Ben Viljoen, 1996
Ben Viljoen, born in the Lake Tahoe area in 1953, got his first job in mining at the age of thirteen at the Utah Mine in Virginia City. A self described garden tramp (one who changes jobs frequently to learn new skills but prefers to stay in one state), he learned open-pit mining and also had experience operating his own small contracting business. Viljoen was interviewed by Victoria Ford in 1996. The E.L. Cord Mill [in Silver Peak] operated very efficiently at about 350-ton-a-day right up until War Order L-208, which shut down all non-strategic metal mines in the United States for World War II. The Comstock financed the Civil War. Tonopah and Goldfield financed World War I. World War II, they thought they’d fight it on credit and shut all the gold mines down, so we’re still paying for it. |