The Bureau of Land Management continues to advance critical mineral mining on federal lands despite the ongoing government shutdown.
This week BLM authorized expanded mining of barite ore at the Coyote mine in northeast Nevada. The 65-acre site is one of the few mining for barite ore, which is used in oil and natural gas well drilling fluids and is also commonly found in paints, plastics and rubber.
BLM issued a decision record for the expansion of mine operations near Carlin, Nevada, on Monday, allowing Progressive Contracting to tap into an estimated 100,000 tons of ore. Doing so will extend the life of the mine by as much as a decade “depending on the economic value and size of the deposit,” according to the document.
Jared Bybee, manager of BLM’s Elko District Office in Nevada, wrote in the decision record he signed Monday that “operations conducted under the plan modification will not result in unnecessary or undue degradation of the public lands.”
