Mount Tenabo, Nevada

Mt. Tenabo. Credit: Western Shoshone Defense Project

The Cortez Mountains are found in north central Nevada.  They are surrounded by sagebrush shrublands, except in the extreme southwest and northeast where small woodlands of Utah juniper and singleleaf pinyon descend into the surrounding plains.  The highest point of the Cortez Mountains is Mount Tenabo. 

Mount Tenabo is sacred to the Western Shoshone as a site of local creation stories. Mount Tenabo has long been used by the Western Shoshone for seasonal ceremonies and is also important for gathering medicinal plants, pine nuts and other plants and seeds for sustenance.  To quote Mary Gibson of the Shoshone, "Mt. Tenabo is a living being, a living relative to me. It deserves the respect you would give any of your relatives. It deserves the care and respect that you would want and that you would want for your family and relatives.

The Cortez Hills Project

Cortez Joint Venture, backed by Placer Dome, wants to construct a large open pit gold mine on Mount Tenabo.  Cortez Joint Venture has been mining around Mount Tenabo since 1967.  Two earlier mines run by Cortez Joint Venture are played out, but continue to generate acid.  A third mine, the Pipeline project, is pumping 20,000 to 30,000 gallons per minute around the clock and 365 days a year to keep the mine pits dry.  This is causing a serious drop in the area water table and attempts to recharge the water are causing salts to contaminate the aquifer.

In 2003, Cortez Joint Venture announced its Cortez Hills discovery.  This combined with a previous discovery (Pediment), could become a large open pit mine on the mountain and its flanks.  Currently, most of the region has been staked by mining companies.

The Cortez hills project and other exploration efforts are leading some experts to call the Cortez Mountains the new Carlin Trend (the most prolifically mined region of Nevada).

Representative Jim Gibbons (R-NV) is pushing a bill in the US House of Representatives that would sell 60,000 acres of land in Crescent Valley to Placer Dome, the majority partner in Cortez Joint Venture.  Once the land was privatized, there would be no federal oversight required for future mines.

For More Information

• Western Shoshone Defense Project