframework for discovery and a clear pathto building a significant, high-qualitydeposit in the near-term,” Smith said.

The company has a large number ofexploration projects in Nevada that itmay explore later or are available for jointventure or for sale.

“We’re open to anything that willcreate value for the company,” Lennox-King said.

Pilot Gold also continues to hold twoexploration properties in Turkey thatTeck Resources Ltd. is exploring.

Pilot Gold’s attachment to Nevadaincludes the office in Elko that FronteerGold occupied. Lennox-King said thereare roughly 11 people based at the Elkooffice, and all but one had been withFronteer. He was with Fronteer for 10years. Companywide, Pilot Gold hasabout 25 people, and 17 of them are geol-ogists or geoscientists.

Pilot Gold has $19 million in itstreasury, and expects to spend more than$3.6 million in Nevada this year, the bulkof that at Kinsley, Lennox-King said in atelephone interview.

Pilot Gold ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 8899

“Kinsley hosts thesame type of rocks

as Long Canyon. If atrend is developing,

we will be partof the trend.”

—— CCEEOO MMaatttt LLeennnnooxx--KKiinngg

community,” he said in a statement.Hansen said no new issues were

raised, and General Moly continues “tobelieve that the BLM has a very robustand defensible DEIS.”

Separately, a district court hearing isslated for April 3 on Eureka County’sprotest against State Engineer JasonKing’s granting of water rights for theproject.

The project would use roughly 7,000gallons of ground water per minute formining and processing.

Fiorenzi said the county is concernedbecause the planned open pit at Mt.Hope “sits on the boundary where allthree water basins come together,”referring to the Kobeh, Diamond Valleyand Pine Valley water basins.

Mt. Hope would be using water forprocessing but not returning water tothe ground table the way the minedewatering operations at the mines infar northern Eureka County do, such asBarrick Gold Corp.’s Goldstrike Mine

and Newmont Mining Corp.’s Leevilleand Gold Quarry mines, Fiorenzi said.

“It’s a totally consumptive use opera-tion. That’s what raised eyebrows, I be-lieve,” he said after the hearing in Eur-eka.

“We remain extremely confident thatthe state engineer’s ruling and processeswill be affirmed in district court and aredisappointed with the elected officials ofEureka County for going forward with

the appeal of the stateengineer’s ruling, as are agrowing number of Eur-eka residents, especiallyin light of the over-whelming public supportthat the Mt. Hope Projecthas in Eureka and sur-rounding communities,”Hansen said in a state-ment.

General Moly also re-cently provided an up-date on financing for theMt. Hope Project.

General Moly an-nounced the Sichuanbranch of the China De-velopment Bank con-firmed the basic termsunderlying a proposed$665 million term loan.

Colorado-basedGeneral Moly stated thatwhile there are no bind-ing commitments, theloan facility will nowprogress through draftingand syndication andshould be completed, ap-proved and available fordrawdown when GeneralMoly receives permits forMt. Hope.

The company statedthat the basic framework

of the loan is expected to include:• A debt facility of $665 million, of

which CDT will commit to lend $399million and arrange a consortium ofChinese and international banks to fundthe balance.

• Loan maturity of 12 years, includinga 30-month grace period to allow for theMt. Hope project to be constructed.

• Customary loan security terms,including a pledge of the company’sassets and its 80 percent interest in theMt. Hope project.

• A Hanlong corporate guaranteethroughout the loan term.


Adella Harding/Mining QuarterlyEureka County Natural Resources Manager Jake Tibbitts testi-fies during the U.S. Bureau of Land Management hearing inEureka on General Moly’s proposed molybdenum mine.

Mt. Hope ...CCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 8877



ELKO — Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. thatoperates the Robinson copper mine inWhite Pine County expects to sell to thePolish mining company KGHM in March.

Shareholders of the company approvedthe $2.9 million arrangement on Feb. 20,and Vancouver-based Quadra FNX statedthe deal likely would close in March once ithas approval under the Investment Can-ada Act.

Kristina Howe, manager of media andinvestor relations for Quadra FNX, saidthe review period was extended.

“It’s hard to put a time right now onwhen the Investment Canada Act willcome back,” she said.

Quadra FNX reported on Feb. 21 theSupreme Court of British Columbia issueda final order approving the proposed sale.

The company also reported that 78.6percent of the votes cast favored the sale toKGHM, a global copper and silver pro-ducer headquartered in Lubin, Poland.

Along with the Robinson operations inNevada, KGHM will be acquiring Quadra

FNX’s Carlota Mine in Arizona, the FrankeMine in Chile, and Levack in Sudbury,Ontario, which includes the MorrisonDeposit, Podolsky and McCreedy West.

Additionally, KGHM will acquire theSierra Gorda copper and molybdenumproject in Chile and the Victoria Project inSudbury.

Quadra FNX reported in February thecompany produced 59 million pounds ofcopper in the fourth quarter of 2011, upfrom 57 million pounds in 2010.

Copper production from the RobinsonMine near Ely totaled 27 million pounds,the same as the 27 million pounds in the2010 quarter.

The company also produced 24,000ounces of precious metals in the fourthquarter, including 8,000 ounces of goldfrom Robinson, compared with 39,000ounces in the 2010 quarter, including16,000 ounces from Robinson.

For all of 2011, Quadra FNX produced220 million pounds of copper, comparedwith 224 million pounds in 2010, and103,000 ounces of precious metals, com-pared with 148,000 ounces the prior year,according to the report.

The 2011 nickel production totaled 10million pounds, up from 7 million poundsin 2010.

Robinson alone produced 95 millionpounds of copper last year, compared with109 million pounds the prior year, ac-cording to the report.

Robinson’s gold production was downfrom 73,000 ounces for the year 2010 to30,000 last year because of the transitionfrom the Veteran Pit to Ruth Pit.

Quadra FNX President and ChiefExecutive Officer Paul Blythe said in theannouncement on production that it isbusiness as usual at the company’s minesuntil the proposed sale of the company to aPolish company goes through.

Looking at Robinson, Blythe said “thekey at Robinson continues to be increasingoperating flexibility, through the variousmeasures previously discussed, includingbench widths, pit slopes, stockpile buffersand working faces.”

He also said mill maintenance and slopestability issues in the fourth quarter atRobinson precluded an increase in actualcopper production from the third quarterbut total tons mined increased from the

third and fourth quarter.A localized pit wall failure resulted in

delaying access to areas of high grade ore atthe bottom of the Ruth Pit although this wasoffset somewhat by stockpile drawdown,according to the production announce-ment.

Blythe also commented on operationsin Canada and on the Sierra Gorda Project.

“At Morrison, the previously an-nounced lease agreement with XstrataNickel relating to the Craig shaft wascompleted during the quarter and transi-tion work began immediately,” Blythesaid.

The company expects the transition tothe Craig Mine to be completed in thesecond quarter. Mining of nickel ore fordelivery to Xstrata continued at McCreedyWest.

Quadra reported all three operations inSudbury continued to produce at or aboveexpectations.

“Agreements were also reached thatsignificantly increased our mineral rightsfootprint at Sierra Gorda and the projectremains on schedule and budget,” Blythesaid.

Quadra FNX nears merger with KGHM


ELKO — Nevada Copper expects shaftsinking at the Pumpkin Hollow Projecton the outskirts of Yerington to begin intwo to three months for undergroundexploration, now that ground was brokenin a large ceremony.

Clark Construction was mobilizing inlate February to begin the site prepara-tion, install the collar, headframe andhoist before the actual sinking, said TimDyhr, vice president of environment andexternal relations.

“It’s exploration, not actual mining,”he said of the underground project withits 2,200-foot shaft.

Dyhr also said the company plans tosubmit a permit application to theNevada Division of EnvironmentalProtection “hopefully in March.”

Nevada Copper plans an undergroundand surface mining operation with onemill to process the copper, gold andsilver, and the permitting time framedepends on whether a land arrangementwith the U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-


This mapshows theland the citywants toobtain fromthe U.S.Bureau ofLandManagement,then annexand sell orlease aportion toNevadaCopper forthe PumpkinHollowProject.

City of Yerington

Pumpkin Hollow breaks ground for shaft


ment goes through Congress.A feasibility study estimated that in

the first five years, the average annualproduction will be 274 million pounds ofcopper, 53,000 ounces of gold and 1.1million ounces of silver.

U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., alongwith original co-sponsors Rep. ShelleyBerkley, D-Nev., and Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., announced in February that theyintroduced the “Yerington Land Con-veyance and Sustainable DevelopmentAct” in the U.S. House.

The land deal would convey roughly10,000 acres to the City of Yerington,which in turn would lease land to NevadaCopper for the planned mine.

If the land bill wins approval, NevadaCopper will be seeking permitting for theproposed mine through NDEP. Other-wise, the company will seek approval forthe BLM.

“Subject to the land transfer, we willstart construction in 2013,” Dyhr said,adding that the BLM permitting mightadd two years to the construction startup,but the same plan will go to either agency.

The groundbreaking marking the startof the development drew roughly 700people on Feb. 18, Dyhr said, includingNevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Amodei.

Sandoval told the crowd to “believe it”that the employment of up to 800 peopleat Pumpkin Hollow is right in line withhis jobs initiative to create 50,000 jobs inNevada, according to a report fromNevada Copper.

“I know how much we’ve been strug-gling out here and for Nevada Copper tohave this type of confidence and this typeof investment in this community and thiscounty means the absolute world to us,”the governor said.

Nevada Copper reported the initialshaft work will create roughly 40 jobs.

Sandoval said the ceremony and largeturnout will go down in history of LyonCounty as “one of those absolute bedrockmoments and a game changer for a com-munity.”

Amodei said rural Nevada communi-ties depend on high-paying mining jobsto sustain their economies.

“We need to assure that these projectscan be developed responsibly, incor-porating the highest safety and environ-mental standards that have been devel-oped by the industry under the guidanceof our state and federal regulators. Wealso need to be able to permit these proj-ects in a timely manner, especially con-sidering the current economic condi-tions in Nevada, especially here in LyonCounty,” he said at the ceremony.

Lyon County has a jobless rate of morethan 16 percent, the highest in thenation, according to Amodei.

The event featured the first ceremonialshovel of dirt by Sandoval, formerSpeaker of the Nevada State Assemblyand lifelong resident of Yerington JoeDini, and Nevada Copper President andChief Executive Officer Giulio Bonifacio.Four generations of the Dini family wereat the event, including Yerington MayorGeorge Dini.

“This shaft will allow us to access theover 820 million pounds of high gradeunderground copper reserves in the Eastdeposit defined in the feasibility study,”Bonifacio said.

“The shaft will also provide us withdetailed information on the geotech-nical, geochemical and hydrological con-ditions that exist underground and verifyour mining and production assumptions.It will give us access to further extendand define the East underground re-source from subsurface drill stations, aswell as a platform for further explorationof the nearby JK34 zone.

“Drilling from underground is muchmore cost effective and will allow us todefine areas of high grade ore targeted forearly mining,” he said.

Regarding the land deal, NevadaCopper stated the city seeks to annex thearea that includes Pumpkin Hollow toallow it to share in property and net pro-ceeds of mines tax revenues.

The bill directs the secretary of Inter-ior to convey to the city for fair marketvalue all right, title, and interest in thefederal land.

“We are proceeding with planning andmore definition for development of thisproperty for the forthcoming congres-sional review and for review by our CityCouncil, Planning Commission andNevada Copper,” Mayor Dini said in aFeb. 16 statement.

In addition to mining, the land wouldbe used for economic development andrecreation, and the city stated thatNevada Copper would cover the landacquisition costs.

Dyhr said the land to be conveyed hasno resource conflicts. In fact, “it’s so drythere isn’t any sagebrush,” he said, whichmeans there isn’t habitat for the sagegrouse that faces potential listing as anendangered species.

The groundbreaking onFeb. 18 drew roughly

700 people, includingNevada Gov. Brian

Sandoval and U.S. Rep.Mark Amodei, R-Nev.


BByy NNIICCKK GGEEVVOOCCKKMontana Standard

BUTTE, Mont. — Golden SunlightMine near Whitehall had a relatively lowyear when it comes to producing gold.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t prof-itable.

“We’re still here and gold prices arestill high,” said Tim Dimock, GoldenSunlight manager.

The mine, which is owned by parentcompany Barrick Gold Corp., opened in1982. It’s outlived its projected lifespanseveral times and is slated to close in2015. Or maybe not.

Barrick invested $132 million into themine in recent years to upgrade its mill,Dimock said. And the company has alsostepped up its exploration in an effort tokeep the mine going.

Last year, Golden Sunlight produced64,000 ounces of gold. The mine was inits first full year of mill operation after ashutdown while the upgrades weremade.

“That’s not a big year for us,” he said.“We like it when we produce more than100,000 ounces.”

But with gold prices remaining above$1,700 per ounce, 2011 was profitable.And Golden Sunlight has kept its pro-duction costs per ton down, Dimocksaid.

Of the 64,000 ounces Golden Sun-light produced last year, 8,000 ouncescame from 10 other, smaller mine sitesthat used the company’s mill for pro-cessing. Those smaller operations sellthe ore to Golden Sunlight.

Dimock said while that’s not a largeamount, it adds up. And it helped in theclean up of several old mine sites thatthe ore came from.

Golden Sunlight has high hopes for2012. Dimock said they project produc-tion to double to 136,000 ounces thisyear.

The mine is getting into its main orebody, called the mineral hill deposit. Atthe same time, they’re continuing to

explore areas just off the main pit calledthe “north” and “south” areas.

That hopefully won’t be the lastdeposit the mine is able to extract.Dimock said the company is alsolooking at yet another ore body, whichcould again add to Golden Sunlight’slifespan.

“We’re hoping that they’ll buy us afew years of life so that we can have timeto finish exploring and permitting thearea on Bull Mountain called the Bonniedeposit,” he said of the newest orebodies. “It’s a good time to be a goldminer and it’s a good time for us to try tosustain this operation.”

Golden Sunlight employs 205 workers,as well as more than 90 subcontractors.

That’s been good for Whitehall andJefferson County, said Tom Harrington,extension agent with the Jefferson LocalDevelopment Corp. He said the mine’sannual payroll of more than $13 millionand the taxes it pays are crucial ele-ments of the local economy.

A handful of the employees therestarted when the mine opened in 1982and will be able to retire there, andHarrington said he’s hopeful it will re-main open.

“We’re already in some second gener-ation miners up there,” he said.

——————The Montana Standard is a Lee

Enterprises newspaper, as is theElko Daily Free Press, which publishes

the Mining Quarterly.

Golden Sunlightproduction low in2011, but heads up

“It’s a good time tobe a gold miner and

it’s a good time for usto try to sustain this

operation.”

—— TTiimm DDiimmoocckk,, mmiinnee mmaannaaggeerr



ELKO — American Vanadium Corp.hopes to file a plan of operations with theU.S. Bureau of Land Management laterthis year for its proposed vanadium minein Eureka County.

“We hope to be building this in 2015and firing up in 2016, if everything goeswell,” said Reno-based Michael Doyle,executive vice president of operations forthe Canadian company that expects todevelop the first vanadium mine in theUnited States.

The company earlier provided baselinedata to the Battle Mountain BLM Districtfor review, and the plan of operations willkick off the environmental impact state-ment process toward permitting the sur-face mine.

“It will be a bit before we see the firstcut on the baseline data review. Then, wewill send in the plan of operations, prob-ably in the next few months,” Doyle said.

American Vanadium would developthe mine at its Gibellini property 27 milessouth of the town of Eureka in the Fish

Creek Mining District.Doyle said plans still call for employing

between 90 and 100 people and the minewill be a fairly small operation, mining alittle more than 3 million tons a year.

“But it would produce a significantamount of vanadium,” he said.

This vanadium mine will be a differentfrom the big open pits where gold, copperand silver are mined in Nevada, however,because the ore is on and near the sur-face.

“You can stand on the ore zone,” Doylesaid. “There is no strip ratio. You canstand on a hill and look down at it. It hasthe color of Fruit Loops, and you canactually smell it. That’s kind of neat tosee.”

Vanadium is used to strengthen steel,and there is a market in the steel industryfor vanadium, but the company islooking at the expected growth indemand for vanadium for redux bat-teries.

These are “really big batteries that takea lot of vanadium,” Doyle said. “A smallone is the size of a sea container.”

In fact, American Vanadium is looking

at the potential of using such a battery topower the planned mine, he said.

“The exciting part of the AmericanVanadium story is the fact that not onlywill we be the only mine in the U.S. pro-ducing vanadium for the steel industrybut will also be the only producer ofvanadium electrolyte necessary forvanadium flow batteries, which allow forthe mass storage of renewable and con-ventional energy,” said Ron MacDonald,executive chairman of the company.

The feasibility study for the proposedmine looked at the steel market, however,and Doyle said the company may do off-take agreements with companies forvanadium.

The demand in the steel market grewwhen China changed its building codes torequire vanadium in rebar for buildingconstruction, “but the battery market ismore lucrative,” he said.

Doyle said the timing for the EISprocess should be about right for thecompany as the market continues tobuild for the batteries.

“We should be geared up at the time itstarts to take off in the U.S.,” he said.

Chris Berry, founder of House MountainPartners LLC, house-mountain.com; pub-lisher of Morning Notes and www.discov-eryinvesting.com and researcher of juniormining and resource stocks, said NorthAmerica is 95 percent reliant on vanadiumfrom overseas sources.

“Vanadium is critical to infrastructure,and critical to the quality of life that wehave become accustomed to in NorthAmerica,” he said. “You don’t want to be95 percent reliant on something fromChina, or anybody for that matter.”

American Vanadium has already metwith Eureka County Commissioners tolet them know what the company plans,and Commission Chairman LeonardFiorenzi said in January that the county isincluding the Gibellini Project in itsexpectations for growth.

General Moly plans the Mt. HopeProject north of Eureka, and that projectwould employ roughly 400 people. Therealso are plans for mining at Gold Baragain, he said.

Doyle said the company also has metwith the Western Shoshone about theproject.

American Vanadium pursuing Gibellini Project


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyBoss Tanks employees Matt Anderson, left, and Justin French stand next to a solar array mounted on a trailer in the yard of the com-pany’s facility on east Idaho Street.

BByy DDAANNIIEELLLLEE SSWWIITTAALLSSKKII Mining Quarterly

ELKO — Boss Tanks is taking it solar.As fuel and energy costs continue to climb, solar

energy is becoming more and more commonplace forindustry leaders. For Boss Tanks, a tank and equip-ment supply and service company based in Elko,moving to solar systems for water pumping andremote fuel stations is keeping up with the times.

“Construction in mining opportunities andranching opportunities move away from power linesand fuel or generators get more expensive, this (solartechnology) gets to be better and better for a lot ofsolutions, and it is,” said Justin French, one of theseven full-time employees at Boss Tanks.

BOSSTANKSCompany caters to mines

See BBOOSSSS TTAANNKKSS,, 100


Ross Andreson/Mining QuarterlyBoss Tanks employee Chase Ritchie moves fence posts in the facility yard on east Idaho Street.

Boss Tanks ...Providing small, remote power systems

to mining sites is one way Boss Tanks isdelving into the new wave of energy, suchas using solar systems for stock waterpumping.

“We’ve done a lot of different things sofar, and we’ve been really happy with theresults,” French said.

He said Boss Tanks is working withmines in northeastern Nevada to beginproduction of several solar projects thatare in the early stages of development.

For mining companies that have live-stock operations, Boss Tanks suppliesthem with a solar mobile trailer. Oper-ations that have a large number of cattlecan have a solar trailer that moves withthe herd.

“You’re basically moving your waterpumping and water needs with your herd.And we built that for one of the mines,and we plug it into the hole and chargetheir water system and when the cattlemove, we move it with them to a new pas-ture,” French said.

Looking to the future of solar panels inrelationship to water pumping, French

does not think that will change much.However, he said pump controls areadvancing, as well as inverter technologythat continues to be more reliable.

“We’re trying to improve reliability andreduce costs and that’s where it’s going. ...As the technology gets more trusted andreliable, interest is growing,” French said.“The panels themselves won’t shift a lot.”

Boss Tanks was started in 1996 by JoeCumming. It serves a cross section ofgovernment agencies, agriculture and themining industry. The company sells andinstalls pipe, fencing material, water,septic and fuel tanks, troughs, culverts,float valves, head gates, liners, livestockequipment and sprayers.

According to Matt Anderson with BossTanks, supplying potable water used incase a well fails is a large part of what BossTanks provides to the mining industry.The potable water service is an on-callservice Boss Tanks brings to the minesites.

For information on Elko-based BossTanks and its services and supplies, visitww.bosstanks.com, email [email protected] or call 738-2677.



ELKO — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has extendedto March 30 the deadline for nominations for the 2012Reclamation and Sustainable Mineral Development Awards.

These awards recognize solid mineral development opera-tions that embody the principles of sustainable development orrepresent outstanding examples of reclamation or environ-mental stewardship, according to the BLM.

“Sustainable development is the underpinning of thisawards program,” said BLM Director Bob Abbey. “It meets theneeds of the present generation without compromising theability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The awards fall under five categories — the HardrockMineral Environmental Award, the Hardrock Mineral Com-munity Outreach and Economic Security Award, the HardrockMineral Small Operator Award, the Hardrock MineralDirector’s Award, and the “Fix A Shaft Today!” Award.

Nominations are to be submitted in the BLM State Office(Attention: Solid Minerals) that has jurisdiction in the statewhere the operation is located. The presentation of awards willtake place in September 2012 at the MINExpo show in LasVegas.

Mining companies, regulatory authorities, geologists andmembers of the public may nominate operators or organiza-tions in solid minerals industries for an award. Nominationsneed not be limited to operations on land managed by the BLM.

BLM taking awardnominations

IMLAY — The Safe Haven Rescue Zoo in PershingCounty that receives donations of money and laborfrom mining companies plans a fundraiser on May 19at the Winnemucca Convention Center.

“Quite a few of the mines attend,” said LyndaSugasa, director of the zoo that provides homes forlions, tigers and other animals and continues toexpand.

“We are currently working on several new enclo-sures,” she said.

“We have two African lions, three Siberian tigers,three cougars, one Canadian lynx, two bobcats, oneAfrican serval and two foxes.”

Sugasa said Mark Miller of the Turquoise RidgeJoint Venture operations in Humboldt County hasbeen coordinating volunteer days and coming out tohelp on his days off.

“Also, we are in the process of organizing volunteerdays with Coeur Rochester employees who were ahuge help last year,” she said.

“We’re looking for a list of spring work,” saidRochester General Manager Cindy Jones.

She said both regular employees and interns maywork at Safe Haven.

Last year, the Coeur Rochester workers dug atrench and helped install PVC to expand all of thewater lines to the new enclosure areas. They also cre-ated a 100-foot fire break around the entire facility.

“Barrick Turquoise Ridge, Goldcorp, NewmontMining Corp. and Coeur Rochester have all been gen-erous contributors. All of us at Safe Haven greatlyappreciate the continued support they provide andtheir commitment to the community,” Sugasa said.

“Our rapid growth and expansions are largely dueto their responsive support,” she said,

The fundraiser will feature live and silent auctions,with auction items to include vacation packages, din-ners, golf packages, a wine tour and balloon rides.

The event will begin at 5 p.m. with a cocktail hourand include dinner and entertainment.

Tickets are $30 per person and $300 for tablesponsorships that include gifts, a special raffle andname on media and signage publications.

The tickets may be purchased through Safe Havenat 775-538-7093 or by mail to Safe Haven, P.O. Box184, Imlay, NV 89418. The chamber in the Winne-mucca Convention Center also has tickets.

By Adella Harding

Safe Haven Rescue Zooplans fundraiser in May

PUBLISHED BY THE ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS

QQUARTERLYUARTERLYSpring 2012

Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly

Jesse Toeffer, left, project manager for Barrick Gold of North America'sregional projects group, and Jim Allred, construction supervisor for the blind bore project at Cortez Hills, stand in front of a special drill rig operating in Nevada for the first time.

Boring downat Cortez Hills

mining quarterly spring 2012

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