Mining Spring 2017

MINING SPRING 2017 EDITION

Pershing Gold’s Relief Canyon Mine could reopen this year

Spring Edition | April 2017

MINING

On the cover —

Spring 2017

a publication of Winnemucca Publishing General Manager: Matt Dierlam Special Projects Director: J. Carmen Kofoed Writers: Joyce Sheen Cheryl Upshaw Debra Reid Peggy Jones Aly Guaman Dana Bennett Advertising Sales: Rhonda Coleman Amy Quiring Natalie Ellifritz Ashley Buckingham Advertising Design: Joe Plummer Emily Swindle

Restart for Relief Canyon Photo by Debra Reid, Winnemucca Publishing

A drill rig operator extracts core samples at the Relief Canyon Mine in 2016. The samples are analyzed to expand potential gold and other mineral resources at the mine owned by Pershing Gold Corporation.

See the story starting on Page 18

Also in this issue —

Nevada mining industry drives economy in much of state

By Dana Bennett ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 4

Barrick Nevada: Developing mines and developing people

By Joyce Sheen ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 6

Coeur to pour one hundred and fifty millionth ounce of silver

By Peggy Jones �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 12

Arloa Woolford: Remembering a friend to mining

By Joyce Sheen ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 16

Permits complete for Relief Canyon Mine

By Debra Reid ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 18

Newmont Phoenix Mine plans to expand over time

By Aly Guaman �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 22

State takes a hard look at pit lakes 1022 S. Grass Valley Road, Winnemucca, Nev. 89445 (775) 623-5011

By Cheryl Upshaw ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 26

Lithium: Mineral found in Nevada could power our future

By Ian Whitaker ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Page 30

Industry Snapshot

Nevada mining industry drives economy in much of state

By DANA BENNETT

Nevada Mining Association President

From the glimmering lights of the Las Vegas Strip or the ski slopes surrounding Lake Tahoe, most Nevada visitors, and even residents, never get the opportunity to experience our state’s storied mining industry. Thanks to world-class deposits of gold and other precious metals, mining is Nevada’s largest export industry, and the Silver State is the largest gold producer in the U.S. Recently, the world-renowned Fraser Institute named Nevada as the fourth best jurisdiction in the world for mining investments.

Beyond the precious metals, other vitally important minerals and metals such as molybdenum, lithium, gypsum, copper, and diatomaceous earth are mined here. Nevada is home to the only lithium mine in the U.S. and has tremendous, untapped geothermal resources. Minerals mined in Nevada are critical components in our cars, cell phones, computers, batteries, solar panels, beer production, and much more.

Examples of how minerals are utilized in 21st-century technology include copper, which is a critical component of wind turbines. Silver paste is used in 90-percent of solar panels, according to the Silver Institute, a non-profit international silver industry association. NASA utilizes gold for its insulating properties – gold-coated mylar sheets protect satellites from the sun’s rays and gold is used on astronaut helmets.

Even our food sources require minerals.

Diatomite, made from diatomaceous earth, is used by farmers for pest control.

IF IT’S NOT GROWN, IT’S MINED

Nearly everything we use is made with metals or minerals or requires metals or minerals to produce.

Although mining drives the economy in rural Nevada counties and communities, many state lawmakers have little experience with the state’s original STEM industry.

Most lawmakers live in the state’s more populated counties, while the largest mines are in rural Nevada.

Sharing the industry’s key positions, innovations, and health in Nevada is one of the Nevada Mining Association’s (NvMA) key roles – both with policymakers and the public. To work with legislators and other state officials on issues that affect industry, NvMA regularly partners with its member

mines to conduct mine tours and other educational opportunities. In recent years, we have conducted tours at gold mines, silver mines, even salt and lithium mines, where our guests can see firsthand the exciting role mining plays in our state.

To further introduce new legislators to the industry and reconnect with veteran legislators, NvMA hosts Nevada Mining Day at the Legislature during each regular legislative session.

The latest mining day was held March 6. Legislators had the opportunity to drive a haul truck simulator, have one-on-one conversations with industry leaders, and hear firsthand about a miner’s daily work by chatting with people who work in Nevada’s underground and open pit mines. One of the highlights of the day was an impromptu speech from Governor Brian Sandoval – a strong supporter of the industry.

The industry is proud to have the support of Governor Sandoval, who also highlighted the important role of the mining industry in the state’s economy during his recent State of the State address.

LOWER COMMODITY PRICES = FRAGILE INDUSTRY

Although the world relies on the minerals and metals mined in the Silver State, lower commodity prices and the rising costs of doing business have left the mining industry in a fragile position. For example, gold prices peaked in 2011 and 2012 at a high of more than $1800 per ounce. Today, gold prices are lingering at about $1200 per ounce. Some Nevada mines have fallen into bankruptcy; other projects that once seemed a sure thing are now stalled. Mining is the only economic sector in Nevada that recorded job losses over the last two years.

State legislators are in a position to allow the fragile recovery of the mining industry to continue unfettered by burdensome restrictions. This would allow one of Nevada’s oldest industries to emerge stronger than ever.

WOMEN IN MINING

As part of NvMA’s ongoing efforts to ensure Nevada’s mining industry has the strongest workforce possible, the association is gathering data to better understand how to recruit and retain women in the mining industry.

Although largely unrecognized in Nevada’s early mining history, women were instrumental in Nevada’s silver rush, which

began in 1858. Women have been a part of the state’s foundational industry ever since that time.

Maggie E. Smith Johnson, who was born a slave in Louisiana, became a Nevada mine owner by 1910 and was widely admired for helping her neighbors. Isabella McCormick Donohue Butler, better known as Belle, took it upon herself to lead an expedition to locate mining claims after her husband failed to do so. Those claims led to the development of Tonopah. Although Jim Butler often is credited for starting the 20th

century gold rush, it was his wife, Belle Butler, who staked the claim that became the famous Mizpah Mine. Another Tonopah woman, May Bradford Shockley, became the first Nevada woman to be a U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor.

Today, across the U.S., women represent 13 percent of the mining workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

Mining offers rich career choices for women.

Average mining industry salaries in Nevada are more than $96,000, which is more than double the state’s average salary.

Mines offer generous benefits packages, including retirement plans and health insurance. Since mines are 24 hour operations, they often offer women more scheduling flexibility than other industries.

STORIED HISTORY AND INNOVATIVE FUTURE

The mining industry dates to the dawn of civilization and, in Nevada, to pre-statehood. This long history can be attributed to the industry’s ability to be innovative and to growing social demands for numerous metals and minerals to power our 21st century lifestyle.

Mining companies continuously innovate to achieve higher levels of employee safety, more accurate assessments of where minerals are located and the best way to extract them, and determine creative and practical ways to be thoughtful stewards of the environment.

On behalf of the hundreds of statewide members of the Nevada Mining Association and the thousands of Nevadans who make their living in mining, I invite you to explore Nevada’s 21st century mining industry, its economic impact on the Silver State, and the vast array of metals and minerals beneath Nevada’s surface. Please visit our website at nevadamining.org, and sign up for our monthly newsletter! F

MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 5

Humboldt County

A look at how many people it takes to accomplish the mobile maintenance for a shift at Turquoise Ridge. The crew is posing on and around the bucket of a loader.

Barrick Nevada:

Developing mines and developing people

A six-yard loader removes material blasted from the working face of a tunnel in an area of the Turquoise Ridge Mine about 2,500 feet below the surface. The photo was taken Sept. 20, 2016.

By JOYCE SHEEN Winnemucca Publishing

Developing Nevada properties Nevada’s largest mining company is also the world’s largest gold producing company. Barrick is working on expansion opportunities at its Nevada properties including Cortez, Goldrush, and Turquoise Ridge.

At Cortez, there is potential to go further underground in the Deep South Zone, below currently permitted areas. Barrick’s studies predict that mining deeper at Cortez has the potential to produce 300,000 ounces per year between 2022 and 2026.

Continues on Page 8 6 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

A roadheader, this one from Sandvik, uses rotating picks (the orange section) to tear apart rock. The black tray below collects the material excavated and feeds it to the internal conveyor.

BARRICK Cont. from Page 6 Development of the two declines that provide access to the lower zone of the mine began late last year. For the first time, Cortez is using a road header - automated equipment that uses mechanical cutting to bore continuously.

Continued evaluation as part of the feasibility study has pointed to opportunities to reduce mining costs through further automation. Loading with a smart conveyance system, rather than a traditional conveyor system is being studied.

The initial cost of that project has not changed from the $153 million estimated a year earlier. The pre-feasibility study estimated the permitting would take 3-4 years, and that work started in 2016. A record of decision isn’t expected before 2019-2020, according to a February release.

Once the permits are received, the plan is to begin dewatering and development, with the first production possible in 2022 or 2023. Barrick believes this Deep South Zone expansion will offset the end of production at the Cortez Hills open pit, expected to conclude next year.

At the Goldrush property, Barrick is moving forward with plans to develop an underground mine that could be in production as soon as 2021. The hefty $1 billion development cost has the potential

to produce 440,000 ounces per year over a mine life this is estimated at 21 years.

Barrick spent about $28 million last year to advance the feasibility study and finalize the project permitting strategy.

Barrick is in the initial stages of ground preparation for a third production shaft at Turquoise Ridge Mine (TR), in Humboldt County. TR has the highest grade ore of any mine in the company and one of the highest grades of ore in the entire industry at between 0.4 and sometimes higher than 0.5 ounces per ton of ore. The planned third production shaft would “at least” double output at TR, said General Manager, Henri Gonin.

Gonin recently took over the helm of TR from Nigel Bain, who moved on to the position of Executive Director for the United States.

Gonin is preparing to move his family to Winnemucca.

Of the planned underground expansion work at the three Barrick Nevada properties, TR is furthest along the development pipeline, with all the permits in place to add the third shaft, which will develop in four phases. The first phase, underway now, will be preparation of the site where the shaft will be sunk into the ground. The preparation will include drilling holes into the ground around the planned shaft and dewatering to stabilize the ground.

Once that work is complete, the second phase will be to sink the shaft from the top down, at which point it will be a completed ventilation shaft. Adding

8 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

a ventilation shaft would allow Turquoise Ridge to continue to move 1,825 tons of ore per day as mining moves deeper and further away from the existing shaft and ventilation infrastructure. The proposed shaft would be centrally located over reserves to be mined in future years, and would also open new areas to exploration drilling and mining.

Developing the ventilation shaft into a production shaft will involve installing all the steel work and hoists to move ore out of the shaft.

That stage is very expensive, said Gonin; it will require going back to the investment committee for support to move ahead.

Work on permitting and funding to complete the production shaft will go on simultaneously with the construction of the ventilation shaft from the surface down. The plan is for permits and money to both be in place by the time the project is ready for the production shaft to be built from the bottom up.

Gonin estimated the time line to bring the third shaft into production would be at least four to five years. Barrick estimates the cost at between $300 and $325 million to complete the third shaft project and associated underground development and infrastructure.

While plans for the third shaft have been moving forward, Turquoise Ridge has doubled its production in the five years from 2001-2016. A combination of efforts has succeeded in increasing underground production within the mine’s current infrastructure.

Standardizing equipment has improved performance and simplified maintenance for less down-time. The top cut mining widths have been increased for access to more ore.

Adding the third production shaft is expected to double production of gold at Turquoise Ridge once again.

As Barrick moves forward with the third shaft at Turquoise Ridge, another important initiative at Barrick will be moving forward that will involve digitization, computerization and increasing automation of every aspect of what the company does. Digitization will help make exploration, planning, mining, and processing all more efficient and lower-cost.

“Computerization and automation is a very big focus for the entire company,” Gonin said.

Digital innovations have the potential to better define targets and ore bodies using computer modeling rather than extensive drilling. Barrick’s Digital Innovation department foresees a future where both mining and processing have the potential for full automation, with operators and technicians working at surface and in safety.

Barrick’s commitment to strategic partnerships is actively moving this digitization effort forward.

Continues on Page 10

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MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 9

BARRICK Cont. from Page 8 Last September, Barrick announced a partnership with the multinational technology company — Cisco. Barrick’s Operational and Technical Update of Feb. 2017 identifies Cisco as “A global leader in helping countries, industries and companies become digital.”

Barrick’s digital innovation center is in Elko. The Cortez mine site, in Lander County, is the pilot location for much of the digital development. As applications are refined there, they move on to implementation at other mine sites.

At Cortez, front line operators are working with software programmers and other external partners to develop and customize digital solutions that have the potential to transform every aspect of mining.

While the Cortez property is the pilot for Barrick’s digital operation development, Gonin says Turquoise Ridge (TR) is not far behind.

“Barrick chose Cortez as a pilot site for a lot of this work — to test the automation, test the right product, the right method, make improvements, make it work, find the solution that will be the most efficient, the easiest to install,” Gonin said. “Once all the bugs are worked out, that solution can be applied to all the other mines. Turquoise Ridge is right on Cortez’ heels.”

For instance, tablet-based vehicle tracking and scheduling was tested at Cortez last year and the plan is to roll it out to Turquoise Ridge and Goldstrike this year. The required infrastructure for additional underground automation is being set up and tested while operators and technicians are being trained.

Maintenance is moving from paper to digital — mechanics already use tablets for job orders. A system of predictive maintenance is under development. Those working on digital development see a future where trucks with imbedded computerization diagnose themselves and notify the maintenance department via the Internet if a part is wearing out, if coolant levels are not optimal, or of upcoming needs in a host of other areas.

Automation is being tested in processing areas to improve efficiency and gold recovery. Already, sensors embedded in the process chain can monitor reagents and track the process

At left above, two of the Compass Program mentors, Terry Knight (left) and Joseph Seamons (right) pose with awards in recognition of the time and effort they gave to their Barrick Turquoise Ridge Compass Program trainees. At right above is Nevada Compass Program Administrator Fatima Amaya.

for optimal gold recovery.

Gonin joins many others in the industry in believing that underground automation is a given in mining’s future.

Most mines, including Turquoise Ridge operate 24 hours a day. Miners work 12-hour shifts, with blasting occurring between shifts, when workers are out of the mine. Automation would allow continuous mining without blasting.

Mining at Turquoise Ridge and other underground mines is done now as a batch process - the mining face is drilled, charges are placed and the face is blasted to break up the ore. The ore that has been blasted away from the face is then mucked out of the tunnel and vaulted up out of the mine to the surface and on to the process area. The cycle then starts over again. Automation would change mining from that batch process to a continuous operation. The operator would be located in a control room away from the production area.

Advantages of increased automation and continuous mining range from reduced mining costs to increased safety for workers and less chance of blasting causing unstable ground conditions.

Rather than blasting ore, the mining face would be mechanically cut. Gonin described the equipment that would do that as a “big machine with picks” that slowly excavates forward, rather than the batch process that breaks up the ore 10 feet ahead with each blast.

Barrick’s Feb. 2017 Operational and Technical Update includes the plan for Turquoise Ridge to commission a road header for ore production during the fourth quarter this year.

The company has looked at Sandvik MH320 or 670. Sandvik describes its roadheaders as

10 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

advanced, self-propelled, extremely powerful rock-cutting machines designed to excavate roadways, tunnels and chambers continuously without using explosives. Powered electro hydraulically, they emit no fumes.

Increased automation has the potential to decrease the number of jobs, Gonin acknowledges. “However, we don’t see that happening,” he said. “We will see a shift in the skill sets that we need and we will definitely be focused on providing employees with the opportunity to learn those skill sets.”

As the mining industry evolves, Barrick is committed to giving the company’s employees the opportunity to evolve with it — to continually get additional training and experience with new technologies and new mining methods, rather than being left behind. One example of that commitment is the Compass Program.

Human Resource Development

“Training our people is a very important thing for Barrick,” said Turquoise Ridge General Manager Henri Gonin, speaking at a graduation celebration, March 17, for Barrick’s Compass Program. The Compass Program is one example of Barrick’s philosophy of helping employees gain a wide base of skills and expertise without having to leave the company to do it. The goal is to develop Barrick’s “human capital” to full potential, to the benefit of both the employees — and the company. It’s a philosophy that prevails from the Barrick head office to each individual mine site.

“Most of you don’t get to listen to the senior leadership team in Toronto — but they speak often of it,” Gonin told the graduates.

“There are two things that our head office is supposed to do. Number one is capital alloca-

tion - they give us the money to do what we need to do. Number two is human capital allocation.”

“Human capital allocation is so important, that my boss, the Chief Operating Officer of the entire company, spends at least 40 percent of his time on the development of this human capital,” Gonin said. “Not on [gold]ounces, not on equipment, not on environmental issues, not on anything else. He spends that time on the human capital in the company.”

Barrick’s Compass Program takes young employees who have typically been working for the company less than four years and gives them a mentor to oversee their opportunity to study and work to learn new skills in the industry. Many of these young employees have come to Barrick straight from University, Gonin said.

“Studying is something you will never stop doing; you will never stop learning; you should never stop reading; you should never say ‘no’ to an opportunity to further your knowledge and experience,” said Gonin, giving good advice to the five Turquoise Ridge engineers graduating from the Compass Program the evening of March 16, 2017.

Each of the graduates were engineers and or geologists, who came to Barrick with their college degrees completed. While each has been working for the company, they have taken on the extra challenge for three or more years to study, take Internet classes and do extensive on-the-job training and cross training to graduate from the Compass Program.

Each employee in the program is given a mentor who trains, works closely with, and oversees his or her journey through education and experience in specific training objectives that can include: Underground and Surface Mining, Mine Geology, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydrogeology, Matallurgy, Exploration, Maintenance, Environmental Science, Health and Safety.

Fatima Amaya is the administrator for the Compass Program in Nevada. She has other duties as well, with Barrick’s Human Resources Management. She left most of her extended family in El Salvador when she and her husband came to Nevada to work for Barrick.

There are 70 of Barrick’s employees involved in the Compass Program right now in Nevada, Amaya said. She added that the program is available globally. “Completing the program doesn’t promise any promotion or increase in pay but it plays a big role,” she explained. “They get exposed, they get to know people.

When the participants graduate, they say that Barrick gets really small, because they get to know everyone from the company’s different mines. It brings them to feel more of the Barrick family.”

Barrick’s Compass Program brochure outlines the goal — to develop, in employees, the skills to prepare them to be future key players in the company and the industry. By offering this training to their employees, Barrick’s leaders intend to develop, from within, the most knowledgeable and skilled workforce in the industry.

“If you think about where we are as an industry and as an organization there are three things that are very important to our future,” Gonin said, naming the three as technology, innovation and communication. “If you think about that, it explains why we have to spend so much time and effort on the development of our people, especially our young people.”

Gonin said it will be this group of young professionals who will implement the technology, innovation and communication needed to sustain Barrick as a mining company into the future.

Forrest Pettis (left) and Ruben Morfin (right) making repairs to the equipment in the drift underground.

Gonin acknowledged that working for advanced training, while working at a 12 hour-a-day job is not easy but it is worth it.

It is worth it to each individual employee’s future and very much worth it to the future of Barrick. F

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MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 11

Pershing County

The BIG 150,000,000 Scott Hill and Dana Sue Kimbal stand in front of the new Stage IV overland conveyer.

In the background the Stage 3 heap leach pad, crushing, process and maintenance facilities are visible.

Coeur to pour one hundred and fifty millionth ounce of silver Mining company plans celebration; expansion

By PEGGY JONES

Winnemucca Publishing

Pershing County’s Coeur Rochester reaches a milestone this June. They’ll pour their one hundred and fifty millionth ounce of silver. And with their long-awaited expansion, miners will continue to pull precious metal from the Earth for at least another eight years, says General Manager Robert Stepper.

The mine has a long history. From 1909 until 1935 men tunneled underground to get at Rochester’s high grade veins. In 1983, Coeur d’ Alene Mines bought the property. They restarted operations as a surface mine three years later. The Rochester mine practices open pit mining with heap leaching.

Heap leaching is an industrial mining process to extract precious minerals from ore through a series of chemical reactions.

In the oldest leaching process used by humans, people soaked colored minerals and soils in water and decanted the liquid as a rug and clothing dye.

Today, miners climb on top of bulldozers to yank huge rocks and boulders from an open pit. Then, a conveyer feeds the ore to a crusher that pulverizes the load and deposits the particles in a pile on a lined pad.

Next, miners irrigate the pile with a dilute cyanide solution to dissolve the metals. They collect the mixture in a tank for processing to remove the silver and gold.

Finally, they recycle the solution, minus the metals, back onto the leach pad.

Industry experts call heap leaching “mining’s breakthrough technology.”

Some of its advantages include lower energy and water requirements, and applicability to low-grade ore, tailings (waste rock), and stockpiles previously regarded as waste. The Rochester mine can process ore from old stockpiles built up over its 30 year operating history.

Coeur Rochester shut down from 2007 to 2010 due to low reserves and metal prices. But the company bounced back.

Now it employs about 300 people and 30-40 regular contractors. About 60 percent of the miners live in Pershing County.

Another 25-30 percent live in Winnemucca. The rest come from outlying areas – including Fallon, Fernley and Reno.

12 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

In July, 2016, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) gave the Rochester mine the go-ahead for its $40 million dollar project, Plan of Operations Amendment 10. The mine’s permit boundary grows from about 4,339 acres to 4,838 acres – an expansion of 499 acres.

“Without the expansion I’d be putting the big brass lock on the gate in 2018,” said Stepper. “If it were not for the support of the public; writing letters, attending meetings and making comments; we would not have come this far.” The BLM hosted public meetings in Winnemucca and Lovelock in September 2015.

The Stage III heap leach pad will be fully stacked with ore in 2018 – so the Rochester mine is expanding its Stage IV leach pad by 67 acres and increasing its height from 330 feet to 400 feet. They’re also permitted for building a new 123 acre Stage V pad. The expansion allows them to increase their ground water pumping rate and replace two production wells.

The Rochester mine also crafted a final closure plan. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires every mine in Nevada to say how it will protect the environment after they close.

Continues on Page 14

MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 13

COEUR ROCHESTER Cont. from Page 12 Leach pads keep draining fluids and leach solution many years after a mine shuts its doors.

Environmental manager Dana Sue Kimbal, of Winnemucca, has worked at the Rochester mine for seven years and in the local mining industry as a Metallurgical Engineer and environmental professional since 1990.

“My job entails three things,” says Kimbal. “The first is compliance- to make sure that we follow the letter of the law in our treatment of the air, water, and hazardous waste. The second is planning for the future, and the third is closure - making sure that when we leave the site and are no longer here you won’t be able to tell we were here.”

Kimbal is proud of Coeur’s safety and environmental record during the new expansion, which will be completed this July. “We’ve worked 32,500 man-hours on this project with no safety or environmental incidents,” she said. “And that’s with wet, snowy, and cold weather.”

Scott Hill signed on with Rochester in 2011 as the chief surveyor. Today he oversees the projects department, capital development, and construction. He and his crew have been busy.

The new Stage IV overland conveyer is one and a half miles long. It will feed 2,000 tons of crushed ore per hour onto the leach pad expansion. And it will do so twenty-four hours a day 365 days a year.

The crusher never sleeps.

Hill explained how the conveyer operates. Trucks can hold 150 tons of ore, he said. “We activate the load-out system with remote controlled radio. The conveyer opens like a clam shell for a measured amount of time to accept the ore and haul it to the leach pad.”

Hill’s team is relocating 1 1/2 miles of paved access road to accomodate the new expansion. They’ve moved portions of the main access road, the Stage IV haul road, and the American Canyon Road. By the time they’re through, they will have moved one and a half million cubic yards of earth.

Frankie Graham, a native daughter of Lovelock, is the Rochester mine’s Human Resource Generalist. She said that Coeur Rochester, Inc., plans to celebrate their milestone pour. She expects the company to issue a press release soon. F

Above, construction crews from TIC Carlin and Yanke Machine Shop (Boise, Idaho) work on the reclaim vault and tunnel for the Stage IV overland conveyer and load out. Jesus Martinez, Sr., waves.

Below, an excavator strips and loads out topsoil from the Stage IV heap leach pad expansion. The mine will relocate the paved access road up the slope directly above the excavator.

The Coeur Rochester mine has a long history.

From 1909 until 1935 men tunneled underground to get at Rochester’s high grade veins.

14 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

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MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 15

In honor of her retirement from the Nevada Mining Association’s Education Foundation in 2008, the Gary Prazen statue “A Lady and a Miner” was presented to Arloa Woolford during the NMA’s 24th Annual Earth Science Workshop.

In Memory Remembering a friend to mining

Nevada for many years. They both spoke regularly with teachers and offered presentations to their classes, as part of their involvement with the Nevada Mining Association’s Education Committee.

“Her passion for Nevada and educating both teachers and their students was impressive,” Freeman said.

“Her passion was focused not only in Nevada — she traveled to many other states and participated in Minerals Education Conferences.”

Freeman and Woolford traveled to Ohio to participate at the National Mineral Conference and present a minerals education activity to the

Arloa Woolford passed on love of mining for 25 years

By JOYCE SHEEN Winnemucca Publishing

Educating people about mining was something Arloa Woolford took very personally. She did it tirelessly for over a quarter of a century. Her obituary in the March 8 Humboldt Sun outlined her many accomplishments in promoting understanding and appreciation of Nevada’s mining industry at every opportunity since 1989.

Three of those who worked alongside Woolford shared their memories of the positive impact she made.

Bill Durbin first met Woolford at a Nevada Mining Association Division of Minerals workshop.

“I was immediately struck by Arloa’s passion for mineral education,” Durbin said. “Many of the courses and activities she presented were those she had developed herself and with her colleagues at Women in Mining. She was a true ‘miner’ with a great love of the mining industry. It was very important to her to educate teachers and students about where the raw materials come from that are used to manufacture the products we use on a daily basis and often take for granted.”

Durbin worked with Woolford in her classrooms on several occasions. “I consider her my mentor,” he said. “She taught me so much about mineral education and how to present it to teachers and students in an exciting and informative way.”

“Arloa and I and our colleagues traveled to many events across the country to present mineral education sessions and to learn from other mineral educators, including at National Science Teachers Association conferences and National Mineral Education Coalition conferences,” Durbin said. “Arloa was highly respected and admired by everyone who knew her.”

Durbin was happy to report that some of Woolford’s passion rubbed off on him. He is actively involved in classrooms and teacher workshops to this day.

Kathleen Freeman worked with Woolford in minerals education for over 25 years. They met on the Nevada Mining Association’s Education Committee and became good friends.

Kathleen Freeman worked with Woolford on minerals education for over 25 years. They met when both served on Nevada Mining Association’s Education Committee. Freeman said Woolford taught classes for the education committee in both northern and southern

other conference attendees.

“Her knowledge of minerals and their uses was amazing,” said Freeman. “If I needed to answer a question regarding anything about mining; if I needed someone to help with anything; she was the person I would ask.”

Dana Sue Kimball was a metallurgy graduate student working a summer job at the Sleeper Mine when she first met Woolford.

Kimball applied for and received a scholarship from the local chapter of Women in Mining.

“Our professional relationship continued when I started working with Teacher Workshops sponsored by Nevada Mining Association’s Education Committee,” Kimball said. She remembered attending a class that Woolford was teaching called “Paste with a Taste” that included making toothpaste from Calcium Carbonate. Each group had to come up with a unique flavor and texture. They were required to develop a marketing jingle that had to be sung to the class.

Kimball indicated her group came up with banana flavored toothpaste, adding that she didn’t expect that flavor to catch on.

However, banana-flavored toothpaste is now readily available on the Internet, if not generally in stores. There has been no call to repeat the jingle they came up with though. “Thankfully,” she said.

“For a good 20 years, Arloa and I traveled the state doing two minerals education workshops a year,” Kimball remembered.

Throughout that time, they handed out divided boxes of minerals and small samples of different rocks to teachers, for use in their classrooms. They would always chuckle if there was a rock or mineral missing from the boxes, saying that Arloa probably had some stored in her garage.

Kimball said Woolford’s family has found an appropriate way to recognize her legacy and commitment by developing a minerals education sustaining scholarship in Woolford’s name.

“I am proud to say that I, personally, and the company I work for, Coeur Rochester, Inc. will be some of the first contributors,” Kimball concluded. F

16 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

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MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 17

Drilling for core samples at the Relief Canyon Mine is one step in expanding the gold and mineral resources.

All photos by Debra Reid

Back in Business Permits complete for Relief Canyon Mine Pershing Gold property could be back in operation this year

By DEBRA REID Winnemucca Publishing

The Pershing Gold Corporation recently announced the completion of environmental permitting required by the Bureau of Land Management. A Feb. 28 press release says all the needed permits are in place for expansion and restart of operations at the Relief Canyon Mine northeast of Lovelock.

“The successful acquisition of these permits is a major milestone for the Company that significantly advances our ability to begin production at the Relief Canyon Mine,” states Pershing Gold Chairman, CEO and President Stephen Alfers. “We thank the BLM and NDEP for all their hard work in carefully reviewing

and approving our permit applications for the Relief Canyon Mine.”

In a subsequent statement, Pershing Gold Vice President of Investor Relations Jack Perkins, could not provide a specific time line on when the mine might be back in production. He did say that an economic study must be completed before a restart schedule is made public for Relief Canyon.

However, Perkins hinted that such an announcement could be forthcoming sometime in the near future.

“We are still waiting for the Pre-Feas before we can make that announcement,” Perkins said in his March 1, 2017 statement. “We are expecting the PreFeas in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.”

The mine consists of three open pits and a “state-of-the-art, fully permitted and constructed heap leach processing facility.” A Plan of Operations has been approved by the BLM to

allow mining to resume according to the February 28 press release. Other major permits in hand include the Reclamation and Water Pollution Control permits issued by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection/Bureau of Mining Regulation and three air quality permits issued by the NDEP/Bureau of Air Pollution Control Federal and state environmental permits will allow the company to expand and deepen three existing open pits, build a new waste rock storage facility, expand exploratory drilling areas around the existing pits, install and operate the required mercury emission control equipment at the heap leach solution gold processing plant as well as operate the crusher and other equipment at the heap leach facility.

The press release states, however, that Pershing Gold must provide the BLM and NDEP with “additional finan-

The Relief Canyon Mine processing plant is still state-of-the-art according to Pershing Gold officials but mercury emissions control equipment must be installed before the mine goes back into production.

cial assurance to guarantee reclamation of the mine site.”

“The Company is making plans to satisfy this financial assurance requirement with a surface management surety bond provided by a third-party insurance underwriter. Pershing Gold anticipates the cash collateral required to secure this bond will be approximately $1.4 million.”

In a more recent update, Perkins said the pre-feasibility study is within weeks of completion and said that it will expand on the economics of a preliminary economic assessment published last summer.

“Among other things it will include a pit-slope study, additional metallurgical work and will expand on the evaluation of contract vs. self mining to include an analysis of truck stacking vs. conveyor stacking,” Perkins stated. “Once the PreFeas is published, our Board of Directors will make a formal production announce-

ment. We believe that we can be in production six to nine months from a positive production decision although hiring and construction could start much sooner.”

Pershing Gold refers to itself as an “emerging” gold producer and lists its primary asset is Relief Canyon Mine surrounded by landholdings of approximately 25,000 in all directions from the mine.

“This land package provides Pershing Gold with the opportunity to expand the Relief Canyon Mine deposit and to explore and make new discoveries on nearby lands,” the February press release states.

According to the company website, the Relief Canyon processing plant has an annual capacity to process gold-bearing solutions from the leaching of 8 million tons of ore. The leach pad can hold 21 million tons of ore, can be expanded and is ideally situated to process ore from satellite deposits.

A Preliminary Economic Assessment predicts an average annual production of 88,500 ounces of gold with a total production of 513,000 ounces of gold over the life of the mine set at 5.8 years.

The report predicts an average production cost of $677 per gold ounce with “self mining” versus a cost of $772 per ounce with contract mining. The PEA is based on an average gold price of $1,250 per ounce.

On March 21, 2017, the price of gold was going up and down around an average of $1,245 per ounce.

Since gold was discovered at Relief Canyon in 1979 by the Duval Corporation, the mine has repeatedly changed hands. In 1984, Lancana Mining was the first to produce Relief Canyon gold before the mine was purchased in 1986 by the Pegasus Gold Corporation.

Continues on Page 20

Pershing Gold is an emerging gold producer in Pershing County MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 19

RELIEF CANYON Cont. from Page 19

Years of exploratory drilling projects have extracted thousands of feet of core samples and expanded potential gold resources at the Relief Canyon Mine according to Pershing Gold Corporation officials.

Pegasus reportedly produced 100,000 ounces of gold in four years at Relief Canyon.

In 1995, Firstgold Corporation bought the Relief Canyon Mine and upgraded the Absorption-Desorption Recovery (ADR) leach solution processing plant installed in the 1980’s by Pegasus.

Firstgold was financially backed in part by Chinese investors. That was a security issue for the Committee on Foreign Investment due to the mine’s proximity to the Fallon Naval Air Station.

As a result, Firstgold was forced into bankruptcy and, in August, 2011, the Relief Canyon Mine was sold to the Pershing Gold Corporation. F

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Lander County

Newmont Phoenix Mine plans to expand over time

By ALY GUAMAN

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The Newmont Phoenix Mine, located 12 miles south of Battle Mountain, has plans to expand the mine size and life. The project is being called the Greater Phoenix Project (GPP). The mine life is expected to extend by 23 years, from 2040 to 2063 with continued use of full workforce.

The gold and copper mine is an open pit mine, located in Lander County, that has proposed to more than double its boundaries to operate from approximately 8,200 acres to approximately 18,500 acres.

The increase will also see in an uptick in permitted disturbance from the 8,200 acres to 13,100 acres.

Fifth percent of 487 employees at the Phoenix Mine are from Lander County.

Even though the mine is increasing in size, there is not expected increase in workforce. Shar Peterson, Newmont external relations specialist, said the growth will take place over time with the plan of keeping their workforce solid and steady.

Jennifer Ortega, Senior Environmental Specialist, said Newmont typically hires contractors for certain construction projects like the tails impoundment and copper leach pad, but would not see a huge increase in construction since it will be done over time.

Plans with the GPP include expanding the pit area through consolidation and expansion of existing pits and expansion of the waste rock facility, tails shortage facility, and copper heap leach pad.

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NEWMONT PHOENIX PROJECT Cont. from Page 22 Additional barrow areas will be developed to accommodate the growth — one for construction and one for reclamation purposes.

Ortega said their closure approach would be changing. Currently, Newmont’s closure approach includes backfilling the pit system with amended waste rock. They

plan to, instead, fill with the Southern pit with water from the Northern pit. The water will be treated twice and then piped to the retrofitted pond for the Reona leach pad. The water will then be used to grow alfalfa on the tails system — utilizing the water for a beneficial purpose, said Ortega.

A portion of the existing Buffalo Valley and Copper Canyon County road will be relocated South. Newmont is working with Lander County for those changes.

The project kicked off in Sept. 2015.

Newmont has completed baseline studies along with consulting with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Mount Lewis office who is working through the Environmental Impact Statement process, as well as working through the permitting process with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection/Bureau of Mining Regulation and Reclamation.

There will be opportunities for public comment periods in the future, the dates are not yet known. F

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Regional Issues

The Lone Tree pit lake, photographed

by Jofree Duran in June 2016.

State takes a hard look at pit lakes

By CHERYL UPSHAW Winnemucca Publishing

What’s left when mining is done? For many mines, the land is reclaimed, with little evidence that mining occurred. For others, once mining is complete, the pits where huge haul trucks turned dirt to gold are allowed to fill with water, creating a pit lake.

In a state only recently relieved of drought, the loss from evaporation at pit lakes has been the topic of heated debate.

Luckily, recent voluntary actions by Newmont Mining and Silver Standard Resources are providing an option for dealing with these large man-made water bodies.

The formation of pit lakes is a fairly simple process, at least on the surface. Essentially, to get at the gold, mining operations dig below the water table. They pump the water out while mining occurs, but once mining is over, dewatering at the pit stops.

Naturally, the water surrounding the pit begins to slowly flow into it again. Over the course of several years, the pit fills with water, resulting in a lake.

There are many controversies involving pit lakes, beneficial use, draw down on the water table, the effect on surface flows and contamination being a few. The one being addressed by Newmont and Silver Standard is evaporative loss. A large body of water, like Lake Tahoe, or Rye Patch

Reservoir, or say, a pit lake, stands to lose a lot of water to evaporation, and that loss is not being accounted for in the state’s water budget.

The problem of accounting for water is deeply important. As the state claws its way out of a years-long drought, the State Engineer’s office finds itself embroiled in litigation over the way water is managed in the nation’s driest state.

In Nevada, nearly every water basin is over-appropriated, meaning, there are more water rights than there is water. In Diamond Valley, for example, four times the area’s perennial yield, or the amount of water supplied by nature, is available for pumping — at least, on paper. About twice the perennial yield is actually pumped by Diamond Valley water rights holders. This can lower the level of the water table and prevent water from reaching users downstream. For these users, whose livelihoods depend on this water, the problem of over-appropriation cannot be overstated.

State Engineer Jason King has explored a number of ways to address over-appropriation, including looking into the ways that groundwater and surface water interact, exploring options for cloud-seeding and appropriating by priority. However, to do this effectively, the State Engineer needs to account for every use, including evaporative losses from pit lakes. Repre-

26 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

sentatives of the State Engineer’s office have been clear in their opinion: no use is too small to be counted if the state’s water basins are to return to equilibrium.

At any rate, the amount of water lost to evaporation in Nevada’s pit lakes is no small amount. As reported in the Humboldt Sun article, “Pit lakes - how bad are they?”, Nevada had 21 pit lakes in 2010, when the last pit lake survey was performed. These lakes lost an estimated 3,256 acre feet of water that year - enough to supply water to between three and six thousand families for a year, according to the Water Education Foundation. From the state’s perspective, these losses must be accounted for, though mines were not required to account for evaporative loss until very, very recently.

Changes to management The debate over how to handle pit lakes went on for a long time, but tentatively ended in late 2016 with the development of several rules and guidelines, in conjunction with the good-faith actions of a couple of mines.

King wrote a letter to the Nevada Mining Association (NMA), dated November 1, 2016, regarding how his office planned to address the issue of how to account for evaporative loss from pit lakes.

Continues on Page 28

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MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 27

PIT LAKES Cont. from Page 26 In the letter, King repeated his assertion that every water use should be accounted for in the state’s water budget. “Our records are replete with examples of permits issued for less than one acre foot of water — even as little as less than a tenth of an acre foot, thus supporting the argument that even minimal uses requires [sic] a water right,” King wrote. However, he went on to write that his office must also balance the fact that water rights were not required when the existing pit lakes were contemplated.

The State Engineer, going forward, will require that new mining operations that extend below the water table “to relinquish a valid water right to account for any pit lake evaporation.” Existing mines that plan to change their operations to dip below the groundwater table will also have a relinquish a water right. This will only apply to permanent pit lakes, according to the letter, and “not to temporary water bodies / features.”

King made a new “manner of use” in the state’s database, in order to track the

evaporative losses from existing pit lakes.

He encouraged mining companies with existing pit lakes to voluntarily relinquish water rights, to assist in this effort. King wrote, “By accounting for this consumptive use, future water right decisions will be based on more accurate information.”

For new operations in basins that are not fully appropriated, the mining company can apply for a new water right, and relinquish it to the state to account for evaporative loss or relinquish an existing right from the basin.

However, if the basin is already fully or over-appropriated, the King wrote, the state will consider relinquishing a permanent use water right. Further, “in all cases, that right must have a priority date senior or equal to the priority date aligned with the perennial yield value of the basin.”

King admitted that calculating evaporative losses from pit lakes was a complex process, and invited mining operators to “offer input into the evaporative loss calculation.”

Mines step up to help out Later in November, NMA gave a presentation on King’s letter to the Humboldt River Basin Water Authority (HRWBA). The

28 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

rules outlined in the letter were the result of several months of collaboration between the NMA and the State Engineer’s office.

At a later meeting, it was announced that Newmont Mining and Silver Standard Resources had voluntarily applied for water rights to account for the evaporative losses from their pit lakes.

Silver Standard Resources is in the midst of completing an Environmental Impact Statement for the Mackay Optimization Project, located at their Marigold Mine.

The project would involve digging below the water table at eight different pits on the property.

While seven of the pits would be backfilled, one would be allowed to turn into a pit lake. The planned pit lake would cover approximately 120 acres, Marigold’s General Manager Duane Peck said, and would not be considered a large pit lake. According to Peck, it could take 40 or 50 years for the water to reach equilibrium. The water right Marigold applied for would allow for some 600 acre feet in evaporative losses.

By applying for rights to cover the evaporative losses, Peck said Silver Standard would “have some accountability towards insuring that pit lake evaporation was accounted for” by the State Engineer.

The State Engineer will require new mining operations that extend below the water table must relinquish a valid water right to account for any pit lake evaporation.

“As you can imagine, in this day and age, not just in Nevada, not just in the US, but worldwide, water is becoming a much more critical issue,” Peck said.

According to Peck, the application could take from one to two years to work their way through the state’s system. In the meantime, he felt it was important for Marigold to contribute to the effort to effectively manage water in Nevada.

“We want to make sure that water that is being used is always accounted for in a basin, so that the basin can be managed properly. And certainly, if you planned a pit lake and have it there one day, that will impact the availability of water in that basin,” Peck said, “Because of that, we decided that we needed to apply for a water right. Then we would be able to turn back to the state to show that that amount of water has been allocated for our pit lake.”

In other areas, pit lakes have been

R

turned into recreational areas and fisheries.

The Mackay Expansion Project is still in the beginning stages, so there are no plans, at present, for what to do with the resulting pit lake. According to Peck, it wouldn’t be productive to speculate just yet. Mining, he said, was a dynamic industry, and a pit lake on the Mackay Expansion, like all things in mining, was subject to change.

Dewatering at the Lone Tree pit lake stopped in 2006, so Newmont is not required to take action of any kind regarding the water that evaporates off its surface. “Newmont took it upon themselve to go ahead and apply for water rights on the pit lake, to account for evaporative loss - although, per our agreement with the state engineer, it’s not required,” explained Steve Skidmore, Regional Environmental Director for Northern American Operations at Newmont.

Skidmore went on to say that Newmont’s reasoning behind the decision was straightforward. “It happens that, in the hydrologic basin [where] Lone Tree sits, there is water to be applied for. Most basins, there’s not. But it happens that Lone Tree sits in a basin where we could apply for water. So, for us, it’s an easy thing to do. Basically, take the high road

and go ahead and apply for water rights on that pit lake and account for it in the basin budget…. And it helps the State Engineer on future applications, to account for that loss of water within the basin.”

Working with the State Engineer was beneficial on a number of levels, according to Skidmore. Evaporative loss has been brought up in a number of legislative sessions. “None of those bills have passed.

And now, it’s resolved, and this legislative session, there are no bills, that I’m aware of, that request anything related evaporative loss on pit lakes.”

Paul Pettit, regional hydrogolist at Newmont, felt that King’s letter would eliminate some of the confusion regarding how mines should deal with pit lakes. The letter, he said, “gives all parties a kind of certainty for how the path forward is, how it’s going to be handled. So it’s easier to go froward with these applications, knowing that you’ve got rules of the road laid out.

So you’re good to go.” This would eliminate the need for future legislation, he felt.

The debate of how to deal with pit lakes is ongoing. But in the meantime, mines are working with the State Engineer to find a solution to the problems of over-appropriation. F

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MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 29

Regional Issues

Lithium: Mineral found in Nevada could power our future

By IAN WHITAKER LAS VEGAS SUN

LAS VEGAS — Shannon Jackson’s boots scrape over a hardened rut of earth atop a mountain of mud and salt.

Jackson, a third-generation miner and husband of Nevada Mining Association Director Dana Bennett, spent more than 20 years around the rugged gold and silver mines of Northern Nevada, where huge drills and house-sized earthmovers are practically a way of life.

But things are different here in the Clayton Valley, 200 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The air is still and quiet. Evaporation ponds checker the desert like rice paddies. “Looks like agriculture,” he says.

It’s an almost alien land-

In this Monday, Jan. 30, 2017 photo, technical grade lithium carbonate comes off a conveyor belt during a tour of the Silver Peak lithium mine near Tonopah, Nev. Las Vegas Sun via AP Steve Marcus

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— more a sprinkling of trailers and shacks in the distance than a ‘town’ — and the contrails of jetliners crisscrossing the sky high above.

To the jets’ passengers, the surface of the ponds must look like swirls of milk and molten turquoise, the product of algae in various stages of microbial bloom.

At ground level, everything seems massive and miniature at once, the product of nature’s leviathan scale. Where the waterline meets the shore, where the curve of the banded mountains blends the horizon, it all looks like it can fit in your hand. Far off, toward Silver Peak and an extinct cinder cone near the ghost town of Blair, mounds of black volcanic rock rise like obelisks out of the alkali playa.

Lithium.

The lithium mine in Silver Peak employs about 80 people and is owned by Albemarle, a North Carolina mineral company. It’s the only active commercial lithium mine in North

30 - MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing

America, and the company touts the product coming out as among the purest in the world. It’s processed in a modern facility tucked in the husk of an old mill near the town.

At the end of the line, the lithium falls out of a conveyor belt into a trough under the gaze of Albemarle Vice President of Lithium David Klanecky, who keeps the “recipe” a closely guarded secret.

“If we told you, we’d have to kill you,” Klanecky joked to a small group of journalists on a recent tour of the mine.

Buoyed by Nevada’s enormous potential reserve of lithium and the opening of Tesla’s Gigafactory nearly 200 miles to the north, 25 mining companies and investor-backed speculators have staked more than 13,000 placer claims, covering almost the entirety of the Clayton Valley and 18 hydrographic basins.

Meanwhile, the price for a ton of lithium carbonate has more than tripled since 2015.

Continues on Page 32

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Khoury’s Market 1041 Grass Valley Road Winnemucca, NV MINING • SPRING 2017, an April, 2017 publication of Winnemucca Publishing - 31

LITHIUM Cont. from Page 30 According to Deutsche Bank, global demand for lithium carbonate in the next decade could double to 534,000 tons a year. Analysts predict that lithium carbonate could become a $1.7 billion market by 2019.

The Clayton Valley is ground zero for what analysts call the “lithium rush.”

Reinventing the Wheel The technology driving modern car batteries, produced dirt-cheap from toxic concoctions of sulfuric acid and lead, was invented in the 1800s. The potassium hydroxide and ammonium chloride in your average household battery have, ever since the dry cell was invented at the end of the Civil War, been more the provenance of the reclusive chemist than the Silicon Valley genius.

“The issue with existing batteries is that they suck,” Elon Musk told fans and reporters gathered to hear the tech mogul’s next big announcement in 2015.

But for entrepreneurs like Musk, who founded the electric car company Tesla and co-founded solar energy company

This photo shows a view of the final evaporation pond at the Silver Peak lithium mine near Tonopah, Nev. The R3 Pond has brine with 5500 parts per million of lithium. Las Vegas Sun via AP Steve Marcus

SolarCity, existing battery technology is not just unwieldy and ugly, it’s unworkable. So Musk staked his business on a better kind of battery, one with roots in Kawasaki, Japan.

Hidden among the city’s sprawling artificial reef of refineries, shipping canals and industrial plants is Kawasaki Works, one of chemical giant Asahi Kasei’s oldest work-

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shops. It was here in 1985 that an unassuming scientist named Akira Yoshino put the finishing touches on a prototype that would alter the path of technology.

Building upon research from the late 1970s, Yoshino perfected the industry’s next big breakthrough: A stable, safe lithium-ion battery.

Continues on Page 34

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LITHIUM Cont. from Page 32 Asahi Kasei and Sony released the first commercial lithium-ion battery in the early ‘90s. With the help of mass production, the technology became widely used in electronic devices, from mobile phones, tablets and cameras to flashlights and drills.

The advantage comes in lightweight, high-energy capacity and low energy usage. A lithium-ion battery can power energy-hungry devices for longer than a standard battery, charge faster and is easy to transport _ think the difference between 1984’s brick-like Motorola DynaTAC and 2009’s Apple iPhone 3G. “Lithium is becoming to batteries what silicon is to semiconductors,” The Economist proclaimed in a 2016 article. “In one form or another, the lithium-ion battery is the technology of our time.”

Lithium-ion is making the biggest inroads in the automotive sector for a simple reason: demand. There are thousands of lithium-ion cells in the battery of the Tesla Model S, meaning tens of pounds of lithium per car. Compare that with the spoonful of lithium contained in products like phones and laptops.

Nevada’s Mother Lode?

The impact of the rush for lithium is less clear when it comes to Nevada.

Though companies are flooding into the state lured by the mineral’s promise, much of the activity right now is exploratory.

Even state mining officials and scientists don’t know how much lithium we might have under our feet, due to the current lack of a statewide survey of the commodity.

“Lithium has not been studied in much detail in Nevada to really understand how much might be out there,” Faulds said.

Lithium reserves in Nevada would have

ters get

In this Monday, Jan. 30, 2017 photo, John Mayes, site manager for the Silver Peak lithium mine, looks over the mines evaporation ponds during a tour of the mine near Tonopah, Nev. Las Vegas Sun via AP Steve Marcus

to be significant to make a dent in a market dominated by South America and Australia.

Even if they were, Bennett said, lithium is unlikely to be a major source of revenue for the state. The Silver Peak mine pays about $250,000 per year in mining taxes _ half the proceeds from the relatively small limestone industry. If much of the lithium exploration turned out to be fruitful and production were quadrupled, it still would yield a fraction of the approximately $100 million the state receives from the mining of precious metals such as gold and silver.

And even though lithium-ion is in vogue, battery technology is advancing rapidly. Spurred by the potential of markets in electric vehicles and mass energy storage, scientists are experimenting to improve current lithium-ion technology as well as develop new types, such as flow

batteries that use vanadium.

J.B. Goodenough, the 94-year-old scientist behind the discovery of the lithium-based cathode, revealed last month his work on a new kind of solid-state battery with a purported three times the energy potential of lithium-ion.

“Lithium is really sexy right now, but it’s not the only one at the beach,” Bennett said.

Nevada has no shortage of mineral wealth, and the possibilities of lithium are just one more reason for prospectors to dig.

“We don’t know what’s around the corner,” Bennett said. “Five years ago, we would not have had this conversation.” F

Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http:// www.lasvegassun.com; republished with permission via the Associated Press

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