Hardrock Mining in Nevada

Mining Activities
Mining interests have staked more than 110,000 active mining claims in Nevada, covering an estimated 2.5 million acres--an area larger than Yellowstone National Park.  Five Nevada counties have well over 13,000 mining claims:  Elko County, 18,617 claims; Humboldt, 13,948 claims; Eureka, 16,658 claims; Nye, 13,699 claims; and Lander, 14,871 claims.

More than 1,600 plans to develop claims are pending.

Nevada has at least 35 operating hardrock mines within its borders, which produce gold, silver, and other minerals and metals.  Nevada is the third largest gold producer in the world after South Africa (1st) and Australia (2nd).  Current mining operations have disturbed more than 100,400 acres of land in Nevada.  Some gold mining pits are so large that they can be seen from outer space.

Red, iron oxide tailings piles at the Yerington mine site, Credit: Great Basin Mine Watch

Area of Specific Concern: Yerington
The Yerington Mine, about 80 miles from Reno, is a closed copper mine owned by Atlantic Richfield (Arco) that is heavily contaminated by uranium in the ground and the water table.  Uranium naturally occurs in the copper ore at the mine site and the mining process has concentrated the uranium on site. Recent tests show that soil in the processing area is more radioactive than many Superfund sites (200 times background levels) and testing as early as 1984 showed uranium in the ground water under the mine (200 times the EPA's drinking water standard). 

Both the EPA and Nevada Senator Harry Reid have called for federal Superfund designation, but Nevada's Governor Guinn and the lead agency currently at the site, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection are resisting efforts to designate the site.  The state instead is relying on voluntary efforts by Arco to clean up the site and the surrounding area.

Abandoned Mines and Superfund Concerns
Between 200,000 and 500,000 abandoned mine features, such as an open mine shafts, exist in Nevada, according to the Nevada Abandoned Mine Land Environmental Task Force. 

The counties with the most abandoned mines are: Elko, Nye, and Pershing.

A state tax on mining claims provides about $300,000 annually for mine repair and cleanup.

Of 69 Superfund mine sites nationwide, one is located in Nevada--the Carson River Mercury Site in Dayton.  However, as noted above, there is a push on to designate the Yerington mine as a Superfund site.

Community Health and Environmental Impacts
In 2002, 98 percent of the total reported toxic emissions in Nevada -- 432 million pounds -- came from mining, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory.

Nevada ranked 2nd among the 50 states in total reported toxic emissions for 2002, the most recent year for which data is available.

Four of the U.S. mining facilities with the highest reported toxic emissions are in Nevada:
1. Newmont Mining Corporation's Twin Creeks Mine (2nd highest emissions)
2. Barrick Goldstrike Mine (4th highest)
3. Newmont Mining Corporation's Lone Tree Mine (5th highest)
4. Newmont Mining Corporation's Carlin South Area (6th highest)

Loss of Nevada's Public Lands to Mining Interests
An estimated 424,000 acres of public land in Nevada -- an area more than half the size of Yosemite National Park -- have already been sold to private interests for either $2.50 or $5.00 per acre.  This subsidized sale of public lands is allowed under the federal 1872 Mining Law.

Mine Reclamation and Cleanup
Nevada requires mine site reclamation under the Mined Land Reclamation Act of 1989.  Companies determine reclamation costs.  The state accepts 'corporate guarantees' in lieu of cash, bonds, or paid-up insurance policies.  A guarantee is a company's promise to pay, but if the company goes bankrupt before reclamation is complete, taxpayers may have to assume the costs.  Bipartisan legislation introduced in 2003 would have prohibited the use of so-called corporate guarantees, which are not permitted under federal regulations.  The bill died in committee.

Since July of 2000, there have been 26 mining company bankruptcies in Nevada.

Two of the ten U.S. mines posing the highest potential taxpayer liability are in Nevada:
1. Twin Creeks Mine, owned by Newmont, which has promised to pay $35.6 million for cleanup, scarcely five percent of the $672.4 million in cleanup costs.
2. Gold Creek Mine, also owned by Newmont Mining, which has promised to pay $61 million for cleanup or about 15 percent of the $400.2 million in cleanup costs.

For More Information

• COMMUNITY STORY -- Hungry Valley, Nevada: Indian Colony Threatened by Kitty Litter  Mine
  
• Who Owns the West: Mining claim ownership in Nevada
  
• Who Own the West: Mining patent ownership in Nevada
  
• Maps of abandoned mines in Nevada
  
• Great Basin Mine Watch