Associated Press
November 21

Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to try to block a company from expanding gold mines in Nevada that they say threaten water resources and taxpayers.

The environmentalists claim Newmont Mining Corp., the world's largest gold producer, will drain billions of gallons of water from northern Nevada's high desert in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In their lawsuit filed Wednesday, opponents asked a U.S. District Court judge in Reno to overturn the Bureau of Land Management's approval of the projects at the Gold Quarry mine and new Leeville mine along northeast Nevada's Carlin Trend — one of the richest veins of gold in the world.

"The project will leave a 100-year legacy of polluted and wasted water," said Dan Randolph of the Mineral Policy Center, a nonprofit environmental group based in Washington D.C.

BLM and Newmont officials said extensive environmental analysis was done to prevent pollution and included consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We spent 5 1/2 years working with BLM on this effort, including intensive study and science and extensive public comment," Newmont spokesman Doug Hock said from company headquarters in Denver. "It isn't something that was decided on a moment's notice."

The Carlin Trend is one of only three mining locations to have produced 50 million ounces of gold. The other two are Witwatersrand in South Africa and Murantau in Uzbekistan.

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