Elko, Nev., the City the Recession Forgot
Mining town Elko, Nev., thrives on the gold standard.
Oct. 1, 2010— -- What the Himalayas were to Shangri-La—a shield from harm—so gold has been to Elko, Nev. This city has thrived the past two years.
"They call it the town the recession forgot," says local Mary Haigwood.
Elko, about 300 miles east of Reno, sits astride the biggest gold deposit ever found in North America: the Carlin Trend. It is 5 miles wide and 40 miles long. Over 50 million troy ounces of gold have been produced here, more than came from California's fabled Gold Rush.
As the metal's price has risen, mining giants, including Newmont and Barrick, have kept hiring, even as employers elsewhere in the U.S. were laying off. Unemployment, says Barrick spokesman Louis Schack, is low.
"We employ about 3,600 people in Nevada, and the majority reside in Elko. We've added several hundred new jobs in recent years," Schack said.
Since the 1970s, the industry has pumped some $6 billion into Nevada infrastructure, most of it going to mines in or around Elko. The area's population has risen from 7,000 to close to 50,000.
As gold's price spirals upward, deposits of low grade ore previously uneconomical to work are being worked. Mothballed mines have restarted operations. With gold trading at a record high of more than $1,300 an ounce and forecast to hit $1,450 in 2011, the town is booming -- literally.
In vast open-pit mines, explosions reduce rock to rubble, and 240-ton capacity dump trucks on 63 inch tires lug it off for processing.
Locals follow the fluctuations of the gold market the way folks in Hershey, Pa., follow cocoa futures.
"Everybody watches the price of gold," says Jerry White, general manager of Dale White Motors, the town's Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Toyota dealership. When the price rises, the mines hire, and White Motors sells more vehicles, mostly pickups.
"If you're an employee of the mining industry," says White, "there's a lot of money to be made here."
He means not just in the mines, but at sub-contractors and at businesses selling equipment or support services, such as CopCo (heavy equipment, drilling), Ram Enterprises (conveyor belts), and SMD (specialists in small mines). White calls Elko a "high blue-collar" town. Average household income here is $68,000 a year.
