Yellowstone Gold Mines - Mineral Hill


[-- The following pictures and text are from a story that I did for The High Country News in August 1995. This was during my short lived attempt at freelance writing (now I am in the computer industry)]



While the controversy continues over Crown Butte Mining Co.'s proposal to extract gold near Yelowstone National Park, another gold mine ran a cyanide leaching operation with little controversy just outside the park's northwest entrance. In fact, Bob Ekey of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition called the TVX Mineral Hill Mine "a model for the industry."


How did the mine win respect? John Hoak, Mineral Hill's superintendent of environmental and regulatory affairs, attributes it to good engineering and upfront communication. "We run a responsible environmental program," he says simply. Every day his miners reduce the 500 tons of ore generated at the mine to a liquor of gold and waste fine powder, using a process called vat cyanide leaching.



The powder is double washed, then dried before being transferred to the tailings impoundment. Only two North American mines use this method of dry impoundment, says Hoak.


The tailings impoundment itself is double lined with plastic and clay; drains collect any water leaching through the pile, and pumps send that water back into the plant for reuse in the leaching process insuring that it never escapes into Bear Creek.

Mineral Hill has also taken on cleaning up environmental damage from a century of past mining. The company, a Canadian based firm that has operated the mine since 1989, recently reclaimed an arsenic roasting plant, a remnant of the World War II era when arsenic trioxide was refined there for insecticide use.

Now that its ore body is almost depleted, Mineral Hill has begun mining underground in the Crevice Mountain area some three miles from the mill. Rather than use smoke belching trucks to transport the ore over narrow mountain roads, the company plans to spend $14 million to build an underground tunnel and transportation system.



"TVX does pretty well," says Richards Parks, a member of both the Northern Plains Resource Council and the Bear Creek Council, a local group formed to monitor the mine. Beyond the company's interest in environmentally sound technology, lies a deeper commitment. Parks says, "John [Hoak} lives in the community and cares about what goes on here."

-- David Councill

The writer works out of Billings, Montana



[Update - TVX was unsuccessful during its mining efforts at Crevice Mountain. The mine has since been idled.]


Other photography links:
Karamursel, Turkey photographs

Additional Photos from Turkey

Photos from Greece

The Gold Mines of Yellowstone National Park

Beartooth Mountains of Montana