Nevada is the fourth largest gold producer in the world after South Africa, Australia and China and accounts for approximately 8% of global production. Acre per acre, the northeast quadrant of Nevada where 85% of the state's production originates, is the most prolific gold producing area of the world.
Nevada gold production in 2003 totaled nearly 8 million ounces. As recently as 1980, the U.S. was a minor player in the world market, producing less than one million ounces a year. As a result of the Nevada discoveries, the U.S. has become one of the major world producers.
More than 50% of Nevada's annual gold production comes from the Carlin Trend where more than 40 separate deposits have been delineated since 1961. Approximately 38% originates from the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend with the balance originating from the Humboldt-Austin Trend, the Getchell Trend, the Jerritt Canyon Trend (Independence Trend), the Walker Lane Trend or from outside of the trends.
In 1997, there were 32 gold mines operating in Nevada, 25 of which were open pit and accounted for approximately 80% of total Nevada production.
Nevada is the cheapest place in the world to mine gold. As a group, the world's lowest cost producers and most profitable gold mines are located in Nevada.
Nevada has become to gold what Saudi Arabia is to oil.
On a per dollar spent on exploration basis, Nevada is the cheapest place in the world to find gold and has the world's highest success rate of new gold discoveries. Discovery rates have averaged 7 million ounces per year during the last year 30 years. Major discoveries continue to be made but most importantly, new discoveries are often the result of a re-interpretation of Nevada's complex geology thereby resulting in further discoveries being made on ground previously explored by various other companies.
Until recently, gold exploration and production in Nevada has been focused on low grade surface deposits mined as open pits. As they probed deeper, they discovered even richer gold deposits. Development of these higher grade gold deposits as underground mines and the probability of discovering similar high grade deposits below Nevada's scarcely explored vast overburden has added new excitement to the state's gold potential. Since the Carlin Trend's first underground mine went into production in 1993 (the Carlin Mine was discovered in 1961, open pit mining began on it in 1965 and it went into underground production in 1993), underground mining in Nevada has been growing in importance, accounting for 20% of all gold produced in Nevada in 1997, up from 18% in 1996.
Nevada silver production in 2003 of about 15 million ounces ranks first in the U. S.
Nevada is consistently ranked among the most favored jurisdictions in the world for mineral exploration and mine development, on the basis of geological, regulatory, and economic criteria, by research organizations like the Fraser Institute of Vancouver.
Nevada offers easy, twelve month operating conditions, a generally supportive regulatory environment, excellent infrastructure, and innovative, high quality, technical support services ranking among the best in the world.