A Nevada company is one step closer to building Oregon’s first modern-day gold mine.
On Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved Paramount Gold’s proposed gold and silver mine on nearly 470 acres near Vale in Malheur County.
Federal officials fast-tracked the mine’s federal permitting process to align with President Donald Trump’s goal to increase mining in the U.S.
The Grassy Mountain gold mine still needs multiple state permits before moving ahead.
The Nevada-based company Paramount Gold has proposed a gold mine at Grassy Mountain south of Vale, Ore.
Paramount Gold / Courtesy of Oregon DOGAMI
The BLM’s announcement came hours ahead of the state’s public hearing about the project, scheduled for Thursday at 4 p.m. Pacific Time in Vale (which would be 5 p.m. Mountain Time in that part of Oregon). The meeting will also be streamed online.
“Responsible mineral development is a key part of BLM’s efforts to unleash America’s affordable and reliable natural resources while ensuring natural, cultural and historic resources are maintained for present and future use,” Cassandra Andrews-Fleckenstein, the acting manager for BLM’s Vale District, said in a statement.
The proposed mine would use a cyanide solution to dissolve gold from ore. It would occupy nearly 470 acres of public land for the next decade, and then the site would undergo a four-year restoration period and 20 years of monitoring.
The mine is expected to pull about 380,000 ounces of gold and 554,000 ounces of silver from the earth, according to federal documents. That’s about $2.1 billion worth of metal.
If this project moves forward, Malheur County could gain about $2.9 million in taxes from the project over the course of the decade — about $300,000 a year, which is less than 1% of its current annual revenue.
