Round Mountain Gold briefs Nye County Water District on dewatering, reuse and monitoring

Round Mountain Gold Co. consultant Jay Dixon told the Nye County Water District Governing Board on May 27 that the mine’s dewatering system remains extensive and that most pumped water is returned to the local aquifer.

Dixon, presenting an annual update that Round Mountain typically files with the State Engineer’s Office, said the operation reported 105 dewatering wells to the Division of Water Resources and that about 63% of the water pumped in 2024 was returned to the basin; approximately 35% was consumed by mining processes, evaporation and processing losses. "We reused over 80,000 acre‑feet," Dixon said, summarizing site‑wide reuse in ore processing and noting that the mine’s consumptive fraction is substantially less than the pumped total.

Dixon reviewed recent and planned work at the mine, including the Phase W expansion (authorized under NEPA in 2018) and current work in the southeastern pit area, Phase S. He said the mine’s water management includes deep and angled dewatering wells, booster/lift stations that move water hundreds of feet up from the pit bottom, and rapid infiltration basins ("ribs") used to return water to the alluvial aquifer. "It's a world class dewatering system," he said, describing crews, rigs and ongoing well rehabilitation operations.

Dixon showed hydrographs and potentiometric maps indicating substantial drawdown immediately around the pit—drawdown that he said is expected under the mine’s permits and groundwater model—but more modest changes at greater distances from the mine where agricultural and community wells exist. He said the mine maintains monitoring at nearly 200 locations, provides data to the State Engineer’s Office, and operates under both water right permits and NEPA commitments tied to mitigation and monitoring.

On operations and costs, Dixon said the combined capital and operating expenditure for last year was about $12.6 million and that projected spending for the coming year is roughly $9.4 million; those numbers include drilling, well construction, pumping and related capital work. He described plans under Phase S to install bedrock dewatering wells (14 planned over five years, with a mix of new and replacement wells) and emphasized instrumentation and well maintenance practices intended to keep the dewatering system functioning without prolonged downtime.

Board members asked about potential long‑term pit lakes if dewatering stops, arsenic and other water‑quality questions, and how much of the mine’s authorized diversion capacity was used last year. Dixon said maximum authorized diversion under the mine’s combined rights totals 53 cubic feet per second, while actual maximum pumping last year was about 19.3 cfs; he said the mine rarely approaches its full permitted diversion and noted engineering and permit commitments to long‑term reclamation and water quality protections.

Dixon concluded by urging clearer public messaging on basin water trends, noting that statewide maps showing long‑term groundwater trends can mislead users who don’t account for dense monitoring data clustered near active mines. "If the wrong person sees this, red is bad...and the mine must be causing this," Dixon said, arguing the graphic can overstate impacts beyond the locally measured dewatering footprint.