Status: Water Pollution Control Permit NEV2000109 — The project is located adjacent to Gold Hill, Nevada. The project includes open pit mines, a crushing plant, a heap leach pad, process ponds, a Merrill-Crowe plant, and associated facilities. The permit allows for the processing of up to 720,000 tons of ore per year. The permit requires that there be no discharge of any process or non-process contaminants from the fluid management system. The facility is presently in temporary closure and no mining or processing activity is allowed.

The project is located on mainly private with a small fraction of BLM land that is crossed to access the site. Ore is mined from two areas on the east and west sides of Highway 342 in Gold Hill in the Lucerne/Billie the Kid zones. The processing facility is located approximately 2 miles west of the town of Gold Hill. Ore is placed on a composite-lined heap leach pad adjacent to the processing facility. Gold and silver are recovered by leaching the ore with dilute cyanide solution. The gold and silver are then recovered from the leach solution in the Merrill-Crowe facility. Solutions are then recirculated to the heap leach pad to comply with the zero-discharge requirement.

A major modification proposing to construct a new crushing and agglomeration plant and proceed with expansion of the leach pad was approved by BMRR in October 2009 but construction has not yet commenced. The BMRR is reviewing a minor modification to the existing permit which proposes to expand the Merrill-Crowe plant and to allow for mining and processing up to 1,000,000 tons of ore per year.