Mining has a bad reputation. While images of dusty coal miners digging in caves with little to no ventilation and leaving scarred landscaping in their wake are often some of the first images that mining conjures, they are not a reflection of modern-day mining in the United States.
Mining has evolved from its humble roots to become a sophisticated industry that is not only safe, but environmentally conscience with high end technology.
“Mining is the original S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, and math) industry in Nevada,” said Lacy Trapp, branch chief at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). “[It] has advanced far beyond the bearded prospector with his pickax and mule, risking life and limb for the chance of unknown riches. Modern mining uses state of the art equipment, including remote controlled underground loaders [and] driverless haul trucks. Mining companies are able to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by using hybrid equipment and renewable energy development. Modern mining is also very safe in Nevada and has one of the state’s lowest workplace injury rates, including industries like retail, healthcare and education. It is done in a responsible fashion.”
A Bright Future
Nevada has earned its place on the map for mining. When analyzing gold alone in 2021, Nevada production accounted for 77.2 percent of the total in the United States and 4.6 percent in the world according to the Nevada Mining Association website. “[Nevada is] fifth in the world for gold [and] number one in the U.S.,” said Mike Visher, administrator for the Nevada Division of Minerals. “Nevada has consistently ranked in the top five for investment attractiveness. The Fraser Institute ranked Nevada the third best mining jurisdiction for investment attractiveness, so we compete on a global stage for investment. The majority of that is in gold, but [there are] other commodities as well.”
One of those other commodities that is quickly gaining national and global attention is the mining of lithium. Used in the production of batteries for electric vehicles, lithium demand is quickly increasing as the country transitions away from combustion engines to renewable energy. “Right now, the [mining] industry is experiencing a boom in lithium exploration and Nevada has always been at the heart of the modern-day gold rush,” said Trapp. “As the transportation industry continues to trend toward electric vehicles, global lithium demand is going to remain high. We are really at the forefront of that right now.”
Although there are several lithium mining projects in the works throughout the United States, the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project in Humboldt County is a bright spot for Nevada’s mining future.
“We’ve been working on [the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project] for more than ten years, and we are about to go into construction this year,” said Tim Crowley, vice president of government and community relations at Lithium Nevada. “Once we build this project, it will take as many as 30 months to build the processing plants that we need and the mine itself. Once we go into production, we will make enough lithium to supply about a half a million electric vehicles and that’s just phase one. We are going to follow that up with doubling the size of our output. Ultimately, we will make enough lithium chemical to be put into batteries that will go into between a million and a million and a half electric vehicles a year. It’s a big project that has the potential to be in the top five in the world, and it will certainly be the largest in the U.S. by a long shot. Right now, the US makes about 5,000 tons of lithium a year. It’s here in Nevada at a place called Silver Peak. And when we are fully up and running, after our two phases are built, we will make 80,000 tons. That’s 16 times more than what the U.S. currently does today.”
The demand for made in America stickers on the back of goods has never been higher. As became increasingly apparent during the height of the pandemic, the United States is heavily dependent on other countries for the supply chain. Even post pandemic, the supply chain is still experiencing delays and shortages which not only affect everyday operations but have environmental impact. Nevada being robust in lithium has created high hopes for the Silver State’s ability to contribute to renewable energy in a more environmentally conscious way.
“As a country, we are highly dependent on foreign sources for those materials that we use every single day,” said Crowley. “Right now, lithium is mined in either South America or Australia [and] those mined products end up most often in China, and they get processed into chemicals. Then those chemicals get made into cathodes, and the cathodes get put into battery packs, and the battery packs go into cars. And as you go through that whole line, this material gets transported all over the world, maybe sometimes twice. It makes no sense to be moving all that stuff in an effort to bring down carbon reduction. It’s counterproductive.”
Environmentally Conscious
Modern day mining in the United States and in particular Nevada is a highly environmentally conscious industry. With so many natural resources, Nevada has had decades of experience in fine tuning its best practices and has earned a reputation of being a leader in responsible mining.
“Nevada has the best regulatory structure [for mining] in the world,” said Tyre Gray, former president and CEO of Nevada Mining Association (NMA). “People come from all over the world to Nevada to sit with us and figure out our regulatory system so that they can take it back to their space. Because it is a regulatory system that works well. It has a lot of environmental protections baked into it.” (Editor’s Note: As of press time Gray had stepped away from his role at NMA.)
These environmental protections set Nevada apart when it comes to mining, especially on a global scale. “We have a lot of data that shows that mining, at least here in Nevada, is very safe,” said Gray. “Even from an environmentalist context, I always tell people [that] if they really care, they want mining to happen in Nevada because of our regulations and how strict they are. When you offshore that mining into China, Venezuela, Argentina, Ghana, [or] Russia, they are not using the same environmental standards that we are. And we are one world. The concept that somehow it is okay to dig to mine somewhere else because we don’t see it in a less environmentally friendly way makes very little sense because the downward impact will all be the same.”
One way that Nevada mines responsibly is through adhering to strict reclamation laws that require mining companies to restore a mine to its natural landscape once mining is complete. The reclamation plans are required to be approved by regulatory agencies in advance and are paired with financial guarantees.
“When mining is completed in an area, every effort is made to leave the environment as good as it was before mining took place,” said Peter Richardson, executive managing director for Nevada Gold Mines. “The area is contoured and seeded with native plants to match the undisturbed land around it. These areas then support wildlife habitat, recreation, livestock grazing and more. Ultimately, after all mining is done, the entire mine site is reclaimed, so that after a few years, it will be difficult to tell that any mining ever took place at all.”
Tax Impacts
The 2021 Legislative Session resulted in a major rewrite of Nevada’s mining industry taxes. Approved by lawmakers, the bill that passed resulted in one of the largest mining tax increases in Nevada’s history and will channel hundreds of millions of dollars into Nevada education.
“The new tax increases mining’s contributions to the state by over 100 percent and came after deliberative conversation between the Governor’s office, legislative leadership, and [the] mining [industry],” said Richardson. “Unlike other recent revenue sources, these dollars will go entirely to education, while also ensuring that many Nevadans working in the mining industry remain employed, and mining operations remain viable.”
The bill, which was a significant compromise on behalf of the mining industry, was viewed as the lesser of evils compared to previously proposed mining tax revisions.
“Anytime that you add taxes to an industry, it is going to increase their cost of doing business,” said Gray. “[That] means a lack of dollars to reinvest within the business and sometimes even within the workforce. What we were facing last session was a 400 percent increase [in mining taxes], which would have frankly driven us out of business. Those operations that are currently going right now, they would have continued to go. But the truth is that they would have gotten to a point where it no longer made sense [and] was no longer feasible.”
The shift to a 100 percent increase, although still significant, was considered a general win for the mining industry. “The bill was supported by the mining industry, and I think the mining industry was very tactical in getting something finalized that really eliminated impeding proposals that, in our mind, would have created more negative implication, more instability and more detriment,” said Corrado DeGasperis, executive chairman and CEO of Comstock Inc.
The new bill only applies to gold and silver producing mines and will contribute to Nevada education which is currently one of the lowest ranking in the country.
“We are very proud that those dollars are going directly into education,” said Gray. “Our most valuable resource in the state is really our children, not the minerals that are below the ground, but the children that are up here. The way that we think about [the tax increases] is we are getting to support education from the ground up.”
A Satisfying Industry
Mining is necessary for the products that are enjoyed in everyday life. In short, if something is not grown, it must be mined.
“Those commodities that are mined are then transformed, processed, combined or manufactured into everything that’s around us,” said Visher. “And those commodities are not evenly distributed across the planet. Some regions are blessed to have higher concentrations of certain raw materials. Nevada happens to be one of those and that is what makes Nevada such a focus for the exploration and production of so many of the commodities that we need. Whether your business is selling a finished product or manufacturing a product, everybody needs to understand that it came from something else. At the very beginning of things, it came from the ground. Whether it is textiles, furniture, cars, [or] phones, everything is made up of other things. And everything starts with something that was either grown or mined. That is part of why mining is necessary. We can’t have the things that we have and enjoy the lifestyle that we have without mining.”
The mining industry in Nevada is also a major contributor to the state’s present and future economic development. According to the NMA, approximately 15,000 Nevadans are directly employed by the mining industry with 26,000 people who contribute throughout the supply chain.
In addition to being a major tax contributor, it is one of the highest paid industries in the state and offers a good work/life balance. And despite the archaic images associated with the industry, Nevada is at the forefront of safe mining practices. It uses sophisticated technology and has earned global attention with the ability to be a major source of lithium for the use of electric vehicles. Nevada mining surely has a history of faults, but it has evolved into an industry worthy of appreciation.
“[Mining] is an incredibly satisfying industry that provides opportunities for young people to have great careers,” said Crowley. “[But] it is hard to entice [people to]. It is hard to go into a high school and [ask] ‘How many of you want to be a miner?’ You are going to get nothing. You have to frame it differently and [ask] ‘How many of you would like to go into engineering and work on challenging problems that you get to design solutions for every single day and provide the products that we use and help fight climate change?’ [When you frame it that way], there is huge excitement from young people. They don’t want to just be miners. They want to save the world. Well, it turns out it’s the same thing. It just needs to be framed in a way where they understand what they are getting into.”
