User:Acupotea/Jerritt Canyon

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Jerritt Canyon (also known as Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine) is located approximately 45 miles north of the town of Elko in Elko County, Nevada in the northeastern Independence mountains(4). The property itself is an unique area that extends approximately 119 square miles(4). The area is known for gold mining and production.

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History

Jerritt Canyon was discovered to be a desirable mining area in 1972 and production later started in 1981 for gold mining(5). Jerritt Canyon has produced over 9 million ounces of gold in its 40 year long production(5). Jerritt Canyon is owned by First Majestic Company and inherited the mine for 470 million dollars in shares from Sprott Mining Inc in 2021(5). The mine has gone through different organizations owning the area from Queenstake Resources merged with YGC Resources to create Yukon Nevada Gold Corp (YNG) which had ownership in 2007(4). Then the company and partnership was renamed to the Veris Gold group in 2012 to then another name change in 2013 of VUSA(4).

Improvements have been made on the mind with new ownership in 2021. The canyon and mine used to be historic but now it's getting major upgrades for high demand in mining in Nevada(3). Two old mines are opening up with new management which are West Gen and Saval II(3).

Region history

Elko County, where Jerritt Canyon is located, belonged to the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians(6). The Te-Moak also known as The Elko Colony is located in the high desert mountains of northeastern Nevada(6). Elko is the nearest major city to the reservation(6). The Elko Colony was established on March 25, 1918 by Executive Order which reserved 160 acres for Shoshone and Paiute Indians(6). 192.8 acres remain on the reservation to this day on federal trust(6).

Elko, founded by the Central Pacific Railroad (later Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific), was created in use of the last of the railroad; it was the end of the tracks laid by the Central Pacific Railroad in 1868(2). The town was accessible and opened new opportunities for mining and jobs making Elko the 17 largest city in Nevada today(7).

Operations

Open pit mining is a mining technique that extracts minerals from an area and slowly extracts materials making a pit formation(1). Jerritt Canyon uses both open pit mining, which was primarily from 1981 to 1999, producing around 5.5 million ounces of gold and underground mining, which started around 1993, producing more than 4.5 million ounces of gold(3). There were about 13 open pits at Jerritt Canyon in 1981 but have progressed to underground mining with better and modern equipment(3).