Thomas Rinaldi

Thomas Rinaldi, born in Santa Cruz, California, in 1956, received a degree in mining engineering from the University of Arizona. He has worked in the mining industry for many years, and at the time of the 1996 interview, Rinaldi was general manager of Mineral Ridge Resources, Inc. in Silver Peak overseeing the planning process for an open-pit gold-mining operation. Rinaldi was interviewed by Victoria Ford in 1996.

     Mining began in Silver Peak in 1863. The other day we were with Merle Swanson, and he was here in the 1930s. During both those periods, which are probably two of the three major phases of mining in Silver Peak prior to now, there were essentially no permits. In 1872, we got the mining law, which allowed for being able to acquire the land to do mining. It allowed for the claim processing and the patenting of those claims. That law has worked very well over the last 125 years. Since then, with the environmental movement that’s gone through the United States in the last 20 or 30 years [as of 1996], we are under much more regulation. Most of it centers around environmental impacts, because mining is a type of work that does impact the environment.
     Mining is needed for society, but the regulations we have now are . . . Well, like with our operation, we’re dealing with toxins. We are a totally closed-circuit system, so we don’t discharge anything. We’re required to monitor all our solutions for leaks, and any spills have to be reported.
     With reclamation, the state of Nevada doesn’t require that you take it back to where it doesn’t look like you’ve been there, but in the multiple-use policy of the Bureau of Land Management, we have to bring it back to a condition that allows for beneficial use. The three main areas of multiple use in the Silver Peak area are recreation, mining, and grazing. And I would say grazing, because of the low moisture this area gets, is probably number three in those, but this is a cattle range. Basically, the goal is to make it [available] for future minerals exploration, for recreation, and for grazing. For the grazing, we need to reduce the slopes of our waste dumps and our heap and things so that vegetation can grow on it. We do need to seed it. Recreation-wise, we need to make the place accessible and also safe—in other words, deny access or keep people out of places where they can hurt themselves, because, as we all know, people can do dumb things. [laughter]

     With the mining that we’re going to be doing today, a very extensive permitting process is required. Approximately twenty permits are required from the plan of operations that’s filed with the federal government; water-pollution control standards with the state of Nevada; reclamation standards; our solution pond is required to be permitted; and fuel storage, explosives. Just a bunch of minor permits and three major permits, which I just mentioned, with the federal government and the state agencies.
     Back in the 1930s and at the turn of the century there were no environmental regulations. It was more just, “How can we best process this material most economically and then get rid of our waste most economically?” Today, everything has to be governed by protecting groundwater, runoff water, the soils of the area—everything has to be protected. We have to have a plan up-front, prior to moving a ton of material, before the permits are in place, and then we’re allowed to do it. Back in the 1930s when they were finished with the material, they found a low spot, and they just filled the basin or just let it run down the hill and got rid of it. Today we have to have engineered basins, we have to have flow sheets designed. Everything is planned up-front before we’re ever allowed to do any work.