You are here

How a gold-mining merger tightened a company's hold on northern Nevada

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Daniel Rothberg and Nick Bowlin
The Nevada Independent, Las Vegas
Monday, January 3, 2022

In the final days of 2019, Ches Carney noticed something strange on the bulletin boards at the northern Nevada gold mines where he had worked for nearly three decades. Stores in the nearby town of Elko were playing holiday music, but Carney was upset: The labor union documents normally posted to bulletin boards had disappeared.

As a union steward for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 3, he advocated for his co-workers in disputes with the company. Near the end of the year, the name on Carney's paycheck changed from Newmont, one of the world's largest metal miners and an operator of several unionized mines in the area, to something different: Nevada Gold Mines.

... Dispatch continues below ...


... ADVERTISEMENT ...

Asante Gold Announces Significant Gold Intercepts
From Its Near-Mine Exploration Drilling at the Bibiani Gold Mine

Company Announcement
via Globe Newswire and Yahoo Finance
Wednesday, December 15, 2021

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Asante Gold Corp. (CSE: ASE / FRANKFURT: 1A9/ U.S. OTC: ASGOF) announces significant gold intercepts from its ongoing near-mine exploration drill program at its Bibiani Gold Mine in Ghana.

Asante initiated the exploration program in late September 2021. This program includes extensive induced polarization and ground magnetic surveys across the entire lease, RC, and diamond drilling, plus a high-level structural geology review targeting near-mine areas with high potential for new discoveries. The program objective is to grow the resources to be included in our comprehensive mining plan being prepared for the second quarter of 2022, with plant startup scheduled for the third quarter of 2022.

The company is pleased to report early results from the Walsh Satellite pit:

-- WADD21-002: 18 meters @ 3.85 g/t Au from 141 meters, including 16 meters @ 4.22 g/t Au.

-- WADD21-005: 12 meters @ 4.41 g/t Au from 174 meters.

-- WADD21-004: 8 meters @ 4.8 g/t Au from 137 meters.

-- WADD21-007: 4 meters @ 7.49 g/t Au from 170 meters.

-- WADD21-010: 3 meters @ 5.17 g/t Au from 187 meters

-- WADD21-003: 3 meters @ 5.96 g/t Au from 140 meters; 3 meters @ 4.60 g/t Au from 160 meters.

The results confirm the extension and grade continuity of the mineralization beneath the current US$1,500 design shell. These recent assay results improve the existing deposit model and will support an update of the Walsh mineral resource estimate. We anticipate adding ounces to the existing resource. Follow-up drilling is continuing, focusing on deepening and extending the Walsh Pit to its economic limit. ...

... For the remainder of the announcement:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asante-gold-announces-significant-gold-145900306.html


When Carney confronted a supervisor about the missing union documents, he said he was essentially told that the union was no more and to get over it. The union, which first organized Newmont workers in 1965, negotiated a new contract for about 1,300 production and maintenance workers in early 2019. But by the end of that year, management stopped recognizing it. 

There was a new boss in town.

Carney, now 66, did a bit of everything as a process maintenance technician -- welding, fabrication, examining grease bearings, and fixing crushers -- as part of a team of four working across a 25-mile area that sits atop a geologic formation known as the Carlin Trend. 

The Carlin Trend was created by upsurges of magma that left sediment rich with metal deposits near the earth's surface. Today this part of northern Nevada is one of the world's largest gold-mining regions, the spine of the local economy. 

Its history includes a decades-long rivalry between two of the largest mining companies in the world: Newmont, Carney's former employer, and Barrick Gold. In the months before Carney's paychecks changed, the negotiations that led to the creation of Nevada Gold Mines would reshape not only the regional economy but potentially the entire global gold industry. 

Barrick and Newmont decided to combine nearly all their Nevada mines and water rights into a single newly formed company. Barrick walked away with a controlling stake in Nevada Gold Mines and now calls most of the shots, largely making management decisions and setting the terms of employment. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/how-a-mega-gold-mining-merger-tightened-a-companys-hold-on-northern-nevada

* * *

Toast to a free gold market
with great GATA-label wine

Wine carrying the label of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, cases of which were awarded to three lucky donors in GATA's recent fundraising campaign, are now available for purchase by the case from Fay J Winery LLC in Texarkana, Texas. Each case has 12 bottles and the cost is $240, which includes shipping via Federal Express.

Here's what the bottles look like:

http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-4-wine-bottles.jpg

Buyers can compose their case by choosing as many as four varietals from the list here:

http://www.gata.org/files/FayJWineryVarietals.jpg

GATA will receive a commission on each case of GATA-label wine sold. So if you like wine and buy it anyway, why not buy it in a way that supports our work to achieve free and transparent markets in the monetary metals?

To order a case of GATA-label wine, please e-mail Fay J Winery at bagman1236@aol.com.

* * *

Support GATA by purchasing
Stuart Englert's "Rigged"

"Rigged" is a concise explanation of government's currency market rigging policy and extensively credits GATA's work exposing it. Ten percent of sales proceeds are contributed to GATA. Buy a copy for $14.99 through Amazon --

https://www.amazon.com/Rigged-Exposing-Largest-Financial%20-History/dp/1651405204/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?keywords=rugged+stuart+englert&qid=1579708888&sr=8-2-fkmr1

-- or for an additional $3 and a penny buy an autographed copy from Englert himself by contacting him at srenglert@comcast.net.

* * *

Help keep GATA going:

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16