There has been mention of this ore deposit rivaling the Carlin Trend.
Here is an article about Carlin from USA Today.
Chuck
INVISIBLE SPECKS OF GOLD ADD UP TO $18
BILLION SO FAR
By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY
MULE CANYON MINE, Nevada -- Bulldozers have pushed aside sagebrush. Giant mechanical
scrapers have cleared away top soil. Explosives stuffed into 100 holes, each 35-feet deep, are
ready to blast sedimentary debris that contains the geological secret fueling the largest gold rush in
U.S. history, under way in northern Nevada.
"Invisible gold"is what the miners call it. It comes in such tiny specks that it can't be seen with the
naked eye or even an average microscope. Old-time prospector who scoured the beautifully
desolate land for a century missed their fortunes because the gold floated away like dust on the
water in their gold pans.
But now, its discovery in northern Nevada is revolutionizing gold mining worldwide and creating
the fourth major gold boom in this country's history.
Almost unnoticed outside the mining industry, the United States has gone from producing negligible
amounts of gold in 1980 to ranking second in the world, behind South Africa. Nevada alone
produced 10% of the world's gold last year and, by itself, ranks third in world gold production.
California, the next most productive state, produced 1%.
Nevada is the cheapest place in the world to mine gold, so the falling price of gold only increases
the state's importance in world production. Mines shut down in other countries, unable to make a
profit at $320 an ounce, but Nevada's mines stay in operation. Since 1990, 45 million ounces of
gold, worth $18 billion, have been mined in the state.
Nevada has become to gold what Saudi Arabia is to oil. Even the most conservative estimates
indicate that current production levels can be sustained for 15 years if the price of gold stays at or
above $300 an ounce. New, large discoveries continue to be made.
"Most people working double shifts in the casinos in Reno have no idea that there's a massive gold
mining boom just a few hours away," said Nevada state geologist Jonathan Price.
Nevada's gold fortune resides in what geologists call the Carlin Trend, a one-of-a-kind geological
fluke unlike any gold belt in the world. Geologically speaking, it is tiny: only 38 miles long and
seldom more than a mile wide. Geologists disagree on why it exists, but the invisible gold is
plentiful. at least 85 million ounces.
The Carlin Trend continues to amaze geologists as a seemingly bottomless pit of gold. John
Livermore, the geologist who discovered it, first thought gold might run 300 feet deep. But mining
has exceeded 1,000 feet and the ore only gets richer.
Newmont Mining Corp. is still mining the trend near Livermore's original 1961 discovery. Last
September, Barrick Gold of Toronto opened a $180 million underground mine that will pull
400,000 ounces a year from the Carlin Trend.
Discovery of the Carlin Trend prompted exploration elsewhere in Nevada, and three other major
gold areas were found: the Battle Mountain Trend, where Mule Canyon Mine is located, the
Getchell Trend and the Independence Range. Like the Carlin Trend, they produce mostly invisible
gold -- the tiny specks that must be processed to yield pure gold. The Carlin Trend, however, still
produces more than half of Nevada's Gold.
Today, Nevada has 30 operating gold mines. The industry employs 14,400 people directly in
towns such as Winnemucca, Battle Mountain and Elko. The population of Elko, heart of the gold
industry, has boomed from 8,750 in 1980 to 43,000 today.
To attract workers to this area three hours from the nearest shopping mall, the big mining
companies subsidize housing construction, sponsor social events and pay high wages. Average
annual income in the Nevada gold mining industry was $47,500 in 1996, well above teh state
average of $26,000.
Most mines operate 24 hours a day, two shifts a day, 365 days a year. The philosophy is get it
fast and get it all. The "invisible gold" can be recovered the traditional way: grinding the rock and
treating it with cyanide and carbon to extract the gold. But Newmont Mining, owner of Mule
Canyon Mine, among others, also uses biotechnology to retrieve the hard-to-get-gold, trapped
inside hard-to-process sulfide ore amounts as small as one ounce of gold for every 33 tons of
rock. Basically, bacteria is leached over the ore. The bacteria separates gold from other minerals.
Environmental regulations have softened the scarring the strip-mining does to the land. When the
mines are closed the companies are required to return the topsoil and contour the land in an
aesthetically acceptable way. |
