Cover June 2011 Mining Quarterly
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P U BL I S H E D BY T H E E L K O D A I LY F R E E P R E S S
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Newmont Mining marks 90th year
Jack Henris, mine manager of Newmont Mining Corp.’s surface operations on the Carlin Trend, talks about the Gold Quarry Mine that returned to production in time for Newmont’s 90th anniversary. Adella Harding/photo
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Inside cover June 2011 Mining Quarterly
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— INSIDE — 90TH ANNIVERSARY
Newmont busy in Nevada — Page 3 CORTEZ MINE Stepping up production — Page 15
HOLLISTER PROJECT High grade gold — Page 24
CASHMAN EQUIPMENT Company’s 80th anniversary — Page 58
LEEVILLE MINE Testing bio-diesel fuel — Page 62
Employment
Find the job you want — Pages 86-87
MINING QUARTERLY John Pfeifer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Publisher Adella 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
Mining companies look for golden opportunities ELKO — High gold and silver prices and is inside. Great Basin Gold continues producing gold good demand for copper are sparking more mining projects and more exploration, and from the Hollister Project in Elko County on a that’s providing jobs and boosting the trial-mining basis, and Klondex just started an underground decline to trial mine in Lander economy. That enthusiasm in the mining industry County. More on these projects inside. On the silver side, Coeur d’Alene Mines is also should be apparent at the Elko Mining set to resume mining at the Rochester Expo June 9-10 at the Elko ConMine near Lovelock, providing an vention Center, with more booths economic boost to Pershing County, than ever. and an update on Rochester is inside. Gold prices have been hovering in On the copper side, Nevada the range of $1,500 an ounce in the Copper is planning to sink shafts to recent months, and the World Gold go underground at its Pumpkin Council recently reported the outHollow Project near Yerington, and look for global gold demand remains Newmont is planning the copper robust throughout this year. leach project at Phoenix. Key factors for high gold prices Doug Furtado, district manager include uncertainty over the U.S. Adella for the U.S. Bureau of Land Maneconomy and the dollar, European sovereign debt concerns, global inHarding agement at Battle Mountain, said in May a draft environmental impact flationary pressures and tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, the World statement on the copper leach project may be out in July. Gold Council stated. Then, there is General Moly’s Mt. Hope The higher commodity prices are spurring companies to increase production or start pro- Project to mine molybdenum. An update on duction,and the oldest of the American-based General Moly is inside. There also are more exploration companies gold producers, Newmont Mining Corp., has working in Nevada than in recent years,at least its eye on staying in Nevada for some time. Newmont, which is celebrating its 90th it seems that way from the news releases anniversary this year, plans to soon start the appearing on the Internet. Still, new mines take permits, and those Genesis Project on the Carlin Trend, has started site work at Emigrant south of Carlin take time, often four to seven years. Furtado said he considers Newmont’s and is back mining at Gold Quarry after remeBuffalo Valley Project near Phoenix as a pilot diating a giant pit slide. Stories on Newmont’s anniversary and project in the state BLM’s efforts to speed up permitting. surface mine projects are inside this edition. “Buffalo Valley is the first project starting The company also has the Exodus and Pete Bajo underground projects, not to mention from scratch to reduce mining permit times. developing the first underground project at My goal for the Buffalo Valley Project is to have an EIS within 14 to 15 months, which will be Twin Creeks Mine in Humboldt County. Newmont also is excited about the poten- unprecedented,” he said. The plan is for companies to come to the tial of properties acquired from Fronteer Gold and more on that is inside this Mining BLM after a preliminary determination that they plan a new mine rather than after they Quarterly. Barrick Gold Corp. is expecting to produce have a plan of operations so the BLM can work more than 1.4 million ounces of gold this year with the company on baseline studies right at the Cortez Mine that is now operating at full away. “Then, we can just blast right through the throttle after a partial court-ordered injuncEIS. It will potentially cut years out of the EIS tion ended. Barrick also is heavily exploring at Tur- process,” Furtado said. Elko BLM District Manager Ken Miller said quoise Ridge to find out if a giant open pit is feasible, and work continues on permitting for all the districts will be working to speed up permitting under the state BLM’s new policy. the Arturo Project near Dunphy. ——————— Stories on Cortez and Turquoise Ridge also are inside. Adella Harding is mining editor of the Elko Kinross Gold Corp. is preparing Gold Hill to Daily Free Press, and mining coverage appears begin mining it as a satellite to the Round on the elkodaily.com website. Her e-mail Mountain Mine in Nye County, and an update address is aharding@elkodaily.com.
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Brent Kristof, left, general manager of the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture, talks with Steve Brower, the new project manager for Barrick Gold Corp.’s effort to determine whether a giant open pit is feasible at Turquoise. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Jack Bernard, left, a consulting geologist from Reno, uses a hammer on a “contact” of limestone against basalt on a hillside on the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture property. With him is Bob Morrell of Winnemucca, district geologist for Barrick Gold Corp., which operates Turquoise Ridge.
Turquoise ... Continued from page 9 Officer Aaron Regent described Turquoise Ridge in the company’s first-quarter earnings report as a high-grade underground mine “surrounded by a lowgrade halo of gold ore.” The proposal under study would involve developing the surface mine while still mining underground, but first come the studies and permitting. Turquoise Ridge General Manager Brent Kristof estimated the open pit wouldn’t go into production until be-
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tween 2018 and 2020. Barrick Gold of North America operates the joint venture and is the 75 percent owner, with Newmont Mining Corp. owning the remaining 25 percent and processing the ore from the underground mine at its nearby Twin Creeks Mine. Newmont is also contributing to the accelerated spending to look into the open pit potential. “The budget for exploration this year See TURQUOISE, 11
Turquoise ... Continued from page 10 is $40 million and $18 million for engineering,” Kristof said, and that compares with the usual $10 million to $15 million spent on exploration at the Turquoise Ridge site. Marlowe said there are currently 14 drill rigs on the property, including core and reverse circulation rigs on the surface and underground, and his exploration division has nine contract geologists, five permanent geologists and openings for three more. The drilling companies with rigs on site are Major Drilling, Connors Drilling and Boart Longyear. Gigantic pit Looking at the Turquoise Ridge site from high above, Marlowe pointed out that the old Getchell North Pit, the Getchell Main Pit, land to the left and right of the pits, the remaining buildings of the old Getchell townsite, the administration building and even the headframes for the underground would all be gone when the giant pit is fully developed. “We would start mining along the Getchell Fault and work our way toward the north,” he said. “The sequence would be south to north, and it would be 15 years to mine through the headframes,” Kristof said in May. He said if the shafts are mined out, Turquoise Ridge would plan ahead and could develop portals in See TURQUOISE, 12
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
The Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture is looking at the potential of a giant open pit that would cover much of this area. However, the shop in the foreground and the old Getchell schoolhouse to the right are beyond the proposed pit walls. To the far left are the headframes for the underground mine, and they would eventually go. At the upper right are old pits that would be swallowed by the new.
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Turquoise ... Continued from page 11 the pit to continue mining the North Zone underground. The pit would be about two miles long, 1.7 miles across and 2,900 feet deep, Marlowe said, and old waste dumps would be mined out, as well. The pit would stop before reaching the limestone quarry on the Turquoise Ridge property. R.E. Munks is the contractor operator for the quarry that supplies aggregate for underground backfill. Barrick recently named Steve Brower as the project manager for the Turquoise Ridge project. “At this point it’s study and evaluating whether it’s economic to mine an open pit as well as underground,” said Brower, who will be based at Barrick Gold of North America headquarters in Salt Lake City but spend a lot of time at Turquoise Ridge. He was the project manager for Arturo, a project Barrick and joint venture partner Goldcorp Inc. plan to develop at the site of the Dee Mine northwest of Carlin. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Elko public affairs specialist, Lesli Ellis-Wouters, said in mid-May the environmental impact statement on Arturo is in the interdisciplinary review process, and the goal is to have the draft EIS out late this summer or in the early fall. Simon Pollard, the chief geologist for Turquoise Ridge operations, said the open pit can get the lower grades than the underground bypasses. The cutoff grade for underground ore is 0.25 opt, while the cut-
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
See TURQUOISE, 13
Driller James Mullins operates a Major Drilling rig on the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture property in Humboldt County, where Barrick Gold Corp. is exploring to help determine the feasibility of a large open pit at the site.
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Turquoise ... Continued from page 12 off for the open pit would be 0.03 opt, he said. The prefeasibility study for the open-pit option will include environmental, archaeological and groundwater studies, Kristof said. The open pit would require dewatering. “One thing going for us is it’s a very disturbed area,” Marlowe said. Although the Turquoise Ridge underground mine is the only current operation, there was open pit mining on the site in past years, as well as another underground mine, the Getchell Underground, now sealed. Gold production While the exploration people are working on the pit potential, the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture continues to produce gold ore from the underground mine, which produced 37,000 ounces of gold for Barrick’s share in the first quarter, up from 34,000 ounces in the 2010 quarter. “We’re mining on budget so far this year. The grade is about 11 percent higher,” Kristof said. The average ore grade is 0.506 ounces per ton. For both owners combined, the operation produced 48,711 ounces in the first quarter, compared with 37,961 ounces last year, and Kristof said that’s 28 percent higher than budgeted. Cash costs in the first quarter were $525 per ounce, down from $574 per ounce in the 2010 quarter. The mine employs roughly 350 people, and there are 170 contractors on site, according to Kristof. See TURQUOISE, 14
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Mike Cassinerio, a contract geologist from Winnemucca, logs chips in May from a reverse circulation drilling rig. He is upstairs in the core building at the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture property north of Golconda.
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Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Jack Farrar of Orlando, Fla., left, an account representative with Baroid Industrial Drilling Products, talks in May with Jeremy Orner of Mason, Utah, who is pouring a bag of bentonite into a Major Drilling rig at the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture operation in Humboldt County.
Turquoise ... Continued from page 13 Work on site in addition to the exploration work for the pit feasibility includes underground exploration in the North Zone and construction of an underground batch plant. The new batch plant will cost $36 million and should be completed in the third or fourth quarter of next year, Kristof said. The North ore zones are one mile from the shafts. Turquoise Ridge also expects to complete a new warehouse in August to store all the core from the exploration drilling now and in the past. Kristof said plans to construct a conveyor system underground may be put on hold, however, pending a determination of whether the open-pit mining will be economical. “If we had known what’s here, we would have had an open pit to begin
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with,” said Pollard, talking about the potential for an open pit. Turquoise Ridge’s current gold reserves total 5.4 million ounces and resources total 1.9 million ounces, but the conceptual resources for the open pit are 18 million ounces. Mining school Turquoise Ridge also just completed an underground-mining school for eight students, the first academy Barrick has held for new hires in a couple of years. “All eight stayed. Most of them are people who live in the area this time,” Kristof said. Turquoise Ridge was holding as many as seven school sessions in a year to train miners, but he said that with the economic downturn, the turnover was lower. The mine started the academy in 2006 to meet the demand for underground miners.
Cortez Hills steps up production By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor CRESCENT VALLEY — Four giant electric shovels are digging away and loading haul truck after haul truck at the Cortez Hills open pit as Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Mine heads toward a goal of producing more than 1.4 million ounces of gold this year. The ore is coming from the Cortez Hills Pit and the Cortez Hills underground operations, and all of the shovels and trucks are on duty at Cortez Hills now, rather than any mining at the Pipeline Complex. “There has been no mining at Pipeline since March, but we will go back in a few months,” said Kitt Dale, the technical services manager at Cortez Mine and acting general manager. Dale is the acting general manager until Brian Grebenc arrives to become the general manager to replace Joe Dick, who is now general
manager at the Pueblo Viejo Project in the Dominican Republic. Grebenc will be coming to Cortez in July from Australia, said Katie Neddenriep, community relations supervisor for Barrick Gold of North America. The mining may be on hold at Pipeline, but the mill, assay laboratory and main offices are at the Pipeline end of Cortez Mine, and ore from Cortez Hills that is processed at the mill moves along a 9.5-mile conveyor system. Dale also said Cortez will start mining the Crossroads deposit at the Pipeline end of the site in 2013. “Some time in June we will pour our 15th millionth ounce at Cortez, and 12 million of that is since the opening of Pipeline,” he also said. “Also, 2012 will mark 150 years of essentially continuous mining in the Cortez District.” Modern mining began in the
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
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Mining equipment is busy in May on three sides of Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Hills Pit in Lander County. The gold mine continues to grow and will go into the area in the foreground, where a viewing stand is now.
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Cortez ... Continued from page 15 1960s in the district, and the Cortez mill went into operation in 1969, but the mine was much smaller before the Pipeline discovery. Gold production Today, Cortez has roughly 1,100 employees and 200 to 400 contractors on site. The mine produced 366,000 ounces of gold in the first quarter of this year, compared with 275,000 ounces in the 2010 quarter, and cash costs were $227 per ounce, down from $271 per ounce last year. “Cortez continues to exceed expectations and is performing above plan,” Barrick President and Chief Executive Officer Aaron Regent said in the firstquarter earnings teleconference. He also said the Cortez Hills operations are “a terrific addition to our portfolio.” Dale said Cortez’s current goal of more than 1.4 million ounces this year is possible now that the mine isn’t under a tailored injunction that restricted the See CORTEZ, 17
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Mike Protani, left, the open pit manager at the Cortez Mine in Lander County, and Kitt Dale, acting general manager and technical services manager for Cortez, talk in May about the Cortez Hills Pit. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Mike Protani, left, the open pit manager at Barrick Gold Corp,’s Cortez Mine, talks in May with John Tucker, who just transferred from Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine to be the tire shop supervisor. They are standing in front of a tire on a 400-ton haul truck in the Cortez Hills truck shop.
Cortez ... Continued from page 16 transport of refractory ore to Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine for processing and limited mine dewatering at Cortez Hills. “Now, we’re in the middle of really accelerated efforts to catch up with lost ground,” Dale said. Cortez produced 1.14 million ounces in 2010. Most of the ore trucked to Goldstrike comes from the Cortez Hills underground mine, and most of it is processed at Goldstrike’s autoclaves, he said. The underground mining held back from the areas of refractory ore while the injunction was in effect. “Now, we’re building a team to operate the mine into the future,” said Mike Protani, the open pit manager for the Cortez operations. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a record of decision in mid-March that lifted the injunction that the U.S. District Court in Reno put into effect in answer to a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals over Cortez Hills. The Western Shoshone Defense Project, the Te-Moak and Timbisha tribes and Great Basin Resource Watch filed the appeal over concerns about Cortez Hills Project’s potential environmental and water impacts and impacts to Mount
Tenabo, which they said was sacred to the Western Shoshone. At Cortez Hills, surface mining is in Phase III, and Protani said Phase IV will move into the area where the viewing stand is now in late summer. “They hit mining rates of 500,000 tons per day at the open pit,” Dale said, adding that the underground mining rate is as high as 1,500 tons per day. Protani also said the pit eventually will go 900 feet deeper to reach the underground mine. “We will even mine some underground backfill from the open pit,” Protani said. He said the Cortez fleet includes 24 of the 400-ton Liebherr haul trucks, two 330-ton Komatsu haul trucks, 11 240-ton Komatsu trucks and two 350-ton Caterpillar haul trucks, as well as an hydraulic shovel and a loader. Supervisory workshop As part of Cortez’s efforts to improve efficiencies and safety, the mine is trying a new approach — the Supervisory Investment Workshop geared to front-line supervisors — and a rotation of managers are assigned to each of the threeweek workshops, according to Dale. Each workshop has about 10 people See CORTEZ, 18
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Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Kitt Dale, the acting general manager at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Mine in Lander County and the mine’s technical services manager, stands in front of the new metal removal plant at the mine. Three magnets pull any metals, such as screens, bolts and plates, from ore from the underground Cortez Hills operations. The scrap metal is recycled.
Cortez ... Continued from page 17 participating, and Cortez has invited supervisors from other Barrick operations in Nevada too. “Rather than just throw the keys to someone, we decided its time to engage in a structural program to provide supervisors with the tools to do what we expect them to do,” Dale said. “The main goal is to raise the level of performance.” “It’s about being out in the field and working with people,” said Marie Byington, human resources and training manager. The workshop includes inspecting facilities, and Dale said standards are rising throughout the property, which may be attributed to the program. Another Cortez manager preparing for the next the workshop, Charlie Beatty, said a lot of supervisors “don’t realize the huge resource on site,” and the workshops offer them a chance to learn about the other departments and the many skills available at the mine. Steve Cohen is the project manager for the Supervisory Investment Workshop. Metal-removal plant Cortez also has a unique metalremoval plant now in operation for ore from the underground mine, using a series of magnets to pull the metals out
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before the ore is sent to the mill at Pipeline or taken by truck to Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine for processing in the autoclaves. Dale said one reason for the metal removal is so ore eventually can be moved on the conveyor system that extends from Cortez Hills to the Pipeline mill, but the ore isn’t being placed on the conveyor yet. The metals that the plant removes are bolts, plates and screens used in underground mining to support the ground and later mined out. The metals are recycled as scrap. “We thought it was much better, much safer to have an automated system,” Dale said. “We had to develop it with a series of vendors.” While mining goes on, drilling rigs are busy on the property as well. One Boart Longyear rig is doing technical test holes to help locate a new portal and Range Front decline site that Cortez may use for the underground mine to gain another access, Dale said. The new portal will take miners to an orebody that heads west from the current operations. Also under way is a development of a See CORTEZ, 19
Cortez ... Continued from page 18 blind bore that will provide ventilation to the underground mine. The blind bore that will be 14 feet in diameter is called that because all the work is done from the top, rather than underground. “It’s the first in Nevada,� Dale said. Drilling rigs also are exploring and doing hydrology work, he said, and one large rig is dewatering at Crossroads in preparation for mine development there. Cortez Mine is permitted to dewater up to 34,500 gallons per minute from Pipeline and Cortez Hills combined. Dale said construction will be in full swing this summer to move a portion of the county road that leads to Cortez Hills for a new tailings dam at Pipeline. Cortez moved another part of the road earlier because of construction of Cortez Hills facilities. Dale also said debottling improvements at the Pipeline mill are nearly completed and more than 11,500 tons of ore per day are moving through the mill.
Liebherr mechanics work on a 400-ton haul truck at the Cortez Hills operations in Lander County. Liebherr has facilities in Elko. Ahren Anthony of Elko is standing in the bed of the smaller truck. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly
See CORTEZ, 20
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Elko Mining Expo may be biggest yet By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Kelly Black works on the assembly of a 100-ton Komatsu haul truck at the Elko yard in May. The truck will be displayed at the Elko Mining Expo June 9-10 and then go to the buyer, the Jerritt Canyon Mine north of Elko.
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ELKO — The Elko Mining Expo has more booths this year than ever, and the Elko Convention and Visitors Authority expected to be sold out or nearly so before the June 9-10 exhibition as high gold prices entice more companies to come to Elko. “I think it will be very successful, with the price of gold and the amount of interest we’ve had so far,” said Jen Stotts, events coordinator for the ECVA. The price has been in the range of $1,500 an ounce since April, sometimes dipping a little below and sometimes rising well above that mark. “We’ve geared a lot of marketing to attendance,” Stotts said, which includes encouraging vendors to come to the Expo even if they don’t get a booth so they can meet others and talk about their products. “There is a wide range of people who come through — miners and business people looking to buy equipment and the newest technologies. It’s kind of a onestop shop,” she said. Stotts said the ECVA is seeing the return of mining companies that hadn’t had booths in recent years. The Expo has 469 booths, including 48 new ones to be set up in Elko Main City Park that sold out quickly. “Everything is sold out except overflows. The only ones left are some along the fence line, but they are filling up,” Stotts said on May 18, at which time she reported there were 374 exhibitors so far. Some take more than one booth space. Expo week begins on June 6 when the annual golf tournament at Ruby View Golf Course kicks off the event, and the golf tournament sold out early. “We’ve been sold out since February,” said Lou Schack, director of communications and community affairs for Barrick Gold of North America and the tournament chairman. “It’s incredible how many people sign up and the demand for participation in all the Expo events. We’ve very thankful to all the sponsors who make it possible,” he said. The awards banquet that follows the tournament the evening of June 7 also is sold out. Cashman Equipment, which is marking its 80th anniversary this year, is sponsoring the tournament banquet. Newmont Mining Corp., which is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, is
sponsoring the kickoff banquet on June 8 at Stockmen’s Hotel & Casino, and Stotts said the banquet is also expected to be sold out. The banquet’s feature speaker will be James Stefanic, operations manager for Geotec Boyles Bros. and one of the lead rescuers when 33 miners were trapped in an underground mine in Chile. “This should be very, very interesting,” Stotts said. The exhibition opens at 9 a.m. June 9, and hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 9 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. the following day. Visitors will have a chance this year to see large haul trucks that Komatsu plans to display, including a 100-ton truck that is sold to the Jerritt Canyon Mine north of Elko and will be delivered after the show, according to Travis Mullins, Komatsu’s Elko branch manager. He said Komatsu also may display a 60ton vehicle that M-I SWACO at Battle Mountain purchased. Cashman also will have big mining equipment at the Expo, according to the company. Expo map on page 83 The Minor Miners event for children will be back from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days, and there will be a playland in the park. The Expo also will feature a new Product Showcase in the convention center June 9 and 10. “There is no fee to attend and no fee to present it. We had a lot of interest, and it is full,” Stotts said. The schedule includes: FLSmidth, 9 a.m. June 9, overview of products, services and engineering capabilities; 2 p.m. June 9, developments of the millMAX pumps; 9 a.m. June 20, pneumatic conveying technologies; Platt Electric, 9:30 a.m. June 9, power tools; noon June 9, thermal imaging; 11 a.m. June 10, thermal imaging; Extreme Duty Filtration, 10 a.m. June 9 and 10 a.m. June 10, bypass filtration units; Hanlon Engineering, 11 a.m. June 9, water treatment and residual resource recovery; Victaulic, 1 p.m. June 9, grooved piping products and mechanical joining systems; AFEX Fire Suppression, 1:30 p.m. June 9, fire suppression systems on mobile mining equipment; Monarch Mining Systems, 2:30 p.m. June 9, water technologies; FLIR Infrared Cameras, 3 p.m. June 9, thermal imagery cameras; Furgro Horizons Inc., 4:10 p.m. June 9, aerial mapping for large-scale mines; Veolia Water Technologies, 4:40 p.m. June 9, water clarifiers; and AdEge Technologies, 9:30 a.m., water treatment solutions for mining applications.
Cortez ... Continued from page 19 Barrick earnings Companywide, Barrick reported a 22 percent rise in net income to $1 billion, or $1 per share, in the first quarter due to higher gold and copper prices and lower costs. Barrick’s net income without adjustments in the first quarter compared with $820 million in the first quarter of last year, and adjusted net income for the 2011 quarter was up 32 percent to $1 billion, $1.01 per share, compared with $763 million, or 78 cents per share, last year. Barrick also reported gold production totaled 1.96 million ounces in the first quarter, produced at a total cash cost of $437 per ounce and a net cost of $308 per ounce, compared with 2.06 million ounces in the first quarter of last year at total cash costs of $392 per ounce. The North American region produced 862,000 ounces in the quarter at a total cash cost of $396 per ounce, compared with 729,000 ounces at a total cash cost of $456 per ounce. Barrick reported Goldstrike north of Carlin produced 286,000 ounces of gold at a total cash cost of $461 per ounce in the quarter from the BetzePost Pit and Meikle underground operations, compared with 280,000 ounces in the first quarter of last year at a total cash cost of $533 per ounce. Turquoise Ridge produced 37,000 ounces of gold for Barrick’s 75 percent share in the first quarter, up from 34,000 ounces in the 2010 quarter. Newmont Mining Corp. owns the remaining 25 percent. Also in Nevada, the Round Mountain Mine in Nye County produced 39,000 ounces in the first quarter for Barrick’s 50 percent share, down from
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
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New hires at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Hills operations in Lander County gather in May under the bed of a 400-ton haul truck in the shop during an orientation tour. The two men in the foreground are Mike Protani, open pit manager, and Kitt Dale, acting general manager, who briefly chatted with the group.
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Cortez ... Continued from page 20 41,000 ounces in the 2010 quarter. Kinross Gold owns the other half and operates Round Mountain. The Bald Mountain Mine in White Pine County, 100 percent Barrick owned, produced 15,000 ounces in the quarter, up from 13,000 last year as the mine continues an expansion project. The Ruby Hill Mine at Eureka produced 36,000 ounces, up from 13,000 in the 2010 quarter, and the Marigold Mine near Valmy produced 11,000 ounces for Barrick’s one-third share, down from 15,000 in the 2010 quarter. Goldcorp Inc. operates Marigold and owns the remaining two-thirds. Equinox acquisition Barrick also expects to close in June on its proposed acquisition of Equinox Minerals Ltd. for $7.68 billion for Equinox’s copper production in Zambia and copper potential in Saudi Arabia. Barrick defended its decision in the earnings teleconference and Barrick’s annual meeting over concerns that Barrick was moving away from gold. “Our focus is on gold. That’s our core business,” Regent said in the teleconference. Peter Munk, Barrick’s founder and chairman, said at the annual meeting Barrick would be “foolish, suicidal and totally wrong” to take Barrick’s focus off gold, but the company also needs to be willing to reach out for a deal that would boost cash flow. Barrick’s acquisition of Equinox would reduce the company’s current ratio of roughly 90 percent gold production to 10 percent copper to roughly 82 percent gold and 18 percent copper, Regent said in the teleconference.
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Barrick Gold Corp.
This chart is from a Barrick Gold Corp. presentation on plans to acquire Equinox Minerals Ltd.
Nevadans at Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo Project By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — One of Barrick Gold Corp.’s largest projects is Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, and the new mine will be part of Barrick Gold of North America’s operations. “This is the largest start-up project for this region,” Lou Schack, director of communications and community affairs for Barrick’s North American region, said shortly after returning from the Dominican Republic. The new general manager is Joe Dick, who until recently was the general manager at the Cortez Mine in Lander County. “There are quite a few people from Nevada transferred down there in various supervisory and training roles, and that will continue for a while as we approach start-up,” Schack said.
He said there were more than 8,000 contractors on site, and the total capital costs are more than $3 billion. The mine will employ roughly 1,500 people once it is in production and provide work for a number of vendors in the country, he said. Pueblo Viejo will provide gold production for more than 20 years. “It will be one of the big producers in North America, along with Goldstrike and Cortez,” Schack said. Barrick is the project operator and owns 60 percent of Pueblo Viejo. Goldcorp Inc. owns the remaining 40 percent. Pueblo Viejo is an old mine closed more than 20 years but now being revived and expanded. “There are a lot of existing issues on the environmental side from the previous operations so we will be able to mitigate and repair as we go,” Schack said.
Submitted
Barrick Gold of North America oversees the new Pueblo Viejo Project in the Dominican Republic. From left: Greg Lang, president of Barrick Gold of North America, based in Salt Lake City; Joe Dick, general manager of Pueblo Viejo, coming from the Cortez Mine in Nevada; and Manuel Bonilla, president of Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corp., a joint venture company with Goldcorp Inc. Toronto-based Barrick stated in its first-quarter earnings report that production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2012 at Pueblo Viejo. Barrick’s 60 percent share of annual
gold production in the first full five years of operation there is expected to average 625,000-675,000 ounces at total cash costs of $275-$300 per ounces, the company reported.
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Hollister’s high ore grades promising By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor GOLCONDA — Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s Hollister operations are so high grade that a ton of ore represents at least an ounce of gold, and sometimes much more. The company reported that in the first quarter of this year Hollister mined 1,025 tons of ore with an average grade of more than 3 ounces per ton. The narrow, gold-laden veins at the mine produced 28,500 ounces of gold in the first quarter, and the company continues to explore underground at Hollister to learn more about the Blanket Zone where bonanza grades were found last November. Hollister discovered the bonanza grades with an average grade as high 2,560.4 ounces per ton. Great Basin President and Chief Executive Officer Ferdi Dippenaar stated in the first-quarter earnings report that mining of the Blanket Zone continued “with a total of 2,961 tons mined to date, which at grades of 3.75 ounces per ton of gold and 6.55 ounces per ton of silver resulted in 11,382 gold equivalent ounces being extracted.” All of this latest high-grade ore comes at a time when gold prices are in the record range of $1,500 per ounce. “It’s a good time to be in gold mining. That’s for sure,” said Doug Crawford, the Hollister mine manager.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
See HOLLISTER, 25
Pierce Roberts, left, shift foreman at Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s Hollister underground operations, talks in early May with the general foreman, Chris Corley. Test mining and exploration are under way at Hollister in northwestern Elko County.
24 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
Hollister ... Continued from page 24 He said Hollister already took a fair amount of gold out of the bonanza areas, and the grades are “calming down,” but there may be more pockets of high grades. “That’s why we’re doing more drilling,” Crawford said in early May. Steve Konieczki, the technical manager at Hollister, described the Blanket Zone as “volcanic rocks up here and sedimentary rocks below. The gold sat there and boiled and bubbled and concentrated.” Hollister isn’t the usual underground mine in Nevada because of the narrow veins, which in turn means miners work in smaller headings than most underground gold mines in northeastern Nevada. Timber support For example, Hollister uses timbers for support and to build chutes from one level to the next, a tried-and-true method that works for Hollister but doesn’t work for large-scale underground mines. Chris Corley, general foreman at Hollister, pointed out how timber was used to create an escapeway going 140 feet up from the 5,050-foot elevation to the 5,190-foot level. “I actually did this one with a couple of part-
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
See HOLLISTER, 26
Hollister General Foreman Chris Corley stands on a timber platform at the underground mine. “I actually did this one,” Corley said during an early May tour. He said he built the support and access with a couple of partners to reach roughly 140 feet up to the next level.
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 25
Hollister ... Continued from page 25 ners,” he said. Hollister uses 8-foot by 8-foot timbers and 3-foot by 12-foot mine timbers. Another stope has been set up for training, and this one also uses timbers. “It’s like a school stope, basically,” Crawford said. “We’re using guys to pass on knowledge. It’s being mined for ore while people are being trained.” Main timbers go between the hanging wall and the foot wall, he said. “This has multiple compartments for supplies, manway and joker chute, or mill hole. Ore falls down to be transferred to a muck bay,” Corley said. “They are learning the complete stope cycle, from start to finish.” Timbers at the rear of the stope are in front of concrete foam backfill, and timber is used as a form for the concrete foam. “This is one of the original methods of mining, and obviously timber helps support the ground,” Crawford said. Hollister uses a cut-and-fill method. “The key to success will be narrow-vein extraction. The current technique works,” Crawford said. “We’re staying with cut and fill and sometimes long-hole stoping.” Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
See HOLLISTER, 28
26 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
Adam Arthur, left, of Winnemucca and Robert Tresner of Elko operate an American Drilling core rig in early May at Great Basin Gold’s Hollister underground operations in Elko County. They are testing the Gwenivere Vein. American Drilling is out of Spokane, Wash.
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 27
Hollister ... Continued from page 26 Hollister experimented with the thermal fracturing method, and found that it works but not as efficiently as the cut-and-fill method, he said. The company is still experimenting, however, with the long-hole stoping and with backfilling alternatives and reviewing cut-and-fill methods, according to a fact sheet from Konieczki. Esmeralda Mill Great Basin Gold expects to produce 110,000 ounces of gold this year at Hollister, and the ore will be processed at the company’s Esmeralda Mill near Hawthorne. “All of the ore is planned for Esmeralda milling,” said Crawford, who has worked at Hollister since the spring of 2003 when Hecla Mining still operated the exploration project and earlier worked for Hecla at Lucky Friday in Idaho and Rosebud in Nevada. Great Basin Gold reported on May 3 that of the 28,500 ounces of gold equivalent produced in the first quarter, roughly 17,400 ounces had been sold to an outside refinery the company is using until the mill is ready to pour on site. The delay in gold sales impacted earnings for the quarter, along with other adjustments, according to See HOLLISTER, 29
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
A loader with a 4-yard bucket fills a 30-ton haul truck with waste material in early May at Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s underground Hollister operations in northwestern Elko County. Cindy Premo is driving the truck and Larry Johns operates the loader.
28 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
Hollister ... Continued from page 28 the company. Great Basin Gold reported a net loss of $20.88 million, or 5.14 cents per share, in the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $6.26 million, or 2 cents per share, in the first quarter of last year. Cash costs were $670 per ounce in the 2011 quarter. The company stated that Esmeralda will continue to ship loaded carbon to the refinery until an acid generation system has been completed at the mill. John Davis Trucking takes the ore from Hollister to Esmeralda five days a week, according to Crawford. Although Hollister is in Elko County, the site is remote. Trucks have to travel from Interstate 80 north of Golconda and follow the road to the town of Midas before turning to head for Hollister. Great Basin Gold was sending the bulk-sampled ore from Hollister to Newmont Mining Corp.’s Midas Mine and Yukon-Nevada Gold’s Jerritt Canyon Mine for processing while the Esmeralda Mill was reconditioned to process the Hollister ore.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Larry Johns of Winnemucca pauses from his operation of a 4-yard loader in early May at Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s underground Hollister test-mining operations in Elko County. He was loading material into a haul truck.
Hollister General Foreman Chris Corley talks with Cindy Premo in early May at the Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s underground operations in Elko County. Premo is driving a 30-ton haul truck.
Great Basin Gold reported gold recoveries are improving at the mill, exceeding 90 percent. Hollister is still in test-mining mode and awaiting U.S. Bureau of Land Management approval to become a fullproduction mine. BLM study The BLM is working on the draft environmental impact statement for Hol-
lister, and Elko BLM Public Affairs Specialist Lesli Ellis-Wouters said the study is in the process of interdisciplinary review. She said the goal is to have the draft EIS out to the public by late summer or early fall. Hollister currently has 110 employees on site and is actively looking for experienced miners, especially miners who
know how to work in a narrow-vein underground operation, using cut and fill methods and timber, Crawford said. “It’s a challenge to qualified people. We do training on our own, and we show timbering techniques and get them to know our process.” Although Hollister has 110 employees, See HOLLISTER, 31
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Newmont Mining Corp. celebrates 90th anniversary this year By ADELLA HARDING
Mining Quarterly Editor CARLIN — Newmont Mining Corp. is celebrating its 90th anniversary at a time when gold prices are at a record. Newmont President and Chief Executive Officer Richard O’Brien stated in Newmont’s “The Gold Standard” magazine that Newmont has a “proud legacy of leadership, innovation, industry firsts and responsibility. We are rapidly moving into the next phase of our journey, and I see a bright future for our company.” Although Newmont was incorporated 90 years ago, Newmont didn’t begin producing gold in Nevada until 46 years ago. The first gold pour on the Carlin Trend was on May 4, 1965, when Newmont made history in the gold industry by opening the first new gold mine in the United States in 50 years, according to “Going for Gold,” a Newmont history written by Jack Morris. He wrote that the Carlin operation “breathed new life into Nevada’s economy and propelled a company, once noted for its diversity, into world leadership in production of the yellow metal.” Newmont’s first gold bar poured north of Carlin weighed 92 pounds and was valued at $47,000 at the governmentfixed price of $35 an ounce, according to Morris. Today, gold is selling in the range of $1,500 an ounce, and Newmont employs more than 34,000 employees and contractors in eight countries. As early as the 1920s, Newmont had taken interest in a handful of U.S. mining, smelting and gold companies — many of which sustained the company during the Great Depression, according to the Newmont history on its website. By the 1930s, the company acquired three more gold companies in Canada, and opened two lead and zinc mines in Colorado. But the Carlin discovery was revolutionary. The Carlin production was the first from ore containing gold that can’t be seen by the naked eye but could be processed using cyanide in large-scale, surface mining. The company started mining at the
LEFT: Dave Sirotek, general foreman of mine operations in Newmont Mining Corp.’s South Operations Area, started working for Newmont in 1980, and one of his early jobs was at Newmont’s first pit on the Carlin Trend, Carlin Main, in the background. The Carlin East underground portal is at the bottom. BELOW: William “Bronco” Garton, left, senior mine foreman for Carlin operations, and John Bailey, senior projects foreman for Newmont’s Carlin operations, stand in midMay where Carlin Mill 1 and related buildings stood for many years. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly
Carlin Main Pit, where mining resumed in May after a few years when Newmont was mining elsewhere on the Carlin Trend, and the first pit and Mill 1 bring back memories for long-time employees. “I started in 1980, and Gold Quarry was not here,” said Dave Sirotek, general foreman of mine operations in Newmont’s South Area north of Carlin. He said he worked at Mill 1 and the Carlin Main Pit, and he recalled the earlier pits after Carlin were Bootstrap, Capstone, Genesis and Tara, and Newmont is about to mine again at Genesis. Sirotek recalled the equipment was a lot smaller than the 240-ton haul trucks now in use so the number of employees in the pit operations hasn’t changed that much over the years. He learned how to operate all the equipment in time. William “Bronco” Garton, senior mine foreman for Carlin operations, said he See ANNIVERSARY, 73
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Hollister ... Continued from page 29 Great Basin Gold has 217 employees in Nevada, including those based in the administration building in Winnemucca and those operating the mill near Hawthorne, according to Lee Morrison, the human resources manager. Hollister has 907,000 ounces of gold equivalent reserves and 1.6 million ounces of measured and indicated gold equivalent resources, and the current mine life is estimated at eight years, according to the company. Along with the test mining at Hollister, the underground exploration continues with the operation of three core drilling rigs, and the BLM has approved expanded exploration on the surface. According to Great Basin Gold, more than 30 gold-bearing veins have been discovered at Hollister, which is test mining six of these veins and has 11 more available for future efforts. In addition to the Hollister veins, onsite exploration targets include the Gloria veins, Velvet Butte trend, the Pit Feeder veins and Hatter trend.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Steve Deneef just arrived back on the surface in early May after carrying supplies underground at Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s Hollister operations in northwestern Elko County.
Josh Viljoen of Winnemucca, left, and Orion Mohn of Pahrump pause in their operation of a double-boom jumbo drill at Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s Hollister underground operations in northwestern Elko County.
Current mine life is eight years, but exploration could extend the mine life. Exploration holes The company reported in April that during the first quarter, two exploration holes were drilled at the Velvet target and 15 holes at Blanket, along with 24 slope delineation holes. Great Basin Gold also stated then that the Velvet targets would be further tests
by surface drilling this summer. The slope delineation in the quarter was evaluating the main Gwenivere and Clementine veins, and this included a significant pay shoot where trial mining yield ore with a diluted average grade of 2.844 opt of gold and 22.2 opt of silver over lengths of 162 feet and a vein width of 2.4 feet. Konieczki said Hollister has excavated
more than 24,500 feet of drift, or roughly 4.7 miles, so far, and there are three active mining levels. The top level is at 5,278 feet elevation, the mid-level area is at 5,190 feet and the deepest is at 5,050 feet elevation. On the safety side, Hollister showed an 87 percent improvement in the number See HOLLISTER, 32
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 31
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s portal to the underground Hollister test-mining and exploration project is in the far center of the old East Pit, where surface facilities for the operation are situated. This view was photographed in early May.
Hollister ... Continued from page 31 of significant and substantial violations, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. “That’s where we want to be. There was a lot of hard work on the part of employees, and we need to make sure everyone goes home safe,” Crawford said. MSHA had listed Hollister as a mine with the potential for a pattern of significant and substantial violations. Crawford said that while there were no fatalities or serious injuries, there were two worker falls that triggered extra
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MSHA inspections, and Hollister submitted a plan and took the steps to improve safety. The Hollister portal leading underground is in the East Pit left from earlier mining in the area often referred to as Ivanhoe, and all the surface facilities are in the pit. Plans call for building offices outside the pit if the BLM approved the mine, however, and that BLM approval will allow Great Basin Gold to extend power See HOLLISTER, 34
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 33
Hollister ... Continued from page 32 to the mine. Generators provide the electricity now. In addition to the portal, Hollister has one Alimak raise as a secondary escape route and is working on a second one. Hollister is in the area of the historic Tosawihi Quarry where the Western Shoshone mined chert for weapons, and Great Basin Gold has strict policies about ground disturbance, according to Crawford. “There can be no new disturbance and no offroad travel,” he said. Great Basin Gold subsidiary Rodeo Creek Gold Inc. and the BLM’s Elko District reached a $1.5 million settlement late last year that creates a special fund focused on the Tosawihi Quarries. Rodeo Creek Gold will contribute the money over a 10-year period for the fund designated strictly for the protection and preservation of the Tosawihi Quarry Archaeological District. Great Basin Gold, which has its headquarters in South Africa, has started mining at Burnstone there, and 5,511 ounces of gold were recovered in the first quarter as the operation continues to ramp up.
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Jeff Tindall, tractor driver, and Chuck Keller, both of Winnemucca, pull out of the Hollister underground mine portal in early May. The hollister operations in northwestern Elko County are located in the mined-out West Pit from earlier mining operations. Ross Andreson Mining Quarterly
Yukon-Nevada may soon mine SSX-Steer By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. hopes to be mining again at the SSXSteer underground complex at Jerritt Canyon 50 miles north of Elko around the end of June. “We’re just waiting for equipment,” said Chief Operating Officer Graham Dickson. Crews have been preparing SSX-Steer for the resumption of mining that was shut down in August 2008, and YukonNevada’s expected new financing will boost the work at SSX-Steer and plans to update the mill. Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Baldock said the Vancouver-based company is receiving $60 million from Deutsche Bank Global Mining Finance that makes the bank a shareholder and a $120 million loan from the bank. “All of the financing is only done after the companies do their due diligence at the site. The difference with this financ-
ing is normally financing is debt, but the bank is putting money in themselves and will be a shareholder,” he said. “This shows they think this project will go,” Baldock said. Yukon-Nevada has been building up Jerritt Canyon since the resumption of milling of stockpiles and ore from Newmont Mining Corp. and resumption of underground mining at the Smith Mine, which Small Mine Development is doing under contract. SMD currently has 40 employees at the Smith Mine, according to Cheryl Gmirkin, the company’s business manager. The SMD employees are in addition to the 198 Jerritt Canyon employees. “We will be tooling up for a few more once we get fully under way at SSXSteer,” Dickson said. Meanwhile, Yukon-Nevada subsidiary Queenstake Resources USA in mid-May signed a $3.6 million settlement agreement with the 400 workers laid off in August 2008 when the company abruptly closed the mine due to
financial problems, lawyers for both sides confirmed. Queenstake signed in mid-May, and the four ex-employees who filed the class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno against Queenstake — Kurt Knudsen, Donald Capp, Larry Moon, Steve Volkert and Paul Dyer — also signed the revised agreement that met U.S. Department of Labor requirements. The ex-employees will have 60 days to sign claim notices once the court approves the settlement, and a thirdparty administrator then will act on the claims. The claims are for the half of lay-off pay not paid earlier and for medical bills pending when the mine shut down, as well as reimbursements on 401(k) contributions and health savings plan contributions. Yukon-Nevada’s progress at Jerritt Canyon also includes the purchase of three, new 100-ton Komatsu haul trucks that will be used to more ore and stockpiles to the mill and for future work on
the planned new tailings pond. “That should be under way by this summer,” Dickson said of the pond. Yukon-Nevada’s mill work is planned for September, when the mill will be shutdown for overhaul, and this work will include winterization so production isn’t affected by wet ore. Dickson said ore will be dried up front before processing instead of later. Newmont currently is transporting roughly 1,000 tons of ore a day to Jerritt Canyon for processing under an extended agreement, he also said. The company recently announced updated resources for Jerritt Canyon, the first since 2007. The 1.47 million ounces of measured and indicated gold resources is up 578,000. Baldock said the increase in measured and indicated resources is after all the gold production since that time, and exploration continues. “We expect to release an updated number in February of next year that will include this season’s drilling,” he said.
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Gold Hill moves closer to mining satellite pit By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — Round Mountain Gold Corp. is advancing development toward mining the Gold Hill satellite in Nye County, according to General Manager Randy Burggraff. “We have the road constructed all the way up to the site, including stream and animal crossings,” he said. The animal crossings are culverts that go under the road so animals can get from one side of the road to the other because above ground is fencing. “All the site is cleared and grubbed, and the water diversion facilities are constructed to divert creeks around the mine, and now in the next week or two, we’re going out for bids to build the process plant, leach pad and crushing for the leach pad overliner,” Burggraff said on May 20. Gold Hill roughly five miles north of the Round Mountain Pit will be a surface mine with all the gold ore going to the leach pad and processed on site,
although the gold pours will be at the Round Mountain refinery. “The start of mining will be mining rock for the overliner,” Burggraff said, estimating that will start by August, “so in a sense we will be mining while building the leach pad.” He said Round Mountain Gold still expects to begin producing gold at Gold Hill in the first quarter of next year. Round Mountain Gold is the partnership of Kinross Gold Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp., with Kinross the operator of Round Mountain and Gold Hill. Round Mountain Gold Hill is just a part of the expansion project under way at Round Mountain. Kinross also is expanding the Round Mountain Pit, and the work there already completed includes increasing the height of leach pads by 50 feet and relocating the crusher system to make room for the growing pit. “The new crushing and conveyor system has been running about 10 days now. I’m just feeling good about it. It was a big project,” Burggraff said in a
36 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
telephone interview. “The next cut on the pit will take out where the conveyor system used to be, Phase H,” he said. Round Mountain plans to start going deeper in the pit in early June. The work at Round Mountain also included expansion of waste dumps, and Burggraff said the new areas have been in use at least a couple of months. Round Mountain currently has 750 employees, which is roughly the same, but the number of contractors on site has been as high as 210 the past six to eight months. Burggraff said Gold Hill will involve 20 to 50 contractors all year, beyond the 210. Kinross reported that Round Mountain produced 42,121 ounces of gold for its share in the first quarter of this year, down from 45,629 ounces in the 2010 quarter. Production costs were up at $792 per ounce, compared with $578 per ounce in the 2010 quarter. “We will be very close to what was produced last year by the end of this year,”
Burggraff said. Round Mountain produced 358,614 ounces of gold in 2010 for both Kinross and Barrick combined. Worldwide production Also in the United States, Kinross produced 65,047 ounces of gold in the first quarter at its Fort Knox Mine in Alaska, down from 69,640 ounces last year, and 45,852 ounces from the Kettle RiverBuckhorn operation in Washington, down from 48,405 ounces last year. Kupol in Russia produced 205,675 ounces in the 2011 quarter, compared with 192,921 ounces last year, while the company’s new mines in Africa produced a combined total of 113,358 ounces. Mines in Brazil produced 115,240 ounces, down from 136,328 ounces, and mines in Chile produced 113,186 ounces, up from 99,441 ounces last year, according to the earnings report. The company stated that production for all mines in the 2011 quarter totaled See ROUND, 37
Round ... Continued from page 36 642,857 gold equivalent ounces, up 18 percent over production in the first quarter of last year. Production costs were $543 per ounce in the quarter, compared with $456 per ounce in the 2010 quarter. Companywide, Toronto-based Kinross reported net earnings of $255.5 million, or 23 cents a share, in the first quarter, up from the 2010 quarter on higher gold prices and increased production. The $255.5 million in earnings compares with $181.3 million, or 26 cents per share, last year. Adjusted net earnings totaled $180.3 million, or 16 cents per share, up 81 percent from the $99.7 million, or 14 cents per share, from the 2010 quarter, according to the earnings report. Kinross also reported record revenue of $937 million in the quarter, compared with $657.6 million last year, on an average realized gold price of $1,327 per ounce. The realized gold price in the 2010 quarter was $1,065 per ounce. “Strong performance from our operations, new production from West Africa and a robust gold price contributed to a 42 percent increase in revenue and an 81 percent increase in adjusted new earnings for Kinross,” said Tye Burt, president and chief executive officer. The production increase for the first quarter was mainly because Kinross now owns 100 percent of the Kupol Mine and that led the company to raise its forecast for this year from between 2.5 million and 2.6 million ounces to between 2.6 million and 2.7 million ounces. Kinross has 10 operating mines in North and South America, Russia and Africa, including the Tasiast Mine in Mauritania and the Chirano Mine in Ghana acquired with the purchase of Red Back last September.
Klondex begins Fire Creek decline By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — Klondex Mines Ltd. has started underground development at its Fire Creek Project northwest of the town of Crescent Valley and hopes to produce gold from test mining there late this year. “Things are progressing quite well, and we’re pretty darn excited,” said Blane Wilson, president and chief operating officer of the Vancouver-based company. He said drifting from the new portal that started in late April had reached 140 feet as of mid-May and Small Mine Development should be advancing about 20 feet a day as the project progresses. SMD has 14 employees on the project, according to Cheryl Gmirkin, SMD’s business manager. “We’re firing up Fire creek,” she said from her Idaho office. Wilson said once the drifting has reached more than 3,000 feet, a secondary vent raise would be started, probably in September and be completed the first part of November. “We expect the first bulk sampling could come out this December,” Wilson said.
No ore can be extracted until there is a secondary escape route. Klondex is permitted to mine up to 120,000 mineralized tons of material in trial mining and to produce gold from the sampling to be processed off site. Plans call for 3,650-foot decline to access the Main Zone for further delineation and bulk sampling of ore and estimates 6,475 feet of underground development yet this year, according to the company. N.A. Degerstrom had 15-20 people on site in mid-May doing site work, and there were a half dozen archaeologists at Fire Creek as well, according to Wilson. Exploration to follow up on veins intersected last year will continue as the work progresses. “We hope to have the first drill turning by the end of the month,” Wilson said in May, a month after the company announced it had secured a $20 million gold-backed debt facility to fund Fire Creek work. Klondex also reported it plans to update its resource estimate by the end of this year. The resources at the end of March 2009 included more than 1.6 million ounces of gold equivalent in the indicated category and nearly 509,000 ounces in the inferred category.
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 37
Jipangu steps up Standard mining By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor IMLAY — All the mining action is at the Standard Mine for Jipangu International crews that had been mining at Florida Canyon, the gold mine that sits along Interstate 80 west of Imlay in Pershing County. “The whole mining group is at Standard. We started mining in March and hit ore right at the bat,” said Joel Murphy, vice president of operations and general manager of the Florida Canyon and Standard operations. Standard is roughly five miles south of the Florida Canyon Mine, where mining is on hold but leaching continues and where the administration, laboratory and refining facilities are still in use while plans are under way for future mining. Murphy said mining at Standard now is in the North and Intermediate pits and barely beginning in the South Pit, which will be the largest of the pits at Standard, See JIPANGU, 39
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The new crusher system for Jipangu International’s Standard Mine near Imlay operates in the mined-out Cordex Pit. Ross Andreson Mining Quarterly
Jipangu ... Continued from page 38 encompassing the older Standard Pit. The mining is under way while development work continues, and plans call for stripping to begin shortly for a new leach pad. The current pad is taking ore at Standard, where the gold ore is run through a crusher set up in the mined-out Cordex Pit and then processed through leaching. All the ore at Standard is headed for the crusher, which was in operation but still not fully set up in May. “North will be mined until the end of the year. The Intermediate Pit will be done in about a month,” Murphy said in May. Crews backfill the pits as they are mined out, and Brent Ford, the engineer manager for Florida Canyon and Standard, said Standard is “more like mining a hill than a pit.” Second time Jipangu International mined Standard in the past all on private land but had to obtain U.S. Bureau of Land Management approval to go back because the expansion goes onto public land. The ore at Standard is a higher grade of gold than Florida Canyon, and the ore is just “there or not,” Murphy said, rather than as a widespread, low-grade deposit like Florida Canyon. “The Standard grade is See JIPANGU, 40
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
A 150-ton Caterpillar haul truck picks up a load of ore in May coming off the crusher in the mined-out Cordex Pit at the Jipangu International’s Standard Mine near Imlay.
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NEWMONT Gold Quarry back in action By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor CARLIN — Newmont Mining Corp. has much to do these days on the Carlin Trend as the company gears up for the newest open-pit projects, Genesis and Emigrant. Newmont also is absorbing the Fronteer Gold properties the company acquired that include Long Canyon, an advanced exploration property in Elko County that Newmont hopes to turn into a mine. “If that’s not expansion, I don’t know what is,” said Jack Henris, mine manager of Newmont’s Carlin surface operations. He said Newmont’s purchase of Fronteer and its funding of new projects shows that the company has decided to keep investing in northern Nevada. Newmont acquired Fronteer in April for $2.33 billion and with that deal came Long Canyon, the Northumberland Project in Nye County and the Sandman Project in Humboldt County and smaller exploration projects. See Page 8 for more on the former Fronteer properties. Along with the Fronteer deal and plans for Genesis and Emigrant, Newmont also is simply breathing a sigh of relief that Gold Quarry is back in gold production. “There was nothing from here for 15 months, from December 2009 to March 2011,” Henris said as he talked about Gold Quarry, where a giant pit-wall failure halted ore production. Crews had to mine the waste material at the slide site before they could once again get to gold ore, “so essentially we started a new layback,” he said. “It was a pretty rough year and a half at Gold Quarry.” Henris said when the pit wall failed, operators asked what would happen with their jobs, but he told them they would have more work than before the slide. “We had 40 million tons of alluvium See NEWMONT, 5
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Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
ABOVE: Two cranes are busy during the 35-day overhaul in May at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Mill 6, also called the roaster. The shutdown and overhaul involved 685 contractors. The roaster is at Newmont’s South Operations Area north of Carlin. LEFT: Newmont Mining Corp.’s Gold Quarry Pit north of Carlin is back in ore production now that a large pit-wall failure has been remediated and a buttress built. The lighter area in the center background is where the slide occurred.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Joel Murphy, general manager of Jipangu International’s Florida Canyon and Standard mines near Imlay, talks in May about future plans for the operations.
Jipangu ... Continued from page 39 two or three times higher.” Jipangu generally produces 60,000 ounces of gold a year, and production this year will come from both Standard and residual leaching at Florida Canyon. Standard was in residual leaching from the time mining ended there last in 2007 to current days. “The pad at Florida Canyon will leach for at least four years until we get back here,” Murphy said at the Florida Canyon
administration building. “We plan to get back to Florida Canyon in about three years.” That’s the estimated time for permitting for an expansion of the leach pad to handle more ore, and Jipangu expected to have a plan to submit to the BLM before the end of May. The BLM will decide whether the expansion will require an environmental assessment or more inSee JIPANGU, 41
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Blast-hole drill rigs are busy in May at the North Pit at Jipangu International’s Standard Mine near Imlay. The mine is roughly five miles from Jipangu’s Florida Canyon Mine.
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Jipangu ... Continued from page 40 depth environmental impact statement. “We’re praying it will be an EA,” Ford said. “It’s just a continuation of what we’ve been doing for 25 years.” Murphy said Florida Canyon has more than 1 million ounces of proven and probable reserves to keep the mine busy once it has BLM approval to return. “This property is really good at $1,500-ounce gold, but at $500 gold, it wouldn’t be good for us,” Ford said of Florida Canyon, which has at least 10 years of mine life. The high gold price doesn’t mean big profits, however, because of the high costs for tires, fuel, equipment and supplies, he and Murphy said. Ford and Murphy said during a tour they were concerned about any proposed tax increases that would affect the mining operation because the small operation doesn’t have economy of scale. “We’re a high-volume, low-grade producer,” Murphy said. Jipangu employs roughly 160 people at the Florida Canyon-Standard operations, which are the company’s only
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Jipangu International is back mining at the Standard Mine to the west of the Florida Canyon Mine near Imlay. This May overview shows the North Pit where mining is under way and the mined-out Cordex Pit in the background at right. mines in the United States. Ford said the company just closed its office in Denver but has one in Reno. The private company’s headquarters are in Tokyo.
Jipangu acquired Florida Canyon and Standard from Apollo Gold roughly six years ago. Jipangu is running 10 150-ton haul trucks and four 100-ton trucks at
Standard, where an office and change building was nearing completion in May, after the company bought the modular building from a BLM district in Montana, according to Ford.
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How it all started By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — Harold Heinen’s work paved the way for the modern-day processes that treat ore on a large scale to produce gold. “Harold worked on carbon loading and stripping techniques and made carbon adsorption and carbon-in-pulp and carbon-in-leach processes viable,” said Gene McClelland of Reno-based McClelland Laboratories Inc., who described Heinen as his mentor. “After that he started developing leaching techniques from copper leaching and later figured out agglomeration technology and therefore improved your gold recovering,” McClelland said. Heinen, 95, of Reno said in May that “mining has come a long way over the years due to research and testing.” McClelland said he worked for Heinen at the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and Heinen was brilliant.
“Decades ago the U.S. Army came to the Bureau of Mines with all this carbon, and that’s when he started working with carbon,” he said. “He did research on coconut shell carbon and made these processes viable today,” McClelland said. “I worked with Harold on all these technologies, but it was his mind and vision that drove all these research ideas that ended up developed for the mining industry,” he said. Cyanide processing started back in the late 1880s to replace the chlorine process miners used for gold and silver, but McClelland said it wasn’t until the early 1960s after the mining industry decided to go after microscopic gold that carbon technology came into play. McClelland said he and Heinen developed the agglomeration process after the first large-scale heap leach pad went into production at the Cortez Mine in 1975. “They had about a million tons on the
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Harold Heinen’s work makes gold mining viable today pad and trouble getting leach solution through the pad,” McClelland said. “Harold and I figured out how to Harold Heinen make mud balls, using binder with Portland type 2 cement, usually 8 to 10 pounds per ton of ore,” he said, explaining that adding water and tumbling the material caused the mud balls to grow. “They are like little sponge balls, very porous and kind of cool,” he said. Heinen provided his own recollection in May of developing the agglomeration process: “About 60 years ago while working as a metallurgist for the U.S. Bureau of
Mines at Reno, my neighbor, a cement contractor, showed me a concrete floor he had laid at a warehouse in Sparks. “The concrete flooring contained plugs, or small pockets of porous material because of the small amount of clay in the gravel. That gave me the idea of using Portland cement to convert the clay-like constituents of gold ores into porous granulated compounds so it will make the ore heap leachable for extracting the gold,” Heinen said. “Gene McClelland was my assistant in the laboratory, and we conducted column leach tests on gold ores. Fortunately, as little as five cents worth of Portland cement per ton of ore reacted with the clay constituent of a gold ore to make it into a porous material, which then became amenable to column percolation leaching,” he recalled. “After completion of these pilot labSee HEINEN, 43
Heinen ... Continued from page 42 oratory studies, I retired after 40 years of government service,” said Heinen, who has a master’s degree in chemistry. “Gene uses this technique in his business. This technique is also promoted and used worldwide,” he said. On the carbon-in-pulp method, the Nevada State Journal stated on Oct. 8, 1980, that Heinen and Raold Lindstrom of the U.S. Bureau of Mines came up with the landmark process that allowed the Carlin Mine to process carbonaceous ores. The Carlin Mine was the early name for Newmont Mining Corp.’s operations on the Carlin Trend. “Mining experts also suggest that, but for the development of the HeinenLindstrom process, Freeport Minerals might never have decided to open its new major gold mine in Jerritt Canyon of Elko County,” states the editorial. Even years after Heinen retired in 1979 from the Bureau of Mines that was closed in 1995, he was a consultant for McClelland Laboratories, which went into business in December 1986.
“Fortunately, as little as five cents worth of Portland cement per ton of ore reacted with the clay constituent of a gold ore to make it into a porous material ...” — Harold Heinen
“While I have a heard a lot about Harold Heinen, I think I met him once at Gene McClelland’s lab. He clearly made a big difference in the industry, both as a good researcher and engineer but also as a great person and mentor,” said Dirk van Zyl, a professor at the University of British Columbia who earlier was at the University of Nevada, Reno. Kenneth Brunk, president and chief
operating officer of Midway Gold Corp., said he believes Heinen’s “contributions, particularly in the area of gold processing, were instrumental in the development of the gold industry in the state of Nevada.” He also said Heinen’s agglomeration technology “made all the heap leaches in Nevada viable today.” Among Heinen’s honors, he received a Meritorious Service Award from the U.S . Department of Interior in 1978 and was chosen as a distinguished member of the Society of Mining Engineers for 1984-85. The citation from former Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus noted that Heinen started as a chemist with the Army Quartermaster Corps in 1940 and joined the Bureau of Mines as a metallurgist in 1942. The citation also states that Heinen’s especially noteworthy accomplishments “are the processes for the low cost extraction of gold and silver from marginal resources and recovery of gold and silver from the resulting solutions by activated carbon technology.”
South Fork Band signs agreement ELKO — The South Fork Band Council of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone has signed a collaborative agreement with Barrick Gold of North America. Members are now eligible for scholarships from the Legacy Fund, according to Lou Schack, director of communications and community affairs for Barrick Gold of North America. “The Legacy Fund already has over $1 million in the bank and will have paid out over a half million dollars in scholarships by the end of July,” he said. The fund is for students in the Western Shoshone and Paiute tribes that signed the collaborative agreement to work with the company, according to Barrick. The tribes filing lawsuits against Barrick aren’t eligible. Applications are due by July 8, according to Barrick. South Fork Band Council Chairman Brandon Reynolds signed the agreement in April.
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Rochester gearing for new production By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor LOVELOCK — Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester Mine in Pershing County is on its way to new silver production, and the site is busy with new, returning and longtime employees preparing for that new production. “It’s a huge accomplishment to put people back to work from Lovelock and Pershing County. What we’ve seen is once we put the shingle out again, so many people who worked here before want to work here again,” said Dana Sue Kimbal, the environmental manager for Rochester. “It’s a good testament to the work environment before. It’s definitely a nice place to work,” she said. The site now has 167 employees, and Mike Springfield, the human resources manager for Rochester, said plans are to reach 220 to 225 employees. Roughly 60 percent of the employees are from Pershing County. The remaining 40 percent come from Winnemucca, Fernley and Fallon, and Springfield said he’s had more than 1,100 applications, 600 of them since a job fair last October. Rochester is roughly 27 miles southwest of Lovelock. Mining stopped at Rochester in 2007, but Coeur is reviving mining after receiving U.S. Bureau of Land Management approval to expand. “We’re loading and hauling with new equipment and building a buttress for the conveyor system,” Kimbal said. We already have the pit lake filled. That was the first order of business.” Crews filled the small pit lake with waste rock that was inside the pit from past backfilling, and the crews are moving additional material to form the buttress, which will take roughly 7 million tons of material. “Some is now classified as ore and moved to the crusher stockpile,” but most material goes to the buttress, according to Lorin Noble, the production and maintenance superintendent for Rochester. The stockpile awaits start up of the three-tier crusher system once the primary, secondary and tertiary crushers that were mothballed so any ore now produced at Rochester is still coming See ROCHESTER, 45
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
A new Caterpillar loader dumps a load of waste rock into a new 100-ton Caterpillar haul truck at Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester Mine in Pershing County. Work was under way in May to build a buttress in the pit.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
New 100-ton Caterpillar haul trucks line up in May for waste rock to take to the portion of the Rochester Pit where a buttress is under construction to support a conveyor system. The loader is busy in the background.
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Rochester ... Continued from page 44 from residual leaching. Rochester production Rochester has continued producing silver and gold from residual leaching since the shutdown. Rochester produced 333,696 ounces of silver and 1,451 ounces of gold from residual leaching in the first quarter, and new silver and gold production is expected in the fourth quarter, according to Coeur. “We’re moving along the schedule with our expanded production plan and mine life at our long-time flagship Rochester silver and gold mine in Nevada,” Coeur Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Wheeler said in the first-quarter earnings report. “It’s on schedule to start adding new ounces of production in the fourth quarter for at least eight more years with plenty of exploration potential remaining,” he said. High silver prices are an added incentive to begin mining silver at Rochester again. The price reached a London fix high of $48.70 this spring before slipping to roughly $38 an ounce, still much higher than the London fix average spot price of $13.38 per ounce in 2007. High gold prices help too. Coeur reported the average realized gold price in the first quarter was $1,374 per ounce and the average silver price at $31.27 per ounce. Casey Tiel, technical superintendent, said Rochester expects to begin crushing material in July and putting it on the new leach pad, called Stage 3. Peavine Construction of Reno is constructing the pad and had roughly 40 contractors on site in May. “It’s none to soon to get this project up and running. There has been no new ore since 2007,” Kimbal said. Rochester has been operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week since April, when there were enough people hired and enough pieces of equipment on hand to do so. New equipment Coeur didn’t keep all of its equipment when mining ended in 2007, so the company purchased 16 new pieces of equipment for the restart of mining. “Everything we’ve ordered is on site,” Noble said in May. That equipment includes eight 100-
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Casey Kiel, technical superintendent at the Coeur Rochester Mine in Pershing County, looks out over the Rochester Pit where silver mining will resume this summer. In the background is the buttress under construction to support a surveyor system.
Marvin Weatherhead, left, the chief surveyor at the Rochester Mine in Pershing County, and Michael Martinez, both of Lovelock, are surveying prisms in May for slope monitoring of the open pit. Ross Andreson Mining Quarterly
See ROCHESTER, 46
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 45
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
A haul truck dumps a load of rock on the buttress under construction at Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester Mine in Pershing County. The buttress will support a new conveyor system for the resumption of silver mining.
Ed Brink of Fernley, who is with the Purcell Tire mining group, changes a tire in May on a 100-ton Caterpillar truck at the Coeur Rochester Mine. Rochester is leasing this older truck to supplement the mining fleet.
Rochester ... Continued from page 45 ton Caterpillar haul trucks, two Caterpillar loaders with 18-yard buckets, two Caterpillar bulldozers, one rubber-tire dozer, a grader and two new blast-hole drill rigs should be arriving in August, he said. Rochester also had a few pieces of equipment still on site and is leasing four haul trucks. Crews will install the conveyor from what was already on hand before the shutdown to bring ore from the crusher system to the new leach pad, according to Noble. All new employees receive safety training, as well as training on equipment. Rochester’s safety manager, Rich Wagner, said the mine will continue its longtime safety standards, as well as update them. “Since 1986, we’ve never had a fatality. Our goal and our focus is to be the safest mine in the world,” he said, adding that Rochester runs a behavior-based safety program. Noble said employees and job applicants consider safety a key reason to come to Rochester. “It’s on their minds,” he said. Wagner also said those like himself See ROCHESTER, 47
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
A crane lifts the main frame for the secondary crusher at Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester Mine in Pershing County. Crews were refurbishing the crusher in May as the silver mine prepares to go back into full production.
46 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
Rochester ... Continued from page 46 who continued working at Rochester after mining ended always believed Rochester would be revived again. Kimbal said the new hires include former construction workers and workers from the Empire gypsum mine that recently closed after 90 years, along with former Rochester employees leaving other jobs to return. As for exploration, Kimbal said Rochester is looking between the Rochester operations and the Packard deposit that was mined in 2002 as a satellite. “We want to be sure we have advanced planning and Springfield permitting,” she said. Rochester also has to complete a closure plan for the BLM as part of the requirement for obtaining the agency’s approval to expand, and Kimbal said Rochester will kick off the closure planning at the end of this year. Reclamation continues. The Stage I
leach pad was reclaimed 10 years ago, and the active Stage 4 and Stage 2 leach pads are contoured for future reclamation, although she said Stage 2 will be in use through 2012 and Stage 4 through 2014. All of the past waste dumps have been reclaimed and reseeded, and the new mining won’t require any waste dumps because all the material without silver ore will be used for pit backfill, according to Kimbal. Coeur earnings Companywide, Coeur announced in May that it posted record revenue in the first quarter as production rose and gold and silver prices increased. The Coeur d’Alene, Idaho-based company reported net income of $12.5 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with a loss of $12.9 million, or 16 cents per share, in the first quarter of last year.
Adjusted net earnings totaled $37.5 million, or 42 cents per share, and net metal sales totaled $199.6 million. “With silver and gold prices expected to remain strong despite recent volatility, we are anticipating 2011 to be the company’s best year ever by a wide margin, with record cash flows driven by 20 million ounces of silver production and 250,000 ounces of gold production,” Wheeler said. The company produced 4.1 million ounces of silver and 53,130 ounces of gold in the first quarter, compared with 3.4 million ounces of silver and 25,782 ounces of gold in the 2010 quarter. Coeur also has its first full year of production from three new mines: the San Bartolome in Bolivia, the Palmarejo mine in Mexico and Kensington in Alaska. Kensington produced 23,676 ounces of gold in the first quarter, Palmarejo produced 1.7 million ounces of silver and 27,759 ounces of gold and San Bartolome produced 1.7 million ounces of silver, according to Coeur.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Lorin Noble, the production and maintenance superintendent for the Rochester Mine in Pershing County, talks about the work under way to get the mine ready for new production.
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General Moly keeps Eureka residents updated By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Bob Pennington, vice president of engineering and construction for General Moly, talks about the Mt. Hope Project during a town hall meeting in April at the Eureka Opera House.
48 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
ELKO — General Moly is awaiting two actions on the Mt. Hope molybdenum project in Eureka County — the release of the draft study on the project and a ruling on water rights. “We’re pretty excited about coming up with the next big milestone of the draft publication,” said Pat Rogers, director of environmental and permitting for General Moly. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Battle Mountain district manager, Doug Furtado, said in May the BLM was “sort of on the last leg of review” of the preliminary draft. He said the draft environmental impact statement on Mt. Hope probably will be released in the third quarter. General Moly planned to update Eureka County residents on the draft EIS at two town hall meetings on June 2 and introduce the new Mt. Hope general manager, Mike Iannacchione, according to Zach Spencer, manager of external relations. Iannacchione came to Mt. Hope from the Marigold Mine in Humboldt County and earlier was at the Round Mountain Mine in Nye County. Spencer said Iannacchione also may be in Elko for the Elko Mining Expo, and General Moly will be at booth 537 June 9 and 10 at the Elko Convention Center. General Moly’s chief executive officer, Bruce Hansen, was slated to be at See GENERAL MOLY, 49
General Moly ... Continued from page 48 the town hall meetings that follow the latest meetings held at the Eureka Opera House in April. The Colorado-based company also planned to provide an update on the water permit applications. Water ruling State Engineer Jason King’s ruling on General Moly’s applications to change water rights from agricultural so the company can develop the Mt. Hope Project probably won’t come until sometime in June or July at least. “There is a lot of information to cover,” said Tim Wilson of the State Engineer’s Office. “There is no set time table, just a 240-day limit.” The State Engineer’s Office took additional testimony in a short hearing on May 10 to cover more information that General Moly submitted at the state engineer’s request, Wilson said. Rogers said he testified, and the hearing was “really focused just on the water balance, the uses of water and sources of water in Kobeh Valley and Diamond Valley.” The State Engineer’s Office is acting
again on the General Moly requests because a district court ruling sent the original action back to the state. The plaintiffs, Eureka County and Diamond Valley growers, are worried water drawn from Kobeh Valley for the mine might impact nearby Diamond Valley. “We remain extremely confident that our water applications before the State Engineer’s Office will be granted and support the degree of care and diligence the State Engineer’s Office has taken to create a complete and carefully considered record and believe the additional time for this process is helpful to the receipt of the company’s water appropriations,” Hansen said. Rogers said the balance question comes because General Moly will use water from Diamond Valley, although most of the water needs will be met from its well field in Kobeh Valley. The planned open pit straddles the border of Diamond and Kobeh valleys, and water seeping into the pit only to be pumped back out will be water from Diamond Valley, he said. Plans for the water pumped from the pit call for it mainly to be used in dust sup-
pression at the mine, Rogers said. General Moly expects to use 11,300 acre feet of water per year for Mt. Hope, and only a few hundred acre feet will go into the pit, he said. Rogers said General Moly continues to work with Eureka County to find common ground and address concerns in hopes that the county won’t appeal, if the state engineer rules in General Moly’s favor. General Moly plans to develop a mine with a 44-year mine life that would employ more than 400 people and produce 40 million pounds of molybdenum a year in the first five years. Financing update The company also reported in May that it continues to work with Hanlong (USA) Mining Investment as a long-term strategic finance partner for Mt. Hope. General Moly reported representatives of the China Development Bank made a due diligence trip that included visits to Mt. Hope and General Moly’s Liberty Project near Tonopah. “Hanlong (USA) Mining Investment Inc. continues to be a supportive, longterm strategic finance partner and is dedicated to the success of the Mt. Hope proj-
ect. We continue to work hand-in-hand with Hanlong on the Chinese bank financing, which is progressing well,” Hansen said. Hanlong earlier agreed to procure a $665 million loan for Mt. Hope. General Moly also stated that Hanlong has agreed to extend the deadline on financing that had required the BLM to release the draft EIS on May 31 to Aug. 31. General Moly presented its initial plan of operations to the BLM in September 2006, and Hansen said in April that the company had 22 out of 24 baseline studies completed by 2008 for Mt.Hope,but the “biggest hurdle was the hydrology.” Those studies were completed in mid-2010. While awaiting development of Mt. Hope, General Moly doesn’t have any revenue generation. General Moly reported the net loss for the first quarter of this year was roughly $4.2 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.8 million, or 4 cents per share, in the first quarter of last year. The company also stated the cash balance at the end of the quarter was roughly $64 million, compared with $54 million last year.
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 49
Newmont ... Continued from page 4 that had to be moved,” Henris said. “There were a lot of sleepless nights,” said Dave Sirotek, general foreman of mine operations in Newmont’s South Operates Area, including Gold Quarry. Newmont deemed the remediation of the slide site as worthwhile because the gold reserve base “is very robust,” Henris said. “We started mining ore in late February or early March.” Crews removed the alluvium, which is good quality soil for reclamation, and also had to construct a buttress to prevent any new slides after detecting the potential for more movement, he said. The remediation also cleared the way to retrieve equipment that the slide stranded on a haul road. Two haul trucks, one loader and a drill rig were stuck there, although they weren’t damaged, Henris said. He said the long effort to bring Gold Quarry back into gold production “touched everybody, and I think it brought the site together.” Even the mill employees were involved, because they had to begin processing stockpiles of ore that they had put off processing due to low ore grades and difficult metallurgy, Henris said. Gold Quarry now Currently, Gold Quarry crews are mining gold reserves that give Gold Quarry a mine life into 2017, but Newmont also continues to plan for pit expansion to the west. Although the pit mining stopped after the giant slide, the Chukar underground mine, which has its portals in a pit wall of Gold Quarry, continued operating while the slide remediation was ongoing. Henris said that before the major pit failure, Newmont put in a new ramp to access Chukar’s upper portal. The slide that shut down production was the second slide in the pit within a few months in 2009. The first slide, called South Ramp, was smaller and happened in October, and Henris said that area also was buttressed. The remediation of the small slide involved 10 million to 15 million tons. Newmont knew because of its monitoring efforts that the second slide was likely, but the quickness of the failure was a surprise, Henris said. There was ample warning, however, so that the mine was evacuated and no one was hurt. The monitoring involved instruments and people on the job keeping a daily lookout.
The buttress for the big slide took 2 million tons of rock, said Henris in May, before he became general manager of the Leeville underground mine. Roaster overhaul Gold Quarry ore may be processed on leach pads, at Mill 5 or at Mill 6, also called the roaster, depending upon the type of ore, but the roaster was shut down 35 days until late May for the annual overall that this year involved 685 contractors. Tracy Carroll, the process maintenance foreman for Mill 6, said roughly 65 people work at the roaster, and they were busy on the overhaul, as well as the contractors from several states. The roaster, which went into operation in 1994, processes refractory ore from Newmont’s Nevada operations. “It’s 24-7, 365 days, with the exception of the shutdown,” Carroll said. The mill processes ore from any of the Newmont operations in northeastern Nevada when roasting is the best way to recover the most gold from the ore. Current mining Newmont was mining at Gold Quarry and Lantern 3 in May and headed back for more ore from the Carlin Main Pit, the first pit Newmont mined on the Carlin Trend.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
See NEWMONT, 6
Mike Simon of Leadville, Colo., holds a gold bar during an early April tour of Newmont Mining Corp. facilities as part of the National Summit of Mining Communities.
Paul Pettit, Newmont Mining Corp.’s senior environmental manager, talks to visitors in early April during a National Summit of Mining Communities tour. The Gold Quarry Pit is in the background. Ross Andreson Mining Quarterly
SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 5
Safety Olympiad July 7-9 By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — The Safety Olympiad 25th anniversary competition is scheduled for July 7-9, featuring surface mining rescue teams from Nevada and Wyoming. Hosts for this year’s event are Round Mountain Gold Corp., the Elko Convention and Visitors Authority and the Nevada Mining Association. Kinross Gold Corp. operates Round Mountain and is the 50 percent owner, with Barrick Gold Corp. owning the other half of the mine in Nye County. “Kinross and Round Mountain Gold are looking forward to hosting the 25th Annual Safety Olympiad. We look forward to providing an exceptional competition, as well as some excellent training,” said Olympiad co-chairman Ivan Brown, the mine rescue coordinator at Round Mountain. Co-chairman with Brown is Robert Dennison of ERS Solutions. “We are extremely excited and honored to be hosting this year’s Safety Olympiad. Ivan and his team have worked around
the clock to make it informational, thought-provoking and fun all at the same time,” said Jeremy Jones, the health and safety manager for Round Mountain. According to Round Mountain, the Safety Olympiad will be a little different this year. Rather than a Fun Day on that Thursday, there will be a training day that will include confined space, trench rescue, hazardous materials and extrication. Plans call for a barbecue at the Elko Convention Center on the evening of July 7, the schedule shows. Rescue teams also will compete two days in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, patient assessment, fire fighting, ropes and knots, scene assessment, extrication, search and rescue, high angle rescue, confined space and hazardous materials. The Friday competition will be at the University of Nevada, Reno Fire Science Academy just east of Carlin, according to Jen Stotts, events coordinator for the ECVA. The Saturday competition will include scenarios at the Elko Convention Center, and the event will end with an
50 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
Members of the Newmont Mining Corp. Twin Creeks Mine surface rescue team try to help “victim” Kali Kropf of Battle Mountain during a mock disaster at the 2010 Safety Olympiad. Adella Harding Elko Daily Free Press file
awards banquet. Last year’s top honors went to the OCI Chemical team from Green River, Wyo., and Stotts said OCI is one of the teams registered for this year’s event. There were 11 teams signed up by May 20. Stotts said the ECVA is promoting the Safety Olympiad this year on the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration website “in hopes of bringing in more teams.” There were 11 teams competing last year, and the limit is 16 teams. “Every year that we attend this event,
we all are able to take something back to help with the preparedness of our team and to continually support our site and community. Being able to learn from the other teams and share information with the other teams is what this event is all about,” Brown said. Registration for teams wishing to compete this year continues to June 24 through the ECVA. Brown may be reached at 775-3773252. The ECVA may be reached in the Elko area at 738-4091 or from long distance at 800-248-3556.
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Royal Gold’s income totals $19.6 million By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — Royal Gold Inc. announced net income of $19.6 million, or 36 cents per share, on royalty revenue of $55.5 million for the quarter ending March 31, an increase the company attributed to higher production and higher average metal prices. The 59 percent increase in revenue received a boost from new production from Andacollo in Chile, Voisey’s Bay in Labrador and higher production at Penasquito in Mexico, as well as an average gold price of $1,386 per ounce, compared with $1,109 per ounce in the 2010 quarter. “Our portfolio is starting to show its strength,” Royal Gold President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Jensen said in an earnings teleconference. Jensen reported that two development properties with Royal Gold royalties, Holt in Ontario and Wolverine in the Yukon, moved into production in the quarter, increasing the company’s portfolio to 35
pany’s acquisition of International revenue-generating properties. The increased revenue for the quarter Royalty Corp. in the 2010 quarter, net from production and metal prices was income would have been $8.9 million, or partially offset, however, from lower 20 cents per share, last year. The Andacollo property operated by production from the Pipeline operations Teck produced the most at the Cortez Mine in revenue for Royal Gold Nevada and a reduced in the quarter ending royalty rate at Taparko March 31, $11.9 million in West Africa, accordAndacollo — $11.9 million on 11,519 ounces of ing to Royal Gold. gold. There was no Royal Gold’s royalties Voisey’s Bay — $10.1 million comparison to last year, are on the Pipeline and Penasquito — $5.6 million since the company wasCrossroads deposits at Leeville — $3.5 million n’t yet receiving gold Cortez in Lander CounCortez — $3.1 million royalties. ty, but owner Barrick Voisey’s Bay operated Gold Corp. is focusing on mining from the newer Cortez Hills by Vale provided $10.1 million on 32.3 million pounds of nickel and 19 million surface and underground operations. The quarter’s profit compared with a pounds of copper. Voisey’s wasn’t yet net loss of $5.8 million, or 13 cents per providing revenue for Royal Gold last share, in the comparable 2010 third year. Penasquito in Mexico operated by quarter in the company’s fiscal year on revenue of $35 million, according to Goldcorp Inc. provided $5.6 million in revenue on 51,460 ounces of gold, 4.1 Denver-based Royal Gold. The company noted, however, that million ounces of silver, 31.4 million excluding the after-tax effect of two pounds of lead and 59.5 million pounds non-recurring items related to the com- of zinc, compared with revenue of $1.8
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Top five royalties
million last year on 25,254 ounces of gold, 1.7 million ounces of silver, 11.1 million pounds of lead and 14.4 million pounds of zinc. Newmont Mining Corp.’s Leeville underground mine on the Carlin Trend in Nevada produced the fourth highest revenue for Royal Gold, $3.5 million on 139,214 ounces of gold, compared with $2.4 million on 117,722 ounces of gold last year. Cortez provided $3.1 million in revenue on 33,950 ounces of gold, compared with $7.2 million on 99,144 ounces of gold in the 2010 quarter, Royal Gold reported. The Robinson Mine operated by Quadra FNX Mining near Ely provided $2.8 million in revenue on 9,832 ounces of gold and 18.2 million pounds of copper in the 2011 quarter, compared with $3.4 million in revenue to Royal Gold last year on 23,987 ounces of gold in the 2010 quarter and 28 million pounds of copper. The operation with the seventh highSee ROYAL GOLD, 53
Royal Gold ... Continued from page 52 est revenue was Mulatos in Mexico, operated by Alamos, which provided $2.6 million on 36,200 ounces of gold, compared with $2.3 million on 41,600 ounces of gold last year. The Holt gold mine operated by St Andrew Goldfields provided $1.6 million in revenue on 6,412 ounces of gold, with no comparison to last year, and the Las Cruces Mine in Spain, operated by Inmet, provided $1.4 million to Royal Gold on 21.3 million pounds of copper. Las Cruces also had no comparison with last year. The Dolores Mine operated by Minefinders in Mexico provided $1.4 million in revenue on 16,991 ounces of gold and 883,760 ounces of silver, compared with $1.1 million on 19,684 ounces of gold and 260,668 ounces of silver last year, according to the Royal Gold earnings report. Taparko provided $1 million in revenue for the 2011 quarter from 37,060 ounces of gold, while the mine operated by High River provided $8 million in revenue on 28,795 ounces of gold last year. Gwalia Deeps in Western Australia operated by St Barbara Ltd. provided
$700,000 in revenue on 32,215 ounces of gold, and Wolverine operated by Yukon Zinc provided $100,000 in revenue on 33,214 ounces of gold and silver. Neither operation was providing revenue in the 2010 quarter. “In the coming quarters, we expect further production gains at Peñasquito, Holt and Wolverine as they work towards full design capacity, as well as the commencement of production from Canadian Malartic scheduled for later this month,” Jensen said. Royal Gold also reported that at the end of 2010, precious metals reserves subject to the company’s royalty interests totaled approximately 83.9 million ounces of gold and 1.4 billion ounces of silver. Royal Gold stated that net of depletion, this reflects a gain of 5.4 million ounces of gold and 53 million ounces of silver over last year, representing a 7 percent increase in gold reserves and a 4 percent increase in silver reserves. “This reserve growth is due to a combination of the success our royalty operators had in converting resources into
reserves and our ability to add new properties to our royalty portfolio during the year, driven largely by the Mt. Milligan acquisition,” Jensen said in the announcement. He said reserve additions from Mt. Milligan are significant because the company is entitled to 25 percent of the gold reserves there. Mt. Milligan, operated by Thompson Creek, is in development in British Columbia. Royal Gold also provided an update on a number of its key royalty holdings: Andacollo — Teck announced it will undertake a new expansion study to examine the feasibility of increasing annual production from 80,000 metric tons to approximately 100,000 to 120,000 metric tons of copper in concentrate. The study is expected to be complete by the end of the fourth quarter of this year. Voisey’s Bay — Production was strong for the quarter and appears to be at a steady-state following the resolution of the strike in February 2011. Peñasquito — The mine averaged 94,400 metric tons per day during
March and reached full processing capacity of 130,000 metric tons per day at the end of the quarter. Goldcorp is continuing to focus on sustaining throughput at the 130,000 metric tons per day level. Robinson — Quadra reported that production at Robinson continued to be limited due to the lack of flexibility in the Ruth Pit. A secondary access ramp is being constructed and mud is being removed from the bottom of the pit to improve flexibility. Quadra expects higher production in the second half of the calendar year. Mulatos — Alamos reported lower than expected production due to lower than budgeted crusher throughput, but the company announced that a mill will be constructed on site to supplement the heap leach production and is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of calendar 2011. Dolores — Minefinders reported record quarterly production, in line with its 2011 annual production forecast of 65,000 to 70,000 ounces of gold and 3.3 million to 3.5 million ounces of silver.
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Allied Nevada Gold Corp. on road to expansion By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — If Allied Nevada Gold Corp.’s plans win approval, the company’s Hycroft Mine in Humboldt County will become a major gold mine with more than 500 employees. The Reno-based company hopes to expand Hycroft to produce both oxide and sulfide ores and construct a mill on site to process the sulfide ores. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has started the study process. “We still believe we will get permits in 2013,” Allied Nevada President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Caldwell said in an earnings teleconference in early May. The BLM’s Winnemucca office is doing the environmental impact statement and held scoping meetings in midMay to gather comments for the study. The BLM stated that the plans for Hycroft 55 miles west of Winnemucca would extend the mine life 12 years and boost the workforce from 225 people to 537. “There is a whole list of things they
are doing with this expansion,” Kathleen Rehberg, project leader for the BLM, said in early May. Caldwell said in the earnings teleconference the biggest permitting issue is water, because the expansion will require dewatering to reach the deeper ore. “We’re not sure of the volume, but it will be 5,000 to 10,000 gallons per minute, and the processing plant will use it all,” he said. Hycroft continues to grow under current permitting, as well, and Tracey Thom, manager of investor relations for Allied Nevada, said in early May Hycroft’s workforce is expected to reach 300 by the end of this year. Allied Nevada expects to produce between 115,000 and 125,000 ounces of gold this year at Hycroft. Exploration Allied Nevada also continues a heavy exploration effort at Hycroft and at its Hasbrouck Project five miles south of Tonopah. Caldwell said Allied Nevada has 11 drills operating, four at Hasbrouck and
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the remainder at Hycroft, but the assay turnaround is an issue. Exploration costs were a key reason the company’s net income for the first quarter was $181,000, or zero cents per share, compared with $3.7 million, or 5 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2010, according to Caldwell. Allied Nevada spent $11 million on exploration in the first quarter and will spend as much this quarter because of the success so far, including the expanding mineralization at Hycroft and the results at Hasbrouck. “We believe we have a district play here,” Caldwell said of the Hasbrouck discoveries. Allied Nevada’s revenue was up in the first quarter, however, at $31.9 million,
compared with $23.5 million last year because of more ounces sold and the higher averaged realized gold price in the 2011 quarter of $1,402 per ounce, compared with $1,108 per ounce in 2010. Allied Nevada sold 21,341 ounces of gold from Hycroft at an average cost of sales of $491 per ounce in the first quarter, and silver sales of 59,556 ounces exceeded expectations, compared with the sale of 20,439 ounces of gold in the first quarter of 2010 and 53,491 ounces of silver. The average realized silver price was $34 per ounce in the 2011 quarter, up from $17 per ounce last year. The company reported the gold to silver ratio increased to 3 to 1 in the first quarter as Hycroft processes more silver, and Caldwell said the ratio will continue to change when the Merrill-Crowe plant at Hycroft is expanded in July. Allied Nevada records silver sales as a byproduct to its gold sales. “In the first quarter, we achieved great strides in advancing our long-term iniSee ALLIED, 57
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Quadra FNX plans more growth By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — Quadra FNX Mining Ltd., which operates the Robinson Mine in Nevada, will be taking another growth step with a joint venture deal with Sumitomo for development of the Sierra Gorda Project in Chile. The company earlier grew when Quadra and FNX merged, adding operations in the Sudbury District of Canada to the Quadra package that initially began with Robinson, the historic copper mine in White Pine County. Quadra FNX announced in mid-May that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to form a joint venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Corp. to develop the Sierra Gorda copper and molybdenum project. “The JV with Sumitomo and the development of Sierra Gorda will provide Quadra FNX with a large, long-life, low-
cost copper project, which will allow us to move past our strategic objective of 500 million pounds of annual copper production,” Quadra FNX President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Blythe said in the announcement. “We are proud to be able to announce a partnership with a world class organization like Sumitomo, which will bring a wealth of experience, knowledge and financial strength to the development and operation of the Sierra Gorda project,” he said. Earnings report Earlier in May, Quadra FNX announced net earnings jumped in the first quarter to $168 million, or 88 cents per share, because of benefits from the sale of Gold Wheaton shares and higher copper prices, as well as the addition of the Sudbury operations. The $168 million in earnings compared with $55 million, or 55 cents per share, posted for the first quarter of last year. The boost in net earnings was mainly due to the $134 million pretax gain on the
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sale of Gold Wheaton shares for $295 million, according to the earnings announcement. Adjusted net earnings were a little lower in the 2011 quarter, however, at $51.8 million, or 27 cents per share, compared with $55.3 million, or 56 cents per share, last year. “This was a transitional quarter,” Blythe said in the earnings teleconference. The transitions included work at the Robinson Mine near Ely to bring production back up and a conversion from contractor mining to company mining at the Franke Mine in Chile. Overall, Quadra FNX’s payable production in the first quarter included 46 million pounds of copper, 25,000 ounces of precious metals and 2 million pounds of nickel. Average cash costs were $2.19 per pound of copper. Revenues increased 36 percent to $269 million from $198 million in the 2010 quarter.
Robinson Mine At Robinson, first-quarter production continued to be impacted by lower ore grades as the mine continued with efforts to improve flexibility and access to higher grades, according to Quadra. Robinson produced 19.9 million pounds of copper in the first quarter, compared with 30.7 million pounds in the 2010 quarter, and 5,500 ounces of gold, compared with 26,000 ounces of gold last year. “Gold recovery is less in the Ruth Pit than the Veteran Pit. The expectation is we will see lower gold going forward at Robinson,” Blythe said in the teleconference. Robinson was mining in Veteran but moved to Ruth. The work at the mine includes continuation of mud removal from the bottom of the Ruth Pit and construction of a new, secondary access ramp. See QUADRA, 57
Allied ...
Quadra ... Continued from page 56 The mud work cost Quadra FNX roughly $16 million in the first quarter and will cost about the same in the current quarter, when it is supposed to be completed, according to the company. Quadra expects that as a result of the mud and ramp work, Robinson’s production will be up in the second half of the year, and the mine is on track to produce between 105 million and 120 million pounds of copper this year. “The key word for Robinson is flexibility,” Blythe said. Beyond the work at the Ruth Pit, exploration is under way at the Liberty Pit to determine whether Quadra FNX can economically mine there. “We’re aggressively exploring in Liberty as we speak,” Blythe said. Sierra Gorda Regarding the Sierra Gorda Project, Quadra FNX will hold a 55 percent interest in the joint venture, and Sumitomo will be the 45 percent partner and initially contribute $724 million of joint-venture equity and arrange a minimum of $1 billion project financing.
Quadra FNX also reported the board has approved development of Sierra Gorda based on results of a new feasibility study, and the company will provide its proportional share of remaining funding of roughly $650 million through cash and debt financing. The feasibility study found that copper production from current reserves at Sierra Gorda could average 483 million pounds a year over a 20-year mine life. Sierra Gorda also would produce 25 million pounds of molybdenum and 64,000 ounces of gold per year, according to the study. Quadra FNX reported initial capital costs to develop the project would be roughly $2.88 billion, and the project construction workforce will peak at 6,000 workers. During production, the mine would employ 2,000 workers. “We now have the team and a financing structure in place which will allow us to bring the project into production,” Blythe said in the Sierra Gorda announcement, also commenting the deal will give the company the flexibility to develop Quadra FNX’s second major project.
Continued from page 54 tiatives. The significant resource update and robust mill scoping study announced in the first quarter are evidence of this progress,” Caldwell stated in the earnings report. Hycroft resources The company updated its resource estimate for Hycroft in the quarter, reporting measures and indicated resources and reserves increased 101 percent to 16.1 million ounces of gold and increased 131 percent to 598.1 million ounces of silver. Those increases were just since the last estimate issued in August 2010. Allied Nevada also completed an updated scoping study that included a mill and sulfide ore production that predicts annual gold production of 556,200 ounces and annual silver production of 27 million ounces at a cost of $304 per gold ounce sold. This study also estimated the capital costs for the mill project at $894 million. In its earnings report in early May, Allied Nevada reported that the company drilled 73 holes totaling 78,000 feet
at Hycroft in the first quarter, focusing on infill drilling to convert resources in support of the initial milling feasibility study. The company is completing the study on proposed construction of a mill to handle the sulfide ores that so far haven’t been mined. Hycroft now processes only oxide ores that are placed on leach pads. Step-out drilling in the first quarter indicated expansion of mineralization in the Central, Albert and Vortex zones, with intervals of mineralization hosting grades at or above the average resource grade, according to the earnings report. Exploration at Hasbrouck in the first quarter included discovery of a highgrade zone of mineralization, the Saddle Zone, highlighted by 585 feet grading 0.13 ounces per ton of gold and 2.43 opt of silver, Allied Nevada reported. Based on this discovery, Allied Nevada drilled follow-up holes confirming the high-grade nature of the Saddle Zone and more drilling is planned to understand the zone, according to the company.
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Cashman Equipment to celebrate 80th anniversary By JULIE WOOTTON Mining Quarterly ELKO — Cashman Equipment Co. is celebrating its 80th anniversary this summer and is planning a large exhibit June 9-10 at the Elko Mining Expo. “For our 80th anniversary, we will focus primarily on our employees,” said Kate Gallagher, marketing communicator at Cashman Equipment’s headquarters. “We really feel that they are the ones that have made our company what it is.” Cashman Equipment is holding events throughout the state on its Aug. 5 anniversary. “Some elements are surprises,” Gallagher said. Cashman Equipment is headquartered in Henderson and has more than 700 employees at several locations, including Elko, North Las Vegas, Reno/Sparks, Round Mountain, Winnemucca and Salt Lake City. It’s one of the highest rated Caterpillar construction equipment dealers in North America, according to the company’s website. As part of the company’s anniversary, Cashman Equipment will have a large exhibit at the Elko Mining Expo. Gallagher said that for the past four years, Cashman’s presence at the Expo wasn’t as large as it could have been.
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Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Cashman Equipment mechanic Desmond Ward is performing preventative maintenance in May on a new Caterpillar loader with an 18-yard bucket at Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.’s Rochester silver mine in Pershing County. “We are planning to increase our presence at the show this year,” said Chris Wolford, sales manager for Elko branch. He said the company’s presence at the show will be more representative of its position in the marketplace.
Cashman Equipment will exhibit up to 10 major pieces of equipment and will also have a fluid analysis booth. See CASHMAN, 60
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Newmont ... Continued from page 5 “We’ve mined that off and on over the years,” Henris said. “The last layback at Carlin was back in 2005.” The first gold pour from the Carlin Main Pit was poured in 1965. Newmont goes back to pits on the Carlin Trend when the ore is needed to feed the mills, rather than simply mine them out all at one time, Henris said. “Mills are customers for our product,” he said. The next big surface effort will be at Genesis. “We’ll be back in Genesis mid-year,” Henris predicted. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management was expecting to issue the record of decision approving the Genesis Project any day. Plans call for expanding the existing Genesis Pit, backfilling the Bluestar and Beast pits and partially backfilling Genesis as mining progresses during the roughly 12-year project. Newmont also will develop a new, small Bluestar Ridge open pit. According to Newmont, the project will sustain 1,165 jobs for a dozen years, and workers will be mining 60 million tons of gold ore and 455 million tons of waste rock over those years. Emigrant Project Early preparations already were under way in May for Emigrant, which will be an open-pit operation 10 miles south of Interstate 80 near Newmont’s closed Rain Mine. “We will start mining probably in the spring of next year,” Henris said. “We will get into ore very, very quickly.” Plans for Emigrant call for eight small open pits that will be backfilled as they are mined out and construction of a leach pad, carbon processing plant and offices. Henris said Newmont also will upgrade the truck shop at Rain and use that for Emigrant. “We only plan seven trucks for Emigrant, and all the ore is leach-grade material so it will all be handled on site,” he said. Henris said Newmont’s surface operations at Carlin work from a fleet of 43 240-ton Caterpillar haul trucks that are moved from site to site as needed. The BLM approved Emigrant on Jan. 25, and the BLM documents state that mining operations would last roughly 10 years and employ 180 people. The majority of the workers may be moved from current operations, however.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Visitors from the National Summit of Mining Communities in Elko watch as Newmont Mining Corp. mill 5 control room operator Ridge Willard, center, explains his job. From left are Ben Lesser, Juliet Fox, David Beurle and Danielle Switalski. “It’s not big, but it’s a good one for us,” Henris said. The current work on site includes clearing bush and building fences, he said. Gold production Newmont reported its operations in Nevada, both surface and underground, produced 433,000 ounces of gold in the first quarter at costs applicable to sales of $643 per ounce. The production was the same total as last year, but costs were 7 percent higher in the 2011 quarter due to higher waste mining, milling and diesel costs and lower leach production, partially offset by higher by-product credits, according to Newmont. Denver-based Newmont stated it continues to expect 2011 gold production from Nevada of roughly 1.8 million to 1.9 million ounces at costs applicable to sales of between $565 and $615 per ounce.
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A magnet picks up steel balls to put into a bucket for the ball mills at a Newmont Mining Corp. mill north of Carlin. Ross Andreson Mining Quarterly
Cashman ... Continued from page 58 During the Expo, Cashman employees representing the parts, technology, sales, service and human resources departments will be in attendance. “We will be featuring almost all the aspects of the Cashman enterprise,” Wolford said. Human resources representatives will also be looking to recruit new employees, he said. Visitors to the Expo will also have the opportunity to purchase the latest Caterpillar gear, such as hats and collectible models. “There will be a broad range of information and we’ll feature the many things we do here at Cashman,” Wolford said. Cashman Equipment, which is a family-owned company, was founded in 1931 by James “Big Jim” Cashman in Las Vegas. Gallagher said Cashman came to southern Nevada in the 1920s and was an entrepreneur involved in a number of business enterprises from ferries to car dealerships. Cashman was also involved with the Hoover Dam project. Gallagher said
Cashman went to Caterpillar, a relatively new company at the time, to buy tractors for the project. “It was one of the largest order of tractors Caterpillar ever had,” Gallagher said. With each successive member of the Cashman family heading the company, Cashman Equipment has continued to expand. The Elko location opened its doors in 1981 and doubled in size in 1988. In 2008, the company opened a new parts facility on Ruby Vista Drive in Elko, connected to CAT Logistics and Newmont Mining Corp. Looking to the future, Wolford said the local branch is making decisions about how to cope with the growth that is occurring and is expected over the next few years. “We’re making an ongoing push to continue to look for ways to better serve our customers with the expansion of our operations in northern Nevada,” he said. Wolford said the local branch has a long history of working closely with the mining community and is excited about new products being added to Caterpillar’s mining equipment lineup.
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Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
A new 100-ton Caterpillar haul truck from Cashman Equipment gets a load of material in May at the Rochester Mine in Pershing County. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for Cashman to continue to grow its business,” he said.
The local Cashman Equipment branch is at 5010 Idaho St. For more information, call 738-9871 or 1-800-937-2326.
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Burning biodiesel Newmont studies use of local fuel source at Leeville By DANIELLE SWITALSKI Mining Quarterly CARLIN — When it comes to fuel, Newmont Mining Corp.’s Leeville Mine north of Carlin is keeping it local. In the middle of May, Newmont began tests of a biodiesel fuel that is a 50-50 mix using oil from camelina and canola seeds to see how it faired in some of the mine’s underground vehicles. The biodiesel fuel was produced solely in Nevada. “We had to jump through hoops to import products, but now it’s a local blender and locally grown products,” said Charlie Westover, fluid management supervisor at Newmont. The fuel testing is one of the final steps of Newmont’s pilot project that began more than a year ago when the company’s TS Ranch planted camelina and canola crops in irrigated fields near Dunphy. There were 250 acres of camelina seeds and 125 acres of canola seeds planted, which ultimately produced a total of 6,000 gallons of biodiesel for testing. Once the seeds were harvested, they were sent to Nevada Soy Products in Lovelock, where the seeds were crushed. After the oil was extracted, it was sent to Bently Biofuel Co., where it was turned into biodiesel fuel. Now, the process is complete, and the biodiesel was blended with diesel fuel at Carlin to go through an isolated zone study in the underground mining equipment at Leeville. “There is a lot of interest right now in Nevada energy,” said Carlo Luri from Bently. “I think what Newmont is doing is cutting edge; most people run a 20/80 blend with biodiesel and petroleum and Newmont doing a 50/50 blend is very cutting edge.” Luri said by using biodiesel, particulate levels decrease by 60 percent. In coordination with the National See LEEVILLE, 64
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Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
ABOVE: Troy Terrillion tests emissions in an underground loader that is using biodiesel fuel at Newmont Mining Corp.’s Leeville Mine north of Carlin. LEFT: Dwayne Schoemer, a mechanic in Newmont Mining Corp.’s Leeville underground mine north of Carlin, checks the tightness of fittings on a bolter’s hydraulic lines.
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Leeville ... Continued from page 62 Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Newmont personnel tested the B50 blend in the isolated area in the mine. Westover said they are testing diesel particulate to determine the amount of matter going into the air. Testing fuels The company was testing five different fuels in mid-May to collect data on engine emissions and how the engine is operating on each individual fuel. The fuel from the camelina and canola oil was tested against four other fuels: another B50 blend, B20, B70 and ultra low sulfur diesel. These fuels are then compared. They also tested exhaust after-treatment technology for particulate reduction. Westover said once the tests are complete, they will compile a business case analysis, which he hoped is completed in June. “This was an experiment to grow those crops on that land with water at that time of year, and we are doing an isolated zone study and within one month we should have enough to go forward,” Westover said. “A lot of this stuff can help feed our decisions of the future.” Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
See LEEVILLE, 65
A tour group watches in May as Toni Scott operates a rock crusher at Newmont Mining Corp.’s underground Leeville Mine north of Carlin.
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Leeville ... Continued from page 64
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
More than 5,300 gallons of the biodiesel fuel was burned in three to four days underground at Leeville. Part of the study is to put the product in all makes and models of equipment, Westover said, in order to determine if Newmont should plant another crop and how to process it. “For a project like this, it will come down to efficiencies and economics, and we have come to this point because of increasing restrictions to protect personnel and this is one way to get there,” Westover said. The creation of the biodiesel fuel is to not only meet emission standards, but to exceed them, he said. “If we’ve done that, we’ve protected personnel,” Westover said. The study will also look at the cost to produce the oil without adding new technology and new equipment in order to meet the emission standards. Pilot project NIOSH has partnered with Newmont for the pilot project and provided equipment and engineers to conduct the study on the biodiesel made from seed oil. Once the report is finished, both have to approve the findings before it can be released into the public domain, Westover said. “This is important for the pilot project to see what
Scott Ricks talks about using underground explosives, including this blasting cap, to Mary Jo Rablin, center, and Bob Rewinkle in the Leeville Mine’s “Temple of Boom” during a May tour of the Newmont Mining Corp. operation.
See LEEVILE, 66
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Leeville ... Continued from page 65 kind of quality fuel we can make on our own,” said Steve Spitze, manager for climate change programs for Newmont. “The great thing is what we learn is not just applicable to Leeville, but can be introduced everywhere. We will share the information we learned here everywhere else in the world because when we can hang our hats on something we share it with other organizations,” he said. The fuel was not the only thing tested in May as Newmont used new equipment in its underground operation. New instruments, developed by NIOSH, were used to test the emissions. These devices are currently being moved onto the marketplace. “It provides an immediate result for accountability,” Westover said. Tests in engines The biodiesel was tested in two different engines: Tier three and tier four engines. According to Westover, no company in the world has tried to take a tierfour engine underground. A tier-four engine is a light, diesel engine used on the highway. The engine used in Leeville
was from a Mercedes Benz. “Leeville is the first place to be implementing tier four technology underground,” said Troy Terrillion, diesel particulate matter specialist. Tier-four engines have characteristics completely different from tier-three engines, Westover said. He said the tier-four technology is the same technology mandated by federal law for highway use as of 2010 and all of the 2011 model engines have to meet that emission standard. Westover said it requires a fuel that is an ultra low sulfur diesel and diesel exhaust fluid, which is an ammonia product that modifies the exhaust emission to meet the standards. “We’re trying that and this is the first in the world that anyone has put in a tierfour engine and added this level of sophistication of testing,” Westover said. Using camelina and canola seeds has other benefits than producing a biodiesel. First, none of the seed is wasted, Spitze said. Once the oil is squeezed from the
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See LEEVILLE, 67
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Mechanics Troy Hunter, right, and Ryan Sullivan of Sandvik work on a bolter at Newmont Mining Corp.’s underground shop at the Leeville Mine north of Carlin.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Troy Terrillion talks in May about testing emissions of underground equipment that use biodiesel fuel at Newmont Mining Corp.’s underground Leeville Mine.
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Toni Scott operates a rock crusher at Newmont Mining Corp.’s underground Leeville gold mine on the Carlin Trend.
Leeville ... Continued from page 66 seeds, the seed is sent back to the TS Ranch to be put into a blend for cattle feed. Bob Rewinkle from Nevada Soy Products said around 20 percent of seeds went to oil and more than 70 percent of the seeds went for livestock for feed.
Camelina is rich in omega 3. He said camelina has a short growth time and also requires less water then conventional crops and, for a farmer, it is known as a rotational crop. “It’s very good for Nevada,” Rewinkle said.
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SAS Global’s metal overlay extends equipment life By JARED DuBACH Mining Quarterly ELKO — SAS Global Mining is putting the finishing touches on its new operations building near Elko. According to Elko Operations Manager Michael Reynolds, the new building is 30,000 square feet, and construction started about six months ago. SAS Global Mining has been in Elko for the past five years with its corporate headquarters in Warren, Mich. Reynolds said the local SAS Global Mining shop will have an open house during the Elko Mining Expo, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on June 9. The site is east of Elko at 9102 E. Idaho St. SAS Global Mining specializes in wear-resistant steel products using the company’s Chromium Carbide Overlay and Vanguard Alloy plates. According to Reynolds, the Elko shop offers wear-resistant bed liners for haul trucks, dozer blades and shovel buckets. The company also specializes in drag line liner systems, performance
chutes and piping systems, performance hammers, breaker plates and augers. According to information from SAS Global, the products can be utilized for processing copper, silver, gold, platinum and molybdenum. There are also open-pit operations applications with the various bucket, blade, drag line and truck bed systems. Underground applications include deck plates, sigma rails, pan liners, discharge conveyor deck liners and crawler track wear runners. Reynolds said the sheets of treated steel are cut and manipulated in Elko. Reynolds said the overlays extend the surface life of the metal, thus extending the amount of time between shutdowns for refurbishment of the equipment. And, as anyone in the mining business knows, when equipment is down it’s not making money. If necessary, workers can complete some of the labor on site if bringing equipment to the Elko shop is not fea-
Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
See SAS GLOBAL, 69
Elko Operations Manager of SAS Global Michael Reynolds talks about the new 30,000-square-foot facility in Elko that will serve the mining community.
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SAS Global ... Continued from page 68 sible, according to Reynolds. The Elko shop offers custom fabrication, and utilizes a 2,200-ton press break — the largest in the western United States. The shop also has equipment to roll heavy cylinders. Mine equipment brought to the shop for rebuilding can be driven in or brought in by a rail car that leads directly into the shop. Reynolds said either of one 50-ton or two 20-ton overhead cranes can be used for maneuvering. Some of the recent projects utilizing the special overlay wear plating have been on haul trucks for Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez and Newmont Mining Corp.’s Gold Quarry sites. Reynolds said SAS did 24 trucks for Barrick and 30 for Newmont so far. “We feel that we’re installing better products than those offered by our competitors,” Reynolds said. For information on SAS Global Mining, go online to www.sasglobalcorp.com. The Elko shop can be reached at 775-777-1699. Reynolds may be reached by e-mail at mreynolds@sasglobalcorp.com.
Elko Operations Manager of SAS Global Michael Reynolds stands in front of a 2,200ton press break — the largest in the western United States at the new Elko shop. Mine equipment brought to the shop for rebuilding can be driven in or brought in by a rail car that leads directly into the shop. Ross Andreson Mining Quarterly
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RAM Enterprises prepares to expand By RISHI DAULAT Mining Quarterly ELKO — With RAM Enterprises celebrating its 20th anniversary, the company has big plans moving forward, including building new headquarters in Elko. RAM will be building the new facility right next door to its current building, and the staff based out of Portland, Ore., has already relocated, making Elko the company’s flagship site. RAM hopes to have the new building completed in 18 months. “It will house all RAM products and services,” said RAM Director of Marketing Jerry Hayes. “We’ve outgrown the present one.” The new facility will include space for manufacturing IMTECH products, he said. RAM’s first business involved selling off six truckloads of used conveyor belts. A few years later, RAM also created rubber products through the IMTECH rubber products line. RAM currently has fabrication facilities in Elko, Salt Lake City, Utah, Kingman, Ariz., and Payson, Ariz., while the company also has IMTECH facilities, warehouses and distributors located in Idaho, Kansas, North Carolina and Alabama. Tim Horn, president of the company, said he hopes that RAM can create facilities all over the West Coast and potentially Alaska. “We want to expand our footprint,” Horn said. “Our goal is for
RAM Enterprise Inc.
See RAM, 71
This is Hoffman Architects LLC’s concept of how the new RAM Enterprise Inc.’s headquarters in Elko will look when completed.
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RAM ... Continued from page 70 organic growth. We want to move forward by creating service centers four or five hours away from each other. Elko will always be the mothership, we just want to keep expanding our company. We’ve been looking at Wyoming as a location as well.” Horn said that Alaska is the company’s first choice for another facility, and the company is currently studying the demographics of the area to assess its financial feasibility. According to Hayes, the company has more than 150 employees and involves services, construction, repairs and process maintenance. RAM’s first construction project in Elko was the Pacific Steel and Recycling location on Idaho Street on the east end of town.The company has also constructed domes, piers and platforms in the Elko area. The IMTECH line was developed by RAM employees and started in 2000. The IMTECH line compliments the conveyor belts that are RAM’s main seller, since the rubber lagging products are put on the pulleys that drive the conveyor belts. “The IMTECH line is a very small part
of our company,” Horn said. “However, it does have great potential growth. Duplication is key. Our primary revenue stream is service work.” RAM Enterprises was named after original owner Richard A. Milroy’s initials, and Milroy got the company started in February 1991 by buying used belts and sending them off to Portland, where they were repaired, slit to narrower widths and resold. Portland was the headquarters in the early days. Milroy’s father, Dick, then joined RAM and the pair started a small belt vulcanizing group in Elko. They rented a storage unit in Elko where the splicing materials and vulcanizing press were kept and as the company grew, RAM slowly moved all the major processing and services into Elko. RAM moved into the current 8,400square-foot building it operates out of in 2000, and Hayes said the company hasn’t yet decided what to do with that facility when the new one is completed. The new headquarters is in the planning stages now, he said.
Stillwater reports $36.2 million profit in quarter By JAN FALSTAD Billings Gazette BILLINGS, Mont. — Slightly higher production and much better prices for palladium and platinum provided a big boost to Stillwater Mining Co.’s profits during the first three months of this year. The company, which operates two mines that produce the rare metals in the Beartooth Mountains of south-central Montana, reported net income of $36.2 million for the first quarter, compared with $13.4 million for last year. The earnings per share were 34 cents for the first quarter of 2011 and 14 cents for the same period last year. Stillwater’s chairman and chief executive, Frank McAllister, said that overall, he was pleased with the company’s performance. Rising oil prices and the earthquake and tsunami damage in Japan brought palladium prices down for the quarter
because of their impact on automobile production, he said, “However, I believe these factors will have a relatively shortterm impact on PGM (platinum group metals) demand.” Prices for the two metals for the quarter averaged $994 per ounce, a 54 percent increase from 2010 prices. The price also reflected the end to contracts that placed a ceiling on what Stillwater Mining could earn as prices rose. Production at the main mine at Nye increased 2.4 percent to 98,600 ounces of the metals used primarily in catalytic converters in cars and trucks and jewelry. The East Boulder Mine production was 32,600 ounces, down slightly by 100 ounces from the first quarter of last year. However, production costs also increased this year, averaging $437 per mined ounce, up $73 from the first quarter of last year. The Billings Gazette is a Lee Enterprise publication.
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Exploration ... Continued from page 8 The company is still studying whether Sandman would be a surface or underground mine, Trudel said. Newmont halted work on the new underground decline at Northumberland after the contracted amount of drifting there until the company decides the next step, Trudel said. Roughly six or seven people are on site there. “We followed through with what was in progress,” he said. “We will be evaluating for three to six months.” Trudel said Newmont will look at both surface and underground mining potential at Northumberland, where the company explored once before, in 1998. “That was at a much lower gold price,” Hoffman said. Gold prices are in the range of 1,500 an ounce now, but the average London P.M. Fix in 1998 was $292.24, according to kitco.com charts. “We’re pulling out all the work we did in 1998 and all the work they (Fronteer) did and will enhance the data base and evaluate the whole picture,” Trudel said. Along with acquiring Fronteer’s key assets in Nevada, Newmont also hired as many of Fronteer’s key people as it could, according to Hoffman. “I think everyone stayed with us or went to Pilot Gold or went to a different company,” he said. Pilot Gold is the new exploration company that
Midway has exploration dollars spun off from Fronteer when the sale was finalized, and Pilot Gold spokesman Raena Dumas said Pilot Gold kept the former Fronteer office on 11th Street in Elko. Pilot Gold’s Nevada projects include Anchor, Baxter Spring, Brik, Buckskin North, Cold Springs, Easter, Gold Springs 2, New Boston, Regent, Stateline and Viper. The company also has the Halilaga and TV Tower projects in Turkey and a property in Peru, and the company describes the two Turkey projects and Regent in southwestern Nevada as its key properties. Newmont also acquired the Big Springs Ranch adjacent to the Long Canyon property, and Trudel said the lease continues with rancher Randy Stowell. Along with Long Canyon, Newmont also acquired the South Pequop exploration project that is in a joint venture with Golden Dory and 40 percent of the West Pequop Project that Agnico-Eagle operates. “We’ll be talking to those folks,” Trudel said. The Pequop projects are part of the 50 projects scattered throughout Nevada Newmont acquired from Fronteer. Trudel estimated Newmont now has access to more than 2 million acres of land in the state, including private and leased land and mining claims.
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ELKO — Midway Gold Corp. has arranged $12 million in financing to advance the company’s exploration projects, including Pan in White Pine County that a prefeasibility study indicates could be a mine. The financing was expected to close on June 6, under an agreement with Haywood Securities Inc., which agreed to purchase 7.5 million shares of Midway for $1.60 per share, according to Midway. Along with Pan, Midway’s other two key projects in Nevada are Spring Valley in Pershing County that Barrick Gold Corp. is exploring under an option agreement and Midway near Tonopah. R.J. Smith, manager of corporate administration for Denverbased Midway Gold, said on May 20 that there are four drill rigs at Spring Valley, two rigs at Pan and one at Midway. Earlier, Midway reported drilling at Spring Valley in the last two years has resulted in the conversion of 2.16 million ounces of gold to the measured and indicated categories. The new drilling also produced an additional inferred resource of 1.97 million ounces of gold, the company reported. At Pan, the prefeasibility study concluded the project could become an economically viable heap leach mining operation. The third-party report released in April estimated mine development would cost $79.25 million, the mine could have a life span of more than nine years, and the mine could produce roughly 77,000 ounces per year for 8.5 years. The report states that Pan has proven and probable gold reserves of 716,900 ounces grading 0.017 ounces per ton from the North Pan and South Pan ore bodies that would be included in the pit design. By Adella Harding
Anniversary ... Continued from page 3 started with the company in 1986, at Mill 1, and he didn’t even know what a mine was when he first went to work for Al Park Petroleum and hauled fuel to the mines. “Coming from potato land, I had no clue.” He started as a mill laborer and later drove a 75-ton truck, then bulldozers and then operated a hydraulic shovel. John Bailey, the senior projects foreman for Carlin operations, said he started with Newmont in 1987 as a truck driver at Gold Quarry Mine, “just as it was starting up,” and then he worked at Mill 1 as a crusher and loader operator. Just this year, he was in charge of tearing down all the buildings at the Mill 1 site, “the foundations, everything. It will all be reclaimed.” Bailey said a lot of people came to take photographs as the historic first mill site was leveled in a day and a half. “Mill 1 was the only mill for years, until they built Mill 4,” he said. Newmont started out as an investment house in 1916, and the company was incorporated on May 2, 1921. Colonel William Boyce Thompson founded Newmont as a holding company for private acquisitions in oil and gas, mining and minerals enterprises. According to Newmont, he named the company Newmont because, as one biographer described it, "he grew up in Montana and made his money in New York.” Publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 1940, Newmont has spent nearly 90 years primarily in the natural resources industry — mining gold, copper, silver, lead, zinc, lithium, uranium, coal, nickel and aggregates, even dabbling in oil and gas. Today, Denver-based Newmont is the world’s second largest gold producer after Barrick Gold Corp. and in 2011 is ranked 394 on Forbes’ Global 2000 list and 295 on the Fortune 500, according to Newmont. In 1940, when Newmont’s shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, it was one of approximately 1,000 companies on that Exchange. Today, only 77 of those 1,000 companies continue to be traded on the NYSE. One of Newmont’s biggest challenges was battling oilman T. Boone Pickens’ attempted corporate takeover in 1987, followed by takeover attempts from the Oppenheimer Empire of South Africa, Britain’s Hanson Trust and Sir James Goldsmith.
“Today’s Newmont is the golden Phoenix that rose from the ashes of those fights,” Morris wrote in “Going for the Gold.” Newmont expects to produce between 5.1 million and 5.3 million ounces of gold this year from its operations in Nevada, Mexico, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Ghana. Newmont also has an advanced gold exploration project at Hope Bay in Canada. Newmont’s latest effort to continue gold production well into the future is the acquisition of Fronteer Gold, including the Long Canyon Project in Elko County the company hopes to put into production as the start of a new Carlin-like trend. Newmont purchased Fronteer for $2.33 billion in April. Newmont also has an advanced gold exploration project at Hope Bay in Canada that will be managed out of the Newmont’s regional headquarters in Elko. Newmont’s history also includes copper, and Newmont expects to produce between 190 million and 220 million pounds of copper this year. Newmont was a major shareholder of Magma Copper for many years and today produces copper at the Batu Hijau Mine in Indonesia, as well as from the Phoenix Mine in Nevada. To add to Newmont’s holdings on the Carlin Trend, the company acquired Santa Fe Pacific Gold in 1997 and Battle Mountain Gold in January 2001, according to Newmont’s history. Newmont then gained the Midas Mine and Australia mines with acquisition of Normandy Mining in 2002. Newmont acquired Franco-Nevada Corp. in the dual deal. Newmont stated it also continues to take steps that will make history in the industry. Newmont points out on its website that it became the first gold miner in 2007 to be included on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index-World. The index includes industry leaders rated on their long-term economic, environmental and social responsibility performances. Newmont has a history timeline on its website for each decade of the company’s 90-year history and there also is a link to “Going for Gold,” which was released last year. ——— Newmont’s website is www.Newmont.com.
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Miners help build new home for tiger ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarter Editor UNIONVILLE — The Siberian tiger Lulu has a new enclosure at the Safe Haven Rescue Zoo, thanks in a large part to volunteers from the Turquoise Ridge and the Midas mines. Barrick Gold of North America operates the Turquoise Ridge underground mine in Humboldt County and is the 75 percent owner. Newmont Mining Corp. is the 25 percent owner of the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture and 100 percent owner of Midas in Elko County. “We have made great progress on the enclosure fencing, and it is just about ready to close in,” said Lynda Sugasa, the zoo’s executive director. “We are really excited about the day we get to move Lulu in.” She said Barrick volunteers put up an 8-foot secondary safety fence around the enclosure the first weekend in May, and engineers from the Midas underground mine came out to the site and constructed the base of Lulu’s multi-level climbing and shade platform. Another work party from Barrick and Newmont was coming the following weekend, Sugasa said, and the goal was to have the enclosure completed in June. “Our interns are constructing the double door safety entryway this week,” she said on May 10. Sugasa said there also is a post in concrete that will have a chain mounted on the stop so the staff can suspend “toys” for Lulu, and the tiger will have a pool too. “Enrichment items such as boomer balls, suspended toys, burlap or large paper bags stuffed with straw and scents provide captive animals with the ability to elicit their natural behaviors in the wild, such as hunting, and reduce the stereotypical behaviors, such as pacing and excessive grooming,” she said. Sugasa said the last step is to build a tunnel-like entrance to the den and create a shell with fencing material, using burlap bags cut in strips and layered, followed by four coats of colored mortar. “This not only looks nice but also further insulates the den and is a backup that won’t burn in the event of a wild
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Lynda Sugasa, executive director of the Safe Haven Rescue Zoo near Unionville, mixes cement while volunteer Mark Miller of Winnemucca shovels more mix. Miller and other miners helped build a tiger enclosure.
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Siberian tiger Lulu rests in her temporary enclosure at the Safe Haven Rescue Zoo in March while work was under way on a her new, larger home thanks in part to a $25,000 donation from the Turquoise Ridge Mine operated by Barrick Gold Corp. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly
Rescue Zoo ... Safe Haven Rescue Zoo intern Erin O’Reilly holds a pole while Richard Lindsay of Winnemucca checks the level. Lindsay was one of the volunteers from the Turquoise Ridge Mine building a new tiger enclosure. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly
Continued from page 74 fire,” she said. Work weekends Lulu was resting in her temporary home while volunteers from the Turquoise Ridge and Safe Haven Rescue Zoo staff worked on Lulu’s future home a short distance away on the work weekends. “I’ve been here before, and this is the second time working. I think it’s good,” said Turquoise Ridge employee Wesley De Vries at a March work session. The tiger’s first enclosure wasn’t large enough, so Turquoise Ridge came to the rescue late last year with a $25,000 donation to pay for construction materials. The money also will go for expansion of a solar power installation at the zoo site near the ghost town of Star City in Pershing County. Betty Rogers of Winnemucca, who works at Turquoise Ridge, said on the March weekend this was her first day of volunteering at the rescue zoo, and she brought her granddaughter, Misty Garner from Winnemucca, who drove
the ATV back and forth from the gravel pile to the cement mixer. Richard Lindsay, who also works at Turquoise Ridge and lives in Winnemucca, said the March session was his second visit to Safe Haven as a volunteer on the tiger enclosure project. The goal then was to install 40 posts for the fencing. “It takes 56 panels for the entire enclosure,” Sugasa said. “It’s a pricey endeavor. We have no paid labor, which helps,” she said. Mark Miller, another Turquoise Ridge employees who lives in Winnemucca, also volunteered on the March weekend and was busy helping Sugasa mix cement and with pole placement. Safe Haven already has larger enclosures for two other tigers and two lions. The lions live together, but each tiger has its own space. Lulu, age 13, who came from a failed rescue zoo in Texas, needs 10,000 square feet of living space, according to Sugasa. One of the Siberian tigers is Choi Hu, See RESCUE ZOO, 76
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Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Lions Kufo and Ifaw relax in their enclosure at the Safe Haven Rescue Zoo in Pershing County. Barrick Gold of North America and Newmont Mining Corp. help support the zoo.
Rescue Zoo ... Continued from page 75 age 10, who came to the Nevada desert facility from Seattle, where she was “living as a pet,” said Lindsey McKinney, an intern at Safe Haven who has a zoology degree. Big eaters Choi Hu eats four pounds of chicken and four pounds of beef a day, and “she loves her chicken,” McKinney said. Lulu eats nine pounds of chicken and beef a day. Another tiger, Timber, also age 10, came to Safe Haven from the same place in Seattle, while the two lions came from a rescue zoo that went under in Texas, as did Lulu. “The two lions have been here about three months,” McKinney said in March. “Kuvo and Ifaw are both 10 years old. It’s their first winter in the snow. Kuvo doesn’t seem to mind.” She said Ifaw tiptoes around on snow and sometimes doesn’t come out of her heated den when it is cold. The lions can’t tolerate temperatures under 35 degrees, according to Sugasa. Siberian tigers, however, can handle temperatures of 45 degrees below zero. Kuvo eats five pounds of beef and five pounds of chicken, while Ifaw gets eight pounds a day. The Elko and Winnemucca Walmart stores provide the meat, which is outdated for sale to the public but fine for the big cats. While the big cats grab attention at
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the zoo, there are smaller animals under care there, including two cougars, two bobcats, two foxes and a coyote pup. Safe Haven Rescue Zoo obtains operations money from grants, donations from companies and individuals and from its annual fundraiser. The Safe Haven Rescue Zoo holds tours all year, including school tours. Sugasa reported that the Battle Mountain schools brought out children, teachers and parents this spring. Over a three-day period, 263 people visited the zoo. Sugasa and her husband David, a retired corporate pilot who grew up in the area, live on the 160-acre site that has been operating four years, since Safe Haven relocated from Illinois. “We built all of this in four years,” she said. Safe Haven has a board, and Lynda Sugasa said she also hopes to create a paid director’s position next year. The foundation started in Illinois in 2000 as a rehabilitation center for hundreds of animals, but over time the need for more space for bigger animals led to the decision to head out West. Those interested in visiting the zoo can call 775-538-7093 to make an appointment so one of the interns will be available to conduct a tour. Safe Haven also gives presentations at area schools, Sugasa said. The website is www.safehavenwildlife.com.
WMC lobbies Congress on mine issues By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO —The Women’s Mining Coalition’s 19th annual Fly-In to lobby lawmakers and aides in Washington had three major focuses, including the time it takes to permit exploration, mining and power projects. The 30 women also emphasized the importance of reducing the reliance of the United States on other countries for essential minerals and talked about concerns over U.S. Environmental Protection Agency actions, according to Lynne Volpi of Elko, the WMC coordinator. “I’d say the emphasis continues to be on permitting, but two of the big ones were the EPA and how it’s overstepping its mission by making policy instead of carrying out policy, and the need for a minerals policy in this country,” she said. Volpi said project permitting that used to be handled at the state level now has to “hit as many as 14 desks in D.C. before it hits the Federal Register. It’s not just the
exploration guys but the big guys too.” Nevada lawmakers, including Gov. Brian Sandoval, have approached Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey about the permitting delays, and the WMC delegates talked to lawmakers and committee staffs about the issue. The WMC delegation also talked a lot Submitted about jobs this year, Women’s Mining Coalition members who lobbied in Washington, D.C., in April pose for a picture while in the nation’s and Volpi said she told lawmakers and Capitol. The coalition will have a booth at the Elko Mining Expo June 9-10. aides about Elko and They completed 156 Senate and House which will have a booth at the Elko the jobs mining provides to area resi- Mining Expo June 9 and 10 at the Elko visits, including those the attendees dents, including the large number of pro- Convention Center, came from 14 states scheduled with their specific legislators fessional jobs that pay very well. across the country, representing and brief visits, and Northwest Mining Expo booth hardrock and coal mining, utilities and Volpi said the delegation from WMC, manufacturers that sell to the industry. See COALITION, 78
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Coalition ... Continued from page 77 Association Executive Director Laura Skaer also joined the group, as well as testifying in committee during the flyin days. “We tried to target people on committees pertaining to mining and energy issues,” Volpi said. The WMC formed in Nevada to go to Washington to lobby against proposals to reform the 1872 Mining Law and has been flying into the nation’s capital every year since then to talk with lawmakers and their aides about the mining industry, the jobs mining creates and generally tell their side of the story. “There is a lot less surprise and more awareness now, and people were aware of mineral reliance this year,” Volpi said. “And everybody seemed to be on board about what is happening with the EPA.” She said the mineral reliance issue is one the WMC believes is especially important. “If you rely on other countries, you don’t control the supply, quality or the pollution,” Volpi said.
The WMC was in Washington April 4-8, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, RAlaska, on April 15 released a draft of legislation to revitalize the nation’s official minerals supply chain. “Minerals are the building blocks of our economy. From rare earth elements to molybdenum, we rely on minerals for everything from the smallest computer ships to the tallest skyscrapers. This draft bill provides clear, programmatic direction to keep us competitive with foreign nations and promote a stable supply of critical minerals,” Murkowski said in her announcement on the bill. The WMC first talked with lawmakers about mineral reliance during last year’s fly-in, and they used a graphic then that was updated to include 2010 for this year’s fly-in to show how much the United States relies on mineral imports. A number of minerals used in the U.S. are 100 percent imported, including rare earths, bauxite and alumina, manganese, gallium and many more, according to the U.S. Geological
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Survey chart. WMC concerns The WMC outlined concerns about EPA rule-making in literature presented at the fly-in, including rules impacting the coal industry and the jobs they cost and called EPA regulation of greenhouse gases an economic train wreck. The coalition urged Congress to prohibit EPA from regulating greenhouse gases and support a long-term energy policy that provides a “focused effort to advance clean coal technologies.” The WMC literature also states that the current rule-making method doesn’t take into account job loss or cost benefit analysis. Volpi said the WMC representatives also tried to show that they are “stewards of the environment” as part of the mining industry. The women attending the fly-in included engineers, geologists, hydrologists, plant managers, land managers, executives, analysts, consultants and community relations and
human resource specialists, according to WMC. The National Mining Association estimates there are 22,300 women working in mining across the country. The WMC booth at this year’s Expo is moving to near the back door of the convention center from up front. Visitors can obtain pamphlets and information used in the fly-in, and “hopefully, we will be able to attract more members,” Volpi said. “We have 100 members across the country.” Officers include: Cathy Suda with Tech American Inc. in Spokane, Wash., president; Wanda Burget with Peabody Energy in Wyoming, vice president; Kathy Vaughn, Joy Mining Machinery in Virginia, secretary; and Cami Prenn, Mine Development Associates in Reno, treasurer. Membership is open to “anyone in support of talking to lawmakers about wanting a healthy mining industry,” Volpi said. “Our big focus is the flyin.” Dues are $30 a year. The website is www.wmc-usa.org.
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Newmont drilling at Long Canyon By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — Newmont Mining Corp. is keeping drilling rigs busy at Long Canyon in the Pequop Mountains of Elko County since absorbing Fronteer Gold in April for $2.33 billion. “We currently have a multi-rig program out there and 35 to 40 people there,” said Wayne Trudel, North American geology director of mines and exploration. Newmont also acquired the Northumberland Project in Nye County and the Sandman Project in Humboldt County, as well as Long Canyon, and “we’re moving on all three of the core assets,” he said. “We’re all extremely excited about it,” said Lee Hoffman, regional capital manager for Newmont’s Nevada operations. “The assets we picked up with Fronteer are highly prospective and fit very well into our Nevada portfolio,” Trudel said. He said Newmont acquired roughly 50 other exploration properties in Nevada in the acquisition of Fronteer, including joint venture agreements and many that are greenfields projects with little or no drilling. Newmont has to evaluate and rate all these properties, Trudel said. “They are all literally exploration properties. Nothing is
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Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Lee Hoffman, left, regional capital manager of Nevada operations for Newmont Mining Corp., and Wayne Trudel, Newmont’s North American geology director of mines and exploration, provide an update on exploration properties Newmont acquired when the company bought Fronteer Gold. in production. Wayne’s group really hit the ground running,” Hoffman said. Long Canyon between Wells and West Wendover was
the key attraction for Newmont because Fronteer had advanced the property to show the potential for another Carlin Trend. Trudel said Newmont is doing a three-prong exploration program there. The work includes exploration on extensions of the known deposit, exploration on the land package and confirmation drilling on the existing deposit. “We’re continuing to advance the project and gathering baseline information,” he said. “We don’t know the resource yet. That’s what we’re trying to learn and develop right now.” Fronteer’s last estimate before selling to Newmont was that Long Canyon had 2.2 million ounces of measured and indicated gold resources. “We haven’t formulated whether it will be an open pit or underground,” Trudel said, also reporting that Newmont continues to use the former Fronteer trailers at Oasis and core shack in Wells. Newmont already was drilling at the Sandman Project in a joint venture with Fronteer, and Trudel said that work continues. “We’ve completed phase I out there and initiated the next phase. It’s moving along the internal pipeline,” he said. “We’re in the third drill season there.” See EXPLORATION, 72
Marigold to mine gold from Target II By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor ELKO — The Marigold Mine near Valmy is ramping up gold production from Target II, and operator Goldcorp Inc. stated this should offset lower production from the Basalt Pit in the second half of this year. Marigold’s production in the first quarter was down 26 percent to 22,500 ounces of gold for Goldcorp’s two-thirds share, compared with 30,500 ounces in the 2010 quarter. Barrick Gold Corp. owns the other one-third of Marigold. The total cash costs were up in the quarter to $785 per ounce, from $507 per ounce last year because of lower gold production. Goldcorp stated in its earnings report that the decrease in gold production in the 2011 quarter was due to 5,500 fewer ounces being stacked on the leach pad as a result of a 17 percent drop in the ore grade. Vancouver-based Goldcorp also stated that mining and development work in the quarter focused on the Basalt Phase 7
open pit, while stripping of waste began in the Target II Pit in March. Marigold is Goldcorp’s only operation in Nevada, although Goldcorp and Barrick are planning the Arturo Project on the Dee Mine property northwest of Carlin. Companywide, Goldcorp reported net earnings soared in the first quarter to $651 million, or 82 cents per share, on higher gold prices and higher production. These net earnings compared with $232 million, or 32 cents per share, in the 2010 quarter, while adjusted net income was $397 million, or 50 cents per share, in the 2011 quarter, compared with $159 million, or 22 cents per share, last year. Revenues rose 69 percent over the 2010 quarter to $2.1 billion, up from $718 million last year, according to Goldcorp’s earnings report. The average realized gold price was $1,394 per ounce in the first quarter, up 26 percent over the average realized gold price of $1,111 per ounce in the 2010 quarter, according to the earnings report. “Operational strength throughout
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Goldcorp’s mine portfolio and a record high realized gold price resulted in a strong first quarter and a great start to 2011,” said Goldcorp President and Chief Executive Officer Chuck Jeannes. Gold production totaled 637,600 ounces, although fewer ounces were sold in the quarter than produced — 627,300 ounces. The 2011 production compared with 600,100 ounces in the 2010 quarter and sales that quarter of 544,200 ounces. The total cash costs were $188 per ounce on a by-product basis and $504 per ounce on a co-product basis, according to Goldcorp. “Our first-quarter gold production at a cash cost of just $188 per ounce on a byproduct basis was driven by continued work on cost containment throughout the organization in light of inflationary pressures as well as strong by-product metals prices,” Jeannes said in the earnings report. “We remain comfortable with 2011 gold production guidance of between 2.65 million and 2.75 million ounces of gold, but if the improving trend in cash costs
continues, we may revisit our guidance of between $280-$320 per ounce cash costs as the year progresses,” he said. Also in the United States, the Wharf Mine in South Dakota produced 13,300 ounces of gold in the first quarter, down from 18,300 ounces in the 2010 quarter, and cash costs were up to $898 per ounce, compared with $562 per ounce in 2010. Looking at its Penasquito operations in Mexico, Goldcorp reported the mine reached full milling capacity on March 30, while producing 57,600 ounces of gold and 4.37 million ounces of silver in the first quarter. Penasquito also produced 36.5 million pounds of lead and 55.6 million pounds of zinc in the quarter to put by-product cash costs at a negative $1,488 per ounce of gold, the company reported. In Canada, Red Lake produced 186,100 ounces of gold during the first quarter at a total cash cost of $322 per ounce, and a significant amount of exploration is continuing to bring the Upper Red Lake and Far East zones into sustained production.
THE STORY IN PICTURES
Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Newmont Mining Corp. has examples on display at the South Operations Area north of Carlin that show the difference in tire life when good practices are followed. The tire at left had only 377 hours of use, while the other tire had 7,106 hours. Adella Harding/Mining Quarterly
Contract geologist Ed Hanley washes ore core for logging in the core building at the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture property in Humboldt County. “Soon as I get the mud off, I can see enough detail to log it,” he said in May.
Matt Unrau/Mining Quarterly Ross Andreson/Mining Quarterly
Chris Corley, left, general foreman at Great Basin Gold Ltd.’s Hollister Project, flashes a light on the timbers Hollister uses in its underground operations. Talking with him in early May is Doug Crawford, Hollister mine manager.
Fourth-graders from Southside Elementary School learn how to identify minerals through their physical properties in early May at Northeastern Nevada Museum. From left: Brianna Penola, Nallely Reynoso, Lupe Ortiz and Kohl McIntosh took part in the exercise as part of the “Gold Fever” presentation put on by Barrick Gold of North America and Newmont Mining Corp. volunteers.
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82 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
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2011 Elko Mining Expo Vendors Booth No. 101 102 103 104 105 106-7 108 109 110 111-12 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147
Company Name
Sierra Electronics Lubrication Equipment L&M Radiator Woman's Mining Coalition Energy Laboratories Inc Newmont Mining Corporation ISCO Industries Bureau of Land Management Maptek Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc. P&H Mine Pro Services Wet Lab-Western Environmental Testing Lab The Mining Record AmerCable Mining & Industrial Sales Winn-Marion Barber 3M Company Extreme Duty Filtration & Lubricants United States Forest Service Telesto Nevada Inc ABC Seamless Siding Geotemps Inc Climax Portable Machine Tools, Inc Freeport - McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc Sprung Instant Structures Clean Harbors Environmental Services World Wide Drilling Resources Mining Quarterly Summit Enginneering Micromine EarthCon formerly Miller Brooks Environmental Inc. Nevada Division of Minerals FLSmidth AMEC Earth & Environmental Inc. LeTourneau Technologies America/Mining Products George T. Hall Hytorc West JBR Environmental Consultants, Inc Stec’s Advertising Specialties & Safety Awards International Directional Services/Colog Folsom Associates Mackay School of Earth Sciences & Engineering Golder Associates Bowers Industrial Sales, Inc Ore' Max Nevada Mining Association, Inc
148 149 150-51 152-53 154-55 156 157 158 159
Senninger Irrigation Barnes Distribution Ram Enterprise, Inc Tetra Tech Ferguson Enterprises, Inc. Miners News Knight Piesold and Co. Agate Construction NIOSH - Spokane Research Laboratory 160 Valley Forge & Bolt Mfg./MEElectmetal 161 DMC Mining Services 162-63 Bucyrus 164 Victaulic Company of America 165 Boreal Laser USA Inc 166 Netafim USA 167-68 Industrial Products Manufacturing 169 Hose Solutions — Boreline 170 SRK Consulting 171 Ad Wear, Incorporated 172 Southwest Energy LLC 173 Ashland Water Technologies 174 Layne Christensen Company 175 Rocky Mountain Machine Shop 176 Comanco Environmental Corp 177 Connors Drilling LLC 178 Summit Contracting 179 Elko Tool & Fastener Inc 180 Schaeffer Oil Company 181 Univar USA Inc. 182 DSI Ground Support 188 Agru America 189 Northwest Mining Association 200 201 202 203 204 205-6
Richwood Sunset Manufacturing VerderGPM, Inc Grainger Industrial Supply Hayden Diamond Bit Industries Ltd Quadra Mining Ltd.— Robinson Nevada Mining Co. 207 Wear Concepts 208 CAB Products 209 Rain for Rent 210 CEDAInternational Corporation 211 BC Sales Company Inc. 212 CAE Mining USA 213 Schmueser & Associates 214 Global Mining Products 215 Spraying Systems Co 216 D-A Lubricant Company Inc 217 Brown Minneapolis Tank Co 218 AESSEAL, Inc 219 Expander System 220-21 Silver State Wire Rope & Rigging
84 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242-43 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257-59 260-62 263 264 265-66 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277-79 280 281 282 283
Drillco Tools Inc ACP Equipment Monsen Engineering Supply of Reno Enerpac Davey Bickford U.S. Cad Fastenal AFL Telecommunications Spectro O'Reilly Auto Parts UNR Fire Science Academy American Drilling Corp NevCan Inc S & G Electric Motor Repair Hobbs Tank & Equipment Escosupply Westech Kennametal Tricon Metals & Services Inc PDM Steel Service Centers Rocky Mountain Fabrication Reno Forklift, Storage Systems & Reno Scales Torc Up Inc. Sierra Document Management Kleer VU Tunnel Radio of America A1 Radiator Repair Brahma Group, Inc Scorpion Oil Tools Ecolink Inc Belt Conveyor Guarding Pewag Inc. Vermeer Rocky Mountain Inc. CWS Industries Becker Wholesale Mine Supply Fairmont Supply Company Interwest Supply Company RockTech USA, Inc Great Basin Industrial Inc. Priest Electric CiDRA Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc Gem State Paper & Supply Geo Sight Inc Applied Industrial Technologies Albarrie Environmental Services EVCO Geological Supply Oxpro-Maxilube American Equipment Inc. Aardvark Packers Co Open Loop Energy Prime Machine Inc H20 Environmental GSE lining Technology , LLC Grove Madsen Industries
284 285 286-87 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299
Magorian Mine Services DOSECC Exploration Services Delta Rubber Cummins Filtration TJ Products Granite Construction Tri State Surveying Statefire DC Specialties Klondex Mines LaCrosse Footwear Chamco Industries WM Mercury Waste, Inc Maxx Relief LLC Elko Windustrial Western Mine Service
300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307-8
Kaeser Compressor Alidade Intermountain Electronics Hella Mining - Milex Technologies Laron Incorporated Bel-Ray Company Inc Pentair EVCO House of Hose
309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 400
arnetCLEANPOWER, LLC Motion Industries Flir Infrared Cameras Wonderware PacWest Ionic Water Technologies ABB Inc EnviroTech Sercices, Inc Donaldson Company Inc United Central Industrial Supply Schur and Company Mill Man Steel Miller Engineering/ ANM Equipment Runge - Pitcock, Allen & Holt Willow Stick Technologies Cornell Pump Company Ahern Rentals
401 403 404 405 407 408,12 409 411-15 413 416 417
Shafer Equipment Company Geoprobe Systems SS Shop Equipment Platform Safety Solutions A-Z Bus Nevada Highway Patrol Southwest Products Mountain Crane Swick Mining Services National EWP Inc Electrical Control Techniques Sales and Service Godwin Pumps Aire Industrial
418 419
Booth No. 423 424 426 427 42829 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 460-61 462 463 464-65 466 467 468 469-72 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 485 488-93 494 496 497 498 499 501 503-4 505 506 507 509 511 512 513 514 515 517-18 519 520 522-23 524 525 526
Company Name
New Frontier Structures ECN Automation Inc Equivalent Controls Corporation Emerson Power Transmission Steam Store of Elko Dyno Nobel Shurjoint Piping Products North American MineARC Systems America LLC Shot Crete Technologies R.E.Y Engineers Jorgenson Machine Tools Intermountain Helical Piers Titan International JADCO Manufacturing Inc Howe Systems Inc Cummins Rocky Mountain LLC Inland Supply Company Peterbuilt GCR Tire Smith Power Products Warner Truck Luxe Limo Services LLC Direct View of Elko Touch of Heaven Spas Flexco Tech-Flow, Inc Timberline Drilling Thiessen Team USA California Industrial Rubber Co Liebherr Mining Equipment Co BASF Admixtures Inc Ross Equipment Industrial Products Mfg. Phoenix Process Equipment Company Co Valdor Tow Haul NNE Construction Alta Drilling Equipment Contech Construction Products Fordia Mixtec North America Challenger Pipe & Steel Summit Enginneering Conoco Phillips Giant Rubber Water Tanks DeBell Home Improvement Center 4 OCG LLC Sandvik Mining & Construction Mobilight Western Nevada Supply Anvil International Yanke Machine Shop Measurement Devices Limited US LLC Atlantis Casin Resort Spa Chemtreat Inc Blue Ox
527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 551-53 554-55 556 557
Pactsol Resource Network General Tool National Weather Service Kinross Gold Yukon Nevada Gold Corp Nevada Analytical BTE West International Cast Nevada Resource Inc Mac Equipment FMC Technologies General Moly Intermountain Drilling Supply APS-Lighting & Safety Products Wireless Beehive Normet Americas Inc Sandvik Mining & Construction Northern Nevada Equipment EC & MW/Preventive Metallurgy Gerlinger Steel & Supply/Broadbent & Associates 558 Rema Tip Top 559 He-Baws 569 Hose Power 570 Mine Rite 571-74 Norco 575 SSAB Americas 576 Arnold Machinery 577 NevCan Inc 578 Checkers Industrial Safety Products 579 Mine Cable Services 580 5th Gear Power Sports 581-82 Coach America/KT Services 584 Statefire DC Specialties 585 Western Pump & Dredge / Resource West 586 AAMCOR LLC 587 Red Lion Inn & Casino 588 Elko Wire Rope 589 Kenworth Sales 590 F& H Mining Supply Inc 591 Hardrok Equipment Inc 592 Airgas 600 601-2 603-4 606-7 609-11 616 617 618 619 620 621 639-40 645 646 64749 667 668 669 671 672-73
674-75 676 677 678-79 680 681 682-83 700 701
Platt Electric National Mining Equipment LTD Redi Services Mac's Mountain States, Inc Cobalt Truck Equipment Worthen Equipment
Monarch Mining Services Plasma Coatings, Division of American Roller Co. LLC 702-4 Strata Safety Products 703 MHF Services 705 Enviroscientists, Inc. 706 Howden North America 707 P&H Mine Air 708 Van Der Graaf 709 The Euclid Chemical Co. 710 Hanlon Engineering 711 Durco Products 712 Indepent Drug Testing Supply 713 Vogelsang USA 714 Tube Technologies, Inc 715 DESWest 716 Philadelphia Gear Corp. 717 Worldwide Eco Solutions 718 Logo Concepts 719 Bad Dog Tools 720 Intermountain Electric 721 AFEX Fire Supression Systems
722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741-42 743 744 745 746 747
American Med Flight The Quikrete Companies Jensen Precast Engart Dust Extraction Technology Rust Automation & Controls Custom Ear Protect Talbert Mfg Inc Brock Easley/VRC Protx TenCate Empire Scaffold Smith Works Fabrication, LLC ClearSpan Fabric Structures Integrated Power Systems United Site Services Power Deck Co Boot Barn Mine Site Technologies Utah Shrink Wrap Western Fabric Structures Danfoss Power Electronics Marigold Mining Enterprise DrillKing International, L.P. Riverside Inc Carrera Concepts Intl
Food Vendor Food Vendor Sage Lounge Food Vendor
Come and Get it Kettle Corn CafĂŠ X Hilton Garden Inn Fresh Squeezed
Komatsu Equipment Co Atlas Copco Boart Longyear-Products Tons Per Hour Cashman Equipment Kaman Industrial TREAD Corporation CH Spencer Fibergrate Composite Structures SMI Evaporative Solutions Martin Engineering Isringhausen, Inc Clydeunion Pumps Raven Industries Breathing Air Systems OSW Equipment Blu-goo Hilti WDC Exploration & Wells AG Truck SUMMER 2011 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 85
86 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
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88 MINING QUARTERLY, Elko, Nevada SUMMER 2011
Barrick studies Turquoise pit potential By ADELLA HARDING Mining Quarterly Editor
Contract geologist Wayne Johnson of Spokane, Wash., logs core in a building on the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture property in Humboldt County where there are rows of core from exploration drilling. Behind him is Howard Adams, a contract geologist out of Reno. Adella Harding Mining Quarterly
GOLCONDA — Geologists and drilling companies are busy at the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture property pinning down the potential for a gigantic open pit operation on a large land package where gold is now mined underground. “Right now, we’re building confidence in the gold resource,” said Karl Marlowe, chief exploration geologist at Turquoise Ridge in Humboldt County. “We will ultimately determine the best way to mine the property.” The exploration work will lead to a prefeasibility study to be completed by the end of 2012, he said. This follows a scoping study that was recently completed that showed the open-pit potential. The scoping study points to the prospect of Turquoise Ridge producing 800,000 ounces of gold a year. Barrick President and Chief Executive See TURQUOISE, 10
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Inside cover June 2011 Mining Quarterly
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Cover June 2011 Mining Quarterly
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P U BL I S H E D BY T H E E L K O D A I LY F R E E P R E S S
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Newmont Mining marks 90th year
Jack Henris, mine manager of Newmont Mining Corp.’s surface operations on the Carlin Trend, talks about the Gold Quarry Mine that returned to production in time for Newmont’s 90th anniversary. Adella Harding/photo
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