It's been long enough since anyone
launched a new gold mine in Nevada that
even the president of the state mining association
can't remember exactly when it
happened.
Probably, says Russ Fields, it was sometime
in the late 1990s.
Fields and the rest of the industry won't
have to search their memories quite as hard
early next year, when Sparks-based Royal
Standard Minerals expects to begin work
on an underground mine in Nye County.
"This is extremely good news," Fields
said last week. "There's been nothing in
this decade of any significant scale."
Royal Standard said last week it expects
its Gold Wedge mine to produce about
50,000 ounces a year once it's in full production
by the end of 2003.
Royal Standard owns 100 percent of the
prospect.
The underground mine will involve a
2,000-foot decline to a depth of 350 feet.
The company expects to encounter the ore
body at 88 feet.
Once the ore body is reached, Royal
Standard will take bulk samples which will
be used to determine the scale of the mining
operation.
Roland Larsen, the president of Royal
Standard, said the company has financial
commitments for the $3 million it expects
it will need to complete the mill, gravity
separation and leach pad facilities at the
mine.
"We appear to be graced with unusually
favorable factors including superior
metallurgy and low overall development
costs toward bringing the deposit to production,"
Larsen said.
He said the mine is unusual because
gravity separation will be sufficient to
recover about 85 percent of the gold, with a
chemical heap leach process bringing the
total recovery to the mid-90 percent range.
The property, part of the Manhattan
Gold District in south-central Nevada, has
been the site of 57 exploratory holes and
more than $7 million of exploration by previous
owners including Freeport
Exploration, Sunshine Mining and Crown
Resources.
Echo Bay Mining previously operated a
pit of its Little Grey Mine adjacent to the
Gold Wedge site. Royal Standard believes
the expansion potential of the Gold Wedge
property is significant, Larsen said.
Royal Standard submitted applications
in October for a permit from the Nevada
Department of Environmental Protection,
has negotiated the cost of the reclamation
bond with the state environmental agency
and is working on construction contracts
for the portal and decline.
The company expects the permit will be
approved by late January, Larsen said.
At the same time that it's bringing the
Gold Wedge mine into production, Royal
Standard hopes to be bringing another
property its Pinon project in the Carlin
Trend of north-central Nevada into
production.
More than 600 drill holes have explored
the Royal Standard holdings, and the company
plans to drill 30 more in the first part
of 2003.
If those results are promising, Royal
Standard hopes to begin production at
Pinon by 2004.
At the Nevada Mining Association,
Fields said he's hopeful the Royal Standard
proposal is the first of several new ventures
in Nevada's goldfields.
"If prices hold, we will begin to see
more activity," he said.
