Construction on the Long Canyon Gold Mine could begin as early as January, said Mary Korpi, Newmont’s Director of External Relations.
“The project’s approval should be in the Federal Register by January 5th,” Korpi said in a telephone interview with the High Desert Advocate last week. “Depending on the weather we can begin construction.”
click federal register citation: 2015-00067
Strong hints of gold in the Pequop mountains were found in the late 1990’s. However about the same time serious exploration was suspened when the price of gold crashed from over $1,000 an ounce to under $300.
All exploration projects were put on indefinite hold as the mining industry struggled to stay afloat.
That moratorium on exploration lasted a little over a decade when the market began to rebound and small independent mining operations began to look again for gold, hoping that they would find something that the big boys over looked.
That risk paid off in spades in the Pequop Mountains with the efforts of Fronteer Gold.
Literally a mountain of gold ore lies in the once long over looked Pequop Range now in advanced exploration.
Estimated to need 500 workers during construction and 250 miners once operations are ready, the Long Canyon mine could add at least 1,000 people to the area and that may be just the tip of a gold boom in eastern Elko County.
That new work force could add a total of 1,000 new residents to the area and kick off an economic boom.
“The Long Canyon project, with its Carlin trend-like metallurgical and geological characteristics, complements our existing project pipeline in Nevada”, stated Richard O’Brien, Newmont’s President and CEO. This combination of assets will allow Newmont to leverage our expertise and extensive infrastructure in the region. Based on the work conducted to date by Fronteer Gold, as well as our own due diligence, we believe that Long Canyon holds the potential to grow beyond 3 to 4 times Fronteer Gold’s current stated resource estimate, with an attractive average gold grade of approximately 2.3 grams per tonne. “
“We think this could have as much potential as the Carlin Trend,” Geologist Moira Smith said four years previous. “It is truly remarkable.”
What is even more remarkable is that the Carlin Trend mines are less than 80 miles to the west and are one of the most developed gold mining operations in the world, with the most sophisticated equipment and a cadre of geologists that could staff a large department at any major university.
Still no one bothered to look for more of the yellow stuff that was sitting less than a tank of gas away in eastern Elko County for almost 40 years since the Carlin Trend was first discovered.
In fact, over the past 35 years, most “experts” said that there was simply no gold to be found in eastern Elko County and that exploration would be a waste of time and money.
“In 2000 there were some promising digs out here,” Smith said. “But then the price of gold dropped to under $300 an ounce.”
Exploration was resumed in 2005 and with the price of gold at record levels there is a possibility that the east half of Elko County could join the western half with gold mines. Smith was however also at a loss to explain why an area so close and so similar geologically to proven and developed reserves was ignored for close to 40 years.
In addition to having ‘smoking hot’ ore, the area is a stones throw from Interstate 80, has no endangered species living anywhere near it and does not have any significant archaeological sites located on it.
Like the geologists the recent past, ancient Native Americans also apparently ignored Long Canyon.
Ignored no longer, the mine has the potential to radically alter the economy and the lives of eastern Nevada, residents of Wendover and Wells. The two cities who once looked with jealously at the boom in Elko and Carlin could soon have a mine to call their own.Newmont is uniquely capable of developing Long Canyon faster and cheaper than almost any other mining company in North America. With one of the largest gold mines operating not more than 60 miles to the west, Newmont has the equipment and the manpower to begin full scale operations the day after it receives the final okay from the state and federal governments.
