Underground mine set for Nye County

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.