Mount Tenabo – Cortez Hills Gold Mine Temporarily Halted
Yesterday a federal court of appeals temporarily blocked construction of a proposed 2,000-foot-deep open-pit gold mine on public lands in Nevada. Barrick Gold Corporation’s Cortez Hills Mine is now on hold until the U.S. Bureau of Land Management revises its environmental impact analysis. The court ruled that BLM failed to adequately analyze the potential for the mine on Mount Tenabo to “pollute the air with mercury emissions and dry up scarce water resources.”
Panoramic view of Mount Tenabo, Nevada, site of proposed open-pit gold mine.
The Cortez Hills mine has been vigorously opposed by the Western Shoshone tribe, which considers Mount Tenabo a sacred site. Much construction activity has already taken place for the proposed mine.
See more SkyTruth images of the site here.
Hello,
John Hadder, Great Basin Resource Watch here. Good before images. Do you have any current images that shows the mining damage?
john@gbrw.org
thank you
John
John – SkyTruth doesn't have any imagery of this area more recent than what's in Google Earth at this time (May 2006), although I'm sure more recent imagery does exist. In the meantime I've produced two new images showing mining-related damage on the east flank of the mountain – is this the specific area you're interested in?