Dangerous mine openings to be closed

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 9:28 a.m.

The Nevada Mining Association and eight other organizations plan to close seven of the most hazardous mine sites in Southern Nevada this week.

The mines, once "glory holes" for prospectors looking for gold, silver and other precious metals in the 19th and early 20th centuries, are located on lands used by the public for recreation. The open, abandoned pits pose a threat to visitors escaping to the wide-open spaces from sprawling urban development, the association's president, Russ Fields, said.

When the mines operated, no laws existed to secure the holes once work was completed. In contrast, today's mining companies have to follow strict environmental and safety requirements that ensure proper closure and reclamation, Fields said. Modern mine sites are safe and stable once mining is completed.

By 1998 the association, along with the Bureau of Land Management, had helped identify 1,428 mine openings in Clark County as potentially dangerous.

Of those, 695 were secured either by fencing the property, boarding up the opening or filling the shaft with dirt. That didn't help a toddler who fell to her death earlier this year in an old mine in Beatty.

The abandoned Southern Nevada mines are along U.S. Highway 95 between Henderson and Searchlight.

Once an open mine is discovered, the site is inspected and then preparations are made to seal it, as a host of companies will do on Thursday and Friday.

Six of the seven mines will be filled with rock and soil near the sites using heavy equipment supplied by Cashman Equipment, Fields said. The last mine will be filled with environmentally safe expansive foam designed for this type of project. The foam will then receive a topsoil cap.

The association teamed up with the Nevada Division of Minerals, Cashman Equipment Co., Chemical Lime Co., Vosburg Equipment, Clark County Comprehensive Planning, the Bureau of Land Management, Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Homestake Mining Co. and Newmont Mining Co. to identify 7,304 of an estimated 50,000 mines existing around the state, Fields said.