Mollie Mines

My freshman year of college I took an introduction to agriculture class and the professor told us that the average American is three generations removed from agriculutre and farming. In my experience in mining and conversing with people outside the industry I've thought about this statistic a lot and have the belief that the average American is at least five generations removed from mining. A lot of people, especially my family, don't understand why I would ever want to work in the mining industry. For me, it's simple. I absolutely love mining. I love getting to see things everyday that most people never get to see in their lifetime. To me the milling and metallurgical processes are like magic for adults. Mining is like my own grown up version of Fraggle Rock. I get to work with equipment that's bigger than the house I grew up in and it's still completely acceptable to collect pretty rocks I find no matter how old I get. As if all that wasn't good enough, I get

While I was in Elko, NV for the summer I made many trips to Utah. It is one of the few states that my family never vactioned to as a child. While it may not be a place that immediately comes to mind when you think vacation it is definitely worth a visit. There are so many neat little towns and gorgeous mountain scenery everywhere you look. The must see tourist attraction on my list was of course Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine. It is the king of open pit mines and is the largest man made excavation in the world. There are two distinct man made features astronauts can see from outerspace and they are The Great Wall of China and the Bingham Canyon copper mine. The mine is about a 30 minute drive from Salt Lake City which is full of great views the whole way. The mine visitors center boasts a very nice museum of Kennecott mining history and lots of models of mining equipment as well as videos explaining the mining process. They did a great job of creating exhibits that any

A couple weeks ago I went to Jarbidge, NV for the weekend. Jarbidge is an unincorporated community in Elko County. It lies on the edge of the Jarbidge Wilderness, approximately 10 miles south of the Idaho/Nevada border. Noted locally for its remoteness, the community is usually accessed by road from Rogerson in Twin Falls County, Idaho. There is an 80-mile-long dirt road to Jarbidge heading north from the Deeth exit of Interstate 80; it is usually open only from late June until October due to snow. The community lies on the West Fork of the Jarbidge River. Gold was discovered near Jarbidge in 1909, making it the site of one of the last gold rushes in the Old West and, incidentally was the site of the last stagecoach robbery in 1916. Its population swelled to near 2000 in 1911, but afterwards began a slow decline when the mining facilities were largely cannibalized for the war effort during WWI. Mining operations ceased completely in 1932, however there is still some mining activity i

Over the weekend I drove to Denio, NV to visit the Royal Peacock Opal Mine. My roommate this summer is a geology student and I heard her speak many times of wanting to go and mine for opals. It was a long drive into the middle of nowhere Nevada but very scenic and as the majority of the drive was on backroads I could drive as fast as I wanted to which I enoyed very much. The mine is located within a wildlife refuge that offers camping and lots of nature viewing. When I got there I was greeted by a very nice woman who was more than happy to take my money and explain how to mine the opals. I went for the more expesive option which was mining the bank for $180/day which also allows you to mine the tailings which is $75/day. When she said that mining the bank was hard work she wasn't kidding. She sent me with a guide who turned out to be a seismologist from Fiji who was there visiting for a week and her two kids that were around the age of 10. We drove out to the mine and I was shown

My parents instilled in me at a very young age a passion for archaeology and ruins. At the time I resented my mom for dragging me all over Arizona looking at ancient indian ruins. I felt that if you'd seen one abandoned building you'd seen them all. I never understood the significance and history like I do today. Over the weekend I drove to Ward, Nevada which is just outside Ely. This is a really great place for a weekend getaway. Lots of camping spots, off roading, fishing, swimming, etc. You name it, they got it. I went because I heard about these old charcoal ovens out in the middle of nowhere and I just had to see them for myself. The ovens were built around 1876 to provide charcoal for two silver smelters in the area requiring approximately 30 - 50 bushels of charcoal to produce one ton of ore. As the railroad indusrty grew charcoal was replaced by coke which is made from coal. The sign in front of the ovens say it all - "The real worth of the old charcoal ovens is th