The 20-acre Bonanza King Mine property is located in Pershing County’s Spring Valley mining district, roughly 100 miles east of Reno.
Photo: Sierra Sotheby’s International Realty
Northern Nevada’s last-remaining patented lode gold mine, the Bonanza King Mine, is on the market for $40 million.
Located in Pershing County’s Spring Valley mining district, roughly 100 miles east of Reno, the 20-acre mining parcel is “patented” private property with physical proof of gold and silver present, according to a March 10 press release from Sierra Sotheby’s International Realty, which has the listing.
“Patented mining claims carry specific guaranteed entitlements including expansion beyond its boundary lines, designated as ‘Apex’ extra lateral rights,” according to the press release. “Additionally, the claim is not subject to annual conditional lease fees, unlike Bureau of Land Management claims, which are on leased U.S. government acreage.”
“The current owner found the current property by accident in 1980,” April Nieto, listing agent with Sierra Sotheby’s, said in a statement. “He would often take rides through untraveled areas in the Nevada desert to explore what he referred to as ‘the decline of the west.’ He tells the story about coming across an old fellow named Jack McCarty on one of his trips. McCarty pointed up the hill and told him there was gold all over the place in that area.
“Then he and McCarty walked up to the 12,700-ton dump on the Bonanza King Mine with a gallon jug of water and a gold pan and about a dozen ore sacks and they panned gold out of each of nine spots they tried.”.
The Bonanza King Mine is Northern Nevada’s last-remaining patented lode gold mine. Photo: Sierra Sotheby's International Realty
The history of the mine dates back to 1871 when a world-class 15 stamp mill was built to process an oxide type ore common to Northern Nevada. A typical small town, Spring Valley, was erected for the miners and their families.
Today, the Bonanza King Mine has strategic leverage in the neighboring Spring Valley Project, according to the March 10 press release; it is surrounded by 20,580 acres on leased U.S. government land consisting of 1,029 BLM claims with annual lease fees totaling over $185,000.
Mineral deposit evaluations conducted in recent years in the Humboldt Range by U.S.G.S. geologists suggest trending characteristics to the Comstock Lode discovery."It is not unreasonable to assume that the Humboldt Range facilitates an extension of the world-famous deposit,” according to the press release. “In effect it may reveal a suppository of some of the greatest gold and silver deposits yet to be discovered for many years into the future.”
Go here to learn more about the mine’s history, as well as for sales inquiries.
