There currently are three gold exploration projects in the Bodie Hills on the Nevada side, west of Fletcher Valley from Rough Creek to Alkali Flat. We expect there will be drilling at all three project sites this summer. Here is the status of each:
Spring Peak, NV in the Bodie Hills, south of Aurora—drilling is underway, but may be put on hold due to weather. The November 8 storm brought a lot of snow to the Bodie Hills. More claims have been filed to eventually explore a larger area.
Sawtooth Ridge, NV in the Bodie Hills, north of the Aurora Cemetery—awaiting approval. A decision memo is expected this month or next and will tell us if this project will require an environmental assessment or not since it will remove hundreds of trees in a healthy, mature pinyon woodland.
Bald Peak, NV in the Bodie Hills, on the Dry Lakes Plateau—awaiting approval. A decision memo is expected in December. The access will be by helicopter which means little surface disturbance, but possibly noise impacts to wildlife. Pronghorn migrate through this area to winter in Nevada and to summer in the Bodie Hills. It is also near several Bi-state Sage Grouse mating areas.
The comment period has closed on the Sawtooth Ridge and Bald Peak projects. However, if you have information about these areas that you want to make sure the USFS knows about, you could email the Bridgeport District Ranger, Megan Mullowney, at megan.mullowney@usda.gov.
Gold is not a critical mineral because we have plenty for industrial needs in the U.S. These three projects will impact wildlife and cultural resources and there will be more drilling projects to come. It takes multiple drilling projects to develop a model of the underground deposits to determine the potential for proceeding to an open pit, cyanide heap leach gold mine.