Northern Nevada Business Weekly
ELKO, Nev. — Northern Nevada’s largest gold mining companies remain bullish on their operations in Northern Nevada for 2018 and beyond. Newmont Mining Corp. and Barrick Gold North America continue to pour hundreds of millions of dollars of development capital into surface and underground mining operations in Nevada.
The price of gold rose from $1,158 an ounce in January of 2017 to just under $1,350 an ounce in January of the new year — a figure that justifies continued investment in both companies’ Northern Nevada operations. Nigel Bain, executive director of Barrick’s U.S. operations, says the company has several major developments and infrastructure improvements slated for 2018.
CORTEZ HILLS UNDERGROUND EXPANSION
Workers on Barrick’s Deep South project will continue developing deeper access declines underneath the company’s existing underground mining activities at Cortez Hills, part of the Cortez mine area, which is the largest gold mining complex in the state of Nevada.
Barrick is driving the new declines to access additional reserves estimated at roughly 1.9 million proven and probable reserves. Workers have yet to breach existing underground workings, and once they do, crews will begin installing conveyor systems and other infrastructure to help modernize the flow of rock movement out the mine, says Bain.
As crews delve deeper, they’ll encounter the water table and will need to perform dewatering work. The plan is to move water into rapid infiltration basins in the Crescent, Grass and Pine valley areas.
For the rest of this article: https://www.nnbw.com/news/nv-mining-industry-to-spend-hundreds-of-millions-in-2018-on-expansion/