Pershing Gold said that it has submitted a plan of operations for a phase II expansion of the mining and heap leach facilities of the Relief Canyon Mine, located in Pershing County, Nevada, to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Image: A gold rock. Photo: courtesy of PHGCOM/Wikipedia.org.
The Nevada-based gold producer revealed the submission of the permit application containing the 2018 Plan of Operations (2018 Plan) Modification for the phase II expansion to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP).
Currently, Pershing Gold has all of the required permits to undertake the phase I mining and heap leaching operation.
As per the permits, the company is authorized to mine the Phase I pit, the full build-out of the heap leach pad to facilitate leaching of the Phase I ore, in addition to construction of a new waste rock storage facility.
Pershing Gold expects the mine life for the Relief Canyon Mine Phase I to be nearly two years after about 6-8 months of project construction.
For the phase II expansion, the company plans to enlarge and deepen the open-pit mine and build 106 acres of new heap leach pad space near the previously approved pads to hold the phase II ore and construct a new process pond.
Other activities planned for the phase II expansion are expansion of the authorized waste rock storage facilities for the waste rocks to be extracted from the phase II pit and construction of ancillary facilities to back the phase II operation.
Pershing Gold chairman, CEO and president Stephen Alfers said: “The submission of this 2018 Plan starts the federal and state permitting processes for the Phase II expansion paving the way for a seamless transition from Phase I to Phase II.
“The extensive environmental baseline studies we commissioned to support the 2018 Plan demonstrate there are no significant environmental issues associated with Phase II, which should facilitate timely permit acquisition. This process will allow us to move smoothly from Phase I into Phase II in the future.”