Gold mining in Nevada, a state of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, is a major industry, and one of the largest sources of gold in the world. In 2018

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

produced , representing 78% of US gold and 5.0% of the world's production. Total gold production recorded from Nevada from 1835 to 2017 totals , worth US$322.6 billion at 2020 values. Much of Nevada's gold production comes from large

open pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

using heap leaching recovery. The Nevada mining industry supported an average 14,787 direct employees in 2018, with about 75,000 additional jobs related to providing goods and services needed by the mining industry. The average pay for mining industry employees during this time was $97,600 per year, the third highest average private employment sector in the state. Major mining companies such as

Newmont Goldcorp Newmont Corporation is a gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Domin ...

and

Barrick Gold Corporation Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrat ...

operate many of the state's gold mines. Active mines include those at Jerritt Canyon and the

Carlin Trend The Carlin Unconformity or Carlin Trend is a geologic feature in northeastern Nevada which represents a period of erosion or non-deposition likely associated with a collision between a tectonics, tectonic crustal block called a terrane and the N ...

. Although Nevada was known much more for silver in the 19th century, many of the early silver mining districts also produced considerable quantities of gold. The

Comstock Lode The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the Unit ...

produced of gold through 1959, and the Eureka district produced . The Robinson copper mine has produced well over gold, along with over 4 billion pounds (1,500,000 tonnes) of copper.

Carlin Trend

Gold was discovered in the vicinity of Carlin in Eureka County in the 1870s, but production was small. Placer deposits were discovered in 1907, but the deposits were too small to cause much excitement. It was not until 1961 that

Newmont Mining Corporation Newmont Corporation is a gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Domin ...

discovered the large low-grade gold deposit at Carlin that the mining industry began to take notice. The Carlin mine began producing gold in 1965, but at a gold price of US$35 per troy ounce, ore grades were still too low to cause a rush to northern Nevada. It was not until the gold price escalated in the 1970s that mining companies began to target similar deposits. The

, part of what is also known as the

Carlin Unconformity The Carlin Unconformity or Carlin Trend is a geologic feature in northeastern Nevada which represents a period of erosion or non-deposition likely associated with a collision between a tectonic crustal block called a terrane and the North Americ ...

, is wide and long running northwest–southeast, has since produced more gold than any other mining district in the United States. Production from the trend surpassed of gold in 2002. The Carlin and other mines along the trend pioneered the method of open-pit mining with cyanide heap leach recovery that is today used at large low-grade gold mines worldwide. New ore deposits are still being discovered and developed along the trend. The South Arturo deposit was discovered by

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democra ...

in 2005. The deposit contains an estimated of gold.

Goldfield

Goldfield was discovered in 1902, and began major gold production in 1904. The ore occurs in altered shear zones in

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained ( aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyo ...

and

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

. Total gold production through 1959 was .

Robinson/Ely

The Robinson district at

Ely, Nevada Ely (, ) is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. In 1906 copper was discovered. Ely's mining boom came later tha ...

produced about of gold through 1990, as a byproduct of copper mining.Laurence P. James, 1990, "Gold in the Ely (Robinson) copper district, White Pine County, Nevada," in ''Gold in Porphyry Copper Systems'', US Geological Survey, Bulletin 1857-E, p.E28. In 2017 the Robinson Mine produced 112,633,428 pounds of copper, 37,897 troy ounces of gold and 652,763 pounds of

molybdenite Molybdenite is a mineral of molybdenum disulfide, Mo S2. Similar in appearance and feel to graphite, molybdenite has a lubricating effect that is a consequence of its layered structure. The atomic structure consists of a sheet of molybdenum ato ...

with 617 employees.

Gold royalties

All mineral and gold production on public and private lands in Nevada is subject to a Net Royalty payable to the State. The gross proceeds from the sale of minerals minus allowable deductions determine the taxable net proceeds. If the net proceeds from sales by a mine in the taxable year total $4 million or more, the tax rate is 5%. For less profitable mines the tax rate is graduated down to 2%. Miners' net proceeds are also subject to federal corporate income tax of 21%. Because the NPM tax is an ''ad valorem'' property tax, the amount of the net proceeds times the property tax rate goes to the county where the mineral was extracted. Any additional amount of tax paid up to the 5% goes to the State. In 2017-2018 the Nevada net proceeds royalty raised $155.1 million (down from $255.6 million in 2012) from gold and silver production, of which the

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

received $87.5 million (down from $127 million in 2012).

Gold Mining Companies in Nevada

Coeur Mining Coeur Mining, Inc. is a precious metals mining company listed on the New York Stock exchange. It operates five mines located in North America. Coeur employs 2,200 people and in 2012 it was the world's 9th largest silver producer. In 2013 the compa ...

Hecla Mining Hecla Mining is a gold, silver and other precious metals mining company based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Founded in 1891, is the second-largest mining company that produces silver in the country. This area is known as the Silver Valley (Idaho). ...

KGHM Polska Miedź KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. (Kombinat Górniczo-Hutniczy Miedzi), commonly known as KGHM, is a Polish multinational corporation that employs around 34,000 people around the world and has been a major copper and silver producer for more than 50 years. ...

Kinross Gold Kinross Gold Corporation is a Canadian-based gold and silver mining company founded in 1993 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Kinross currently operates six active gold mines, and was ranked fifth of the "10 Top Gold-mining Companies" o ...

Newmont Corporation Newmont Corporation is a gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Domin ...

* SSR Mining * Sprott Mining

References

External links

Gold Districts of Nevada
map & a brief writeup for 36 lode and 16 placer districts with significant production
Nevada Gold Mines
joint venture between Barrick & Newmont
Barrick: ''Goldstrike Property''

Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years 1900-1925

Nevada Mineral Industry 2006
by Nevada Bureau of Mines & Geology
Major mines of Nevada 2006
by Nevada Bureau of Mines & Geology
Nevada: A very modern gold rush
at Mining Journal, 30 Mar 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gold Mining In Nevada