Nevada Division of Minerals Update · Nevada Division of Minerals Update-2018 Production and New...
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Nevada Division of Minerals Update - 2018 Production and New Operations - 2019 vs 2018 Mining Claims - Critical Minerals and Land Withdrawals - Ore Tolling and Copper C oncentrate Study - NDOM Open - Data Site - Exploration Reclamation Awards - 2019 PDAC Nevada Booth NMEC Annual Convention Reno, NV November 12 - 13 2019 Richard Perry, Administrator 1
Nevada Division of Minerals Update · Nevada Division of Minerals Update-2018 Production and New Operations - 2019 vs 2018 Mining Claims - Critical Minerals and Land Withdrawals -
Thanks for the opportunity to once again talk at this annual meeting. I was given few guidelines on what to talk about, so I just called this an “Update” from the Division of Minerals. So my topics are: 2018 production and new mines, a freshly compiled view of mining claims in the State, and a slide or two on a number of initiatives and projects that the Commission on Mineral Resources and Division of Minerals was involved with in the past year.
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Nevada Gold2018 Production 5.58Moz, -1.1% vs. '1731 mining operations17 operators
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Let’s start with 2018 gold production. The 4th Nevada gold boom continued with 5.6 M ozs produced, a 1% drop from 2017 and the tenth consecutive year of gold production in the range of 5 to 5.5 million ounces. The average price of gold was $1268 per ounce in 2018.
2018 NEVADA METAL PRODUCTION 2018 NEVADA METAL PRODUCTION, BY PRODUCER - FinalRanked by gold productionOperator Gold (ozs) Silver (ozs) Copper (lbs) Moly (lbs)Barrick 2,425,512 105,360Newmont 1,808,484 1,107,493 32,102,979Kinross 660,100 820,042SSR Mining 205,161 4,315Jerritt Canyon Gold 145,064 NRHecla (Klondex) 109,614 516,312Coeur 54,668 5,037,983Florida Canyon Mining (Alio Gold) 46,878 31,775KGHM International 38,990 171,679 112,552,787 459,959Fiore Gold 37,403 NRPremier Gold (40% of S. Arturo) 20,980 NRRawhide Mining 15,444 208,875Mineral Ridge Gold 7,497 3,444Ruby Hill Mining 4,648 3,584Borealis Mining 420 394Sunrise Minerals 268 150Geo-Nevada 14 NRNew Gold Nevada 14 2
Totals 5,581,160 8,011,408 144,655,766 459,959
Presenter
Presentation Notes
17 producers reported from 31 different mine locations. Barrick and Newmont were the largest producers in 2018, followed by Kinross, SSR Mining, Jerritt Canyon and Hecla.
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2009 - 2018 Annual Gold Production in Nevada
9% 24%
BARRICK
NEWMONT
ALL OTHERS
Presenter
Presentation Notes
So how much of the gold did the two largest operators produce, and now that they are operating within a JV, will it dwarf all other operators? This chart shows gold production by the two largest operators vs all others for the past 10 years. You can see here that “all others” is growing in percentage. Why, you ask?
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New Operation for 2019, #1: McEwen Mining – Gold Bar
Groundbreaking – November 2017 First gold pour – February 2019 Full Production achieved May, 2019 Production target – 60,000 Au oz/yr Avg. Au grade - 1.0 g/t Current mine life – 7 years
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Because small and mid-tier companies are opening mines in Nevada. We have two new gold mines for this past year – McEwan Mining’s Gold Bar operation, which saw its first gold pour in February and reached full production in May, and
New Operation for 2019, #2: Gold Resource Corp. – Isabella Pearl
Groundbreaking – June 2018 First gold pour – April 2019 Production target – 40,000 Au oz/yr Avg. Au grade - 3.7 g/t Current mine life – 5 years
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Gold Resource Corp’s Isabella Pearl mine in Mineral County, which saw its first gold pour in April. As we’ve been socializing at PDAC for the past two years, “If you don’t have an address in Nevada, you’re not in the gold production business”.
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Nevada silver
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2018 Production 8.02 Moz, -5.4% vs. '1722 mining operations14 operators
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Except for Coeur Rochester, which is the only primary silver producer in the Silver State, silver is a by-product of gold production in Nevada. 8 M ozs, 14 operators reporting.
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Nevada copper
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144.7M lbs, -0.8% vs. '172 mining operations
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Copper production held steady at 145 M lbs, 2 operators reporting – KGHM in Ely and Newmont at Phoenix. But wait, we may see this increase soon,
2 deposits with 5 billion contained pounds of Cu: Higher grade eastern deposit; underground Shallower western deposit; open-pit
Currently developing a 5,000 tpd underground mine on the eastern deposit with a concentrator
Main shaft being extended to 2,147 feet First copper production planned for @Q4 2019 The mine should employ ~300 people Nevada’s 3rd copper producer in past 20 years
NEVADA COPPER – PUMPKIN HOLLOW MINE
Headframe and stockpiles, July 2019
Concentrator under construction, July 2019
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Nevada Copper’s Pumpkin Hollow mine is scheduled to enter production in Q4 of this year, with an underground shaft operation and a 5000 tpd concentrator.
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Nevada Barite Production
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2018405,500 tons shipped+ 4% vs. '174 producers
Halliburton, Baker-Hughesand NOV permitting newprojects and expansions
Presenter
Presentation Notes
One last production slide, Barite, which tends to swing with the amount of oil drilling. Although not back to the heady days of the late seventies and early eighties, it was up again in 2018. What is positive is there are several new Barite deposits that are being permitted by 3 of the 4 operators in the State. I’m not going to go into all the industrials minerals today, they are significant and growing, and can be found in the “Major Mines of Nevada-2018” book that is now on-line, and will be in print form for AEMA in December.
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Nevada Mineral and Energy Production Values 1978 - 2018
Other
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Gold
$8.4 Billion in 2018, same as 2017
Presenter
Presentation Notes
That leads us to the annual bar chart of “gross production revenues by commodity”. $8.4 Billion for 2018. With the price of gold up in 2019, we expect this will be up in 2019. 85% of the revenue is in gold, but copper now holds 2nd place.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
So what is Nevada’s largest export as a State?? You guessed it, gold. If you’ve never visited the “Howmuch.net” web site, I highly recommend it for graphics of trade and economic data. This one is for 2017, they have not released an update for 2018 yet, but you can see that Nevada’s largest export compares with some much larger States, and in fact dwarfs many of them.
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Unpatented Mining Claims By YearN
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umber of Inferred Lithium
Claims
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7,047
11,727
October 2014 October 2015 October 2016 October 2017
NDOM has been gathering active claim data from LR2000 at the end of October for the last six years. The purpose of this graph is to show claims data and statistics from the same snapshot in time.
Li = 2.1% Li = 0.7%
10,524
October 2018
13,228
Li = 0.8%
October 2019
9,298
Assessment Year
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Moving on to mining claims, the data that went into this chart was recently mined off the BLM’s LR2000 database. The data is a snapshot at the same time each in October after claimants have filed with the BLM. Unpatented mining claims for the 2020 assessment year totaled 195,804, a 1.1% increase over the previous assessment year. The black line shows the number of “inferred lithium claims”, which means they are placer claims in playas for brine targets. This number decreased by 30 percent.
195,804 Active Mining Claims (Assessment
Year 2020) in Nevada as of 10/28/2019, and
increase of 1.1% from October, 2018
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This map shows the density of claims by section for that dataset, and can be found on the Division’s web site. Thanks to Lucia Patterson with the Division for this good work.
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CUMULATIVE MINING PERMITS AND DISTURBANCE ACREAGE IN NEVADA
PublicAcres*PrivateAcres* Pe
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2018 Plan-levelExploration Disturbance= 3,807.2 ac. or 2.7% of TotalExploration Permits = 105
Presenter
Presentation Notes
With regards to the amount of land and number of “plan-level” operating and exploration plans and projects in Nevada on both private and Federal lands, this graph is a historical tally for the past 18 years. Note that around half is on private, and half on public lands. The box shows the amount of “plan-level” exploration projects as a part of that total, which is 2.7 percent. This graph does not show the number and amount of “notice-level” exploration projects. We have that number if you need it. The total plan-level permitted disturbance amounts to 13/100’s of the surface area of the State. We use this graph and the associated tables to communicate these facts. And remember, all of the plan-level operations and exploration are bonded for reclamation. We obtain this data from NDEP and BLM.
35 minerals identified as “Critical Minerals” by the U.S. Department of the Interior in May, 2018
Minerals selected are deemed “vital to the Nation's security and economic prosperity.”
Nevada contains known occurrences or deposits of 20 of the 35 critical minerals 2
More than 330 historic mining districts contain occurrences of one or more critical minerals1
1Tingley, Joseph V. (1998). NBMG Report 47, Mining districts of Nevada (second edition)2 Martin, Gary. “Mining of 20 ‘critical’ minerals in Nevada could be streamlined”, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 21 May, 2018. Accessed 9 August, 2019.
We took a look at “critical minerals” in Nevada using NBMG and USGS data, and developed a couple of maps which show occurrences where they are still open to mineral entry, and where they have been withdrawn. Mineral withdrawals are a significant concern to the Minerals Commission. The red areas here are withdrawals of critical mineral occurances in Districts where they are known.
1 USGS Mineral Resources Data System, (2016). https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/
Aluminum
Antimony*
Arsenic*
Barite*
Beryllium*
Bismuth
Cesium & Rubidium
Chromium
Cobalt
Fluorspar*
Gallium
Germanium
Graphite
Helium
Indium
Lithium*
Magnesium*
Manganese*
Niobium
PGM
Potash
REE
Rhenium
Scandium
Strontium
Tantalum
Tellurium
Tin
Titanium
Tungsten*
Uranium*
Vanadium
Zirconium & Hafnium
Bold indicates know occurrencesindicates past or present production*
Figure 2:Occurrences ofCritical Mineralswithin areas of mineral entry withdrawal 1
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This is a list of the 20 critical minerals that are known to have been produced or occur in records. The large yellow triangles are past production of one of these, and small yellow circle is an occurrence, in areas that have been withdrawn to mineral entry. Why is this significant?
NevadaLand Withdrawals
as of May, 2018
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Because historical land withdrawals have removed over 15 million acres to mineral entry since 1930. In 2018, the Division updated a presentation on land withdrawn from mineral entry since 1930.
Line graph displaying the trend in the amount of land (in acres) withdrawn per year.
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~177,000 acres withdrawn per year since 1930
NevadaLand Withdrawals
as of May, 2018
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Since 1930, Nevada is averaging 177,000 acres per year withdrawn from mineral entry.
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Current Historical Trend(Summary Result)
Current Historical Trend The chart to the left depicts the decrease in federal lands
open to locatable mineral entry by decade. Since
1930, approximately 1,770,000 acres of land are
withdrawn each decade.
Available Federal Lands Open to Mineral Entry
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Presenter
Presentation Notes
The historical trend is not good for minerals exploration. The current proposed withdrawals for military expansions will have further negative impacts. This presentation is available on the Division’s web site, please use these slides to help make your arguments on this important issue, or you can request a speaker from the Division for group presentations.
The StudyOpportunities for Precious Metals Toll Milling and Copper Concentrate Processing in Nevada
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology - Report 57
Funded by The Nevada Commission on Mineral Resources
Authored by
Thomas J. DeMull
David A. Davis
Lucia M. Patterson
Joel C. Lenz
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The Minerals Commission funded a study in 2018 which was intended to answer two questions – 1. Is there a need for a dedicated toll milling plant for precious metals in Nevada ?, and 2. Is there enough copper concentrate being produced in Nevada to justify and downstream copper concentrate processing facility? Two Nevada-experienced metallurgists were called upon to author the report, which was published last year at this time as NBMG Report 57. The Governor’s office of economic development was involved in the development of this report and is using it to help attract investment in a copper concentrate processing facility to the State.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The report lists the 51 processing facilities in the State, circuit configurations, throughputs and if the owner is interested in ore tolling or some other arrangement to process ores. This map is a fold-out in the report, which shows plant locations, and existing power and transportation infrastructure. It can be of use to explorers as a reference for a PF Study. If you have not already obtained a copy, we have some available or you can download from the Bureau’s web site for free.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Some of you have perhaps used the Division’s open-data web site for land research on unpatented claims or other topics.
http://data-ndom.opendata.arcgis.com/
Download Data (mining claims, land withdrawals/issues, mining districts and much more)
Interact with data (all maps are interactive and are linked to outside data sources as necessary)
Perform land research (Various resources commonly utilized for land research have been linked to interactive maps to streamline workflows)
Presenter
Presentation Notes
A number of maps and shapefiles on various land-related and education topics can be downloaded free of charge. You can build your own maps and print them from this web site without owning a copy of ArcGIS.
www.minerals.nv.gov
Presenter
Presentation Notes
There is a tutorial developed by NDOM’s GIS specialist Lucia Patterson on using the open-data web site that can be found on the Division’s web site under “Recent Presentations”.
NEVADA EXCELLENCE IN MINE RECLAMATION AWARDS – 2019
• Award Program began in 1991 • Purpose: “to recognize and share examples of
successes in the areas of reclamation, closure, planning, and wildlife protection and enhancement in Nevada”
• MEMBERS OF 2019 AWARD COMMITTEE:– Brian Amme, BLM– Joe Sawyer, NDEP-BMRR– Susan Elliot, USFS– Matt Maples, NDOW– Rich Perry, NDOM
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Since 1991, the State of Nevada has had a “Reclamation Award” program. This program was primarily aimed at mine operators who wanted to share reclamation successes. Three years ago, we began encouraging exploration entities to submit projects. Last year we had one exploration project entry that received an award.
Re-contoureddrill site showing
organics and bouldersplaced to enhance
reclamation seed growth
and discourage use by ATV’s.
July, 2019
B2Gold:Rockland Exploration Project
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This past year, there were more exploration entries and three awards. The awards were presented during the final day luncheon of the Nevada Mining Association’s annual conference at Lake Tahoe. The first awards went to B2Gold’s Rockland exploration project south of Yerington.
Western Exploration LLC:Doby George Exploration Project
Reclamation Awards Judging Team inspecting reclamation vegetation
one year after the South Sugarloaf Wildfire burned
the entire area.
Due to the diversity of vegetation planted, the project area recovered better than surrounding
undisturbed areas.
July, 2019
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The 2nd award went to Western Exploration’s Doby George project in Elko County.
Post-South SugarloafFire re-
vegetation growth in reclaimed
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June 2019
Western Exploration LLC:Doby George Exploration Project
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This photo from last July at Doby George shows new vegetation growth in an area that had completely burned the prior year.
Before: Caved shaft filled with debris, 8/2018.
After:Completed hard-closure of AML feature, 9/2018.
Newmont USA:Buttes Exploration Project
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The 3rd award went to Newmont USA for the Buttes Exploration project south of Wells.
• Nominations can be submitted by Mine Operators, Exploration Entities and Government Agencies
• Share innovative, excellence and best practices
• Deadline for entries July 6, 2020• Award team site visits July 14-17, 2020• Please take flyer
Nevada Excellence in Mine Reclamation
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Award judges include representatives from NDEP, BLM, NDOW, USFS and NDOM. Please take a flyer with details from our table in the back if you want to nominate a project for a reclamation award in 2020.
Changes in 2019 – Booth Location
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Any my final subject is the Nevada Booth at PDAC. This effort was initiated by the Minerals Commission four years ago as an effort to generate a State presence and market and increase Nevada exploration. It was approved in the 2017 legislative budget and our first booth was in March of 2018.
PDAC Changes in 2019 – Booth Location
– North hall expanded in 2019
• About 50% larger than in 2018
– Booth moved closer to entrance, and now off of major aisles
– Increased number of visitors to booth in 2019
20182019
Presenter
Presentation Notes
We had a better location with more traffic in the North hall is year.
Changes in 2019
– Graphics Design• Maps created or
retouched by NBMG– Exploration Trends
and Mines & Projects Map
– Updated Geologic Map
– Magnetic and Gravity Anomalies Maps
• By NDOM– Updated Mining
Districts Map– Public Lands of
Nevada Map– Updated Lithium
Claims and Active Mining Claims Map
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Design of the booth was a team effort, with members from NMEC, NvMA, NBMG, GSN, GOED, BLM and NDOM. Members from each of these partner groups helped design the graphics and layout of the booth. Funding is from NDOM, using mining claim fees.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This was the design for 2019. It includes two large-screen TV’s for presentations and discussions.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Some pics from last year. Visitation was steady throughout the show, with our largest visitation late in the day, when many interested parties and Nevada explorers finished the day out at the Nevada booth.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
A number of scheduled presentations were given during the day that attracted investors and explorers.
Other Notable Takeaways– GSN
• Signed up five new members and totaled $1,380 in publication sales
– Up significantly from 2018• ~15% uptick in web volume in
March– NvMA
• Four new members directly from PDAC
– GOED• Networked with several companies
and government entities– Corresponding with a specialty
chemicals company about the possibility of locating a production facility in Nevada
– Corresponding with a representative of the Thunder Bay Economic Development Commission
Publications
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Publications that were funded by the Minerals Commission in the past year.
