Donald Duncan (1928-2003), a Canadian native, attended the Haileybury School of Mines in Ontario, Canada, and then worked on mining operations in Canada and Arizona before coming to Nevada to work in the Cortez Gold Mines, where he witnessed many technological advances in mining. Later in his career Duncan would work for the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Salt Lake City. Duncan was interviewed by Victoria Ford in 1999. I arrived there [the Cortez Gold Mines about seventy-five miles southwest of Elko] in 1967. We got a production decision in March of 1968, and we went through a plant construction phase and were actually producing gold in December of 1968. We were up and running in nine months, which is, of course, unheard of these days. These days you’re talking about, in some cases, several years for permitting purposes. In those days, there was no permitting. With the Clinton administration, particularly in the West here, the wilderness areas, we’ve seen a recently unfavorable interpretation of mining laws. There have been major delays in the granting of permits, delays in granting of mining patents, more and more environmental regulation permits, new and restrictive toxicity standards for mine waste, bonding requirements. These have all impacted mining, and these are the areas where our government has made great in-roads in helping to destroy our mining industry. |