Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/554714
6 www.resourceworld.com a u g u s t / s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 While most mines utilize common mining and processing technologies, every mining project is different in ways that represent their own particular challenges such as location, geometry, tonnage and grade of the deposit, metallurgy, First Nations agreements and prevailing metal prices to name a few. The companies summarized below, all with projects in the United States, have overcome their particular challenges and reached the mine building stage. Of course, the advantage of building a mine in the US is that there is rule of law, secure mineral tenure, qualified engineering and geological talent, decent roads to many places and strict but achievable environ- mental standards. American authorities take environmen- tal stewardship seriously. For example, Montana recently upgraded its regulations on mine waste-storage facilities in response to the Mt. Polley tailings dam breach in British Columbia. Of course, as far as investors are con- cerned, when a mining company achieves production status, it can be evaluated like other industrial operations that have rev- enues and profits (hopefully) as opposed to living on private placements during the exploration and development stages. According to a report by Industrial Info Resources, the US metals and minerals industry is planning to spend US $12.14 billion on projects starting construction in the second half of 2015. nevada Copper Corp. [NCU-TSX] is building the 100%-owned Pumpkin Hollow underground and open pit cop- per mine near Yerington, about 90 miles southeast of Reno, Nevada. In late May 2015, the company announced results of its NI 43-101 Technical Report Integrated Feasibility Study (IFS). The indepen- dent IFS report was prepared under the direction of Tetra Tech, Inc. and Stantec Consulting Services Inc. Proven and probable reserves, including mineable open pit and underground ore, stand at 572 million tons grading 0.47% copper equivalent, containing 5.05 billion pounds of copper, 761,000 ounces of gold and 27.6 million ounces of silver. The min- ing operation consists of a 63,500 tpd open pit mine and 6,500 tpd underground mine, feeding a single 70,000 tpd concentrator. Average mill feed grades exceed 0.6% cop- per (0.64% copper equivalent) in the first 5 years of operations. Mine Building uSA by Ellsworth Dickson The headframe of Nevada Copper's Pumpkin Hollow copper (gold, silver, iron) mine 100 miles southeast of Reno, now under development. Photo courtesy Nevada Copper Corp.