EVEN NEVADA DOESN’T WANT TO GET BURNT
Published in the May 23, 2026 issue.
The Sierra Club has had some unlikely allies join the battle over a new, massive gold exploration project in the Bodie Hills.
The Mineral County, Nevada, Board of County Commissioners have voted to oppose the Burnt Rock Project, a sprawling gold exploration effort on the Nevada side of the Nevada-California border, northeast of Bodie near the abandoned gold rush town of Aurora.
In addition, the county commissioners have informed the U.S. Forest Service and the Toiyabe-Humbolt National Forest that they don’t support any gold mining in the Bodie Hills, which lies within the county boundaries.
The county took its stances at the urging of the Mineral County Sportsman Club, based in Hawthorn, Nevada, said club president Rob Mathias during a May 19 Sierra Club Zoom meeting about the potential negative impacts of the Burnt Rock Project.
“The Forest Service is just letting them go,” he said of the numerous gold exploration projects in the Bodie Hills. “If we don’t stand up, they’ll ruin the whole ecosystem,” said Mathais.
There are currently six gold exploration projects in various stages of approval or operation in the Bodie Hills, said Lynn Boulton, chair of the Range of Light Group of the Sierra Club, during the meeting. All of them are in Mineral County on the Nevada side of the border.
The Burnt Rock project is larger and more extensive than the others, she said.
The U.S. Forest Service has completed an Environmental Assessment for the proposed exploratory drilling work. At just 172 pages, the Environmental Assessment (EA) is far less detailed and thorough than a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement, Boulton said.
However, the project is being “fast tracked” thanks to an Executive Order from the Trump Administration that speeds up mineral exploration projects on federal public lands.
The size of the Burnt Rock Project is a concern in itself, Boulton said. The project area is about 6,800 acres in the Toiyabe-Humbolt National Forest and some Bureau of Land Management land. There is a 680-acre parcel of private land in the project area, and the landowners are not contesting the filing of mining claims on their land, Boulton said.
The project will include 266 drill pad sites, according to the EA. Multiple bore holes can be drilled from each of these sites, but the EA does not include a total number of bore holes allowed.
Work to access the sites would include construction of about 28 miles of new “temporary” roads and “maintenance” work on about 25 miles of existing roads and trails, the EA states.
The project parcel would be accessed via State Route 167 in California, and Nevada 359, then by an existing power line road into the hills, Boulton said.
About 121 acres of land would be “disturbed” and cleared of vegetation to accommodate the new roads, drilling pads, and “lay down” areas for staging equipment, according to the EA.
Groundwater wells would provide water for the drilling rigs and other uses. Water use could go as high as 3,500 gallons a day when drilling, which prompts concerns about aquifer levels and the potential to impact if not dry up several springs, ponds and seeps in the area, Boulton said.
The EA would also allow for a much larger project without further environmental studies. If the gold exploration work is deemed successful and prompts a request for more core samples and exploration, the EA will allow it. The second round of exploration would allow a total of 600 drilling sites, 45 miles of new roads and 250 acres of disturbance, Boulton pointed out.
The exploratory work is being carried out by the Canadian firm Headwaters Gold and is being funded by Newmont Mining, the world’s largest gold mining corporation, Boulton said.
Under terms of the 1872 Mining Law, the Forest Service “can’t really say no to (gold) exploration projects,” Boulton said. The Burnt Mountain Project operations plan could be approved by the end of this year and work could begin in the summer of 2027, Boulton said.
In addition to lacing roads through a mostly pristine roadless expanse of rolling hills covered in pinon, juniper and sagebrush, the project will impact habitat for the Bi-State Sage Grouse, mule deer, antelope and a variety of threatened plant species. Some of which are found only in the Bodie Hills, she said. “Our main tool is outrage.”
Mathias, of the Sportsman Club, said that he hunted for mule deer in the Bodie Hills and saw extensive herds in the region, and swarms of “sage hens.”
The area, he said, “is the most beautiful place on the California Nevada border in Mineral County.”
Public comments on the Burnt Rock EA are being accepted until June 5, and can be mailed to District Ranger, Burnt Rock Exploration Project, USDA Forest Service, HC 62 Box 1000, Bridgeport, CA 93517. Electronic comments can be submitted using the project webpage at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/humboldt-toiyabe/projects/69000.
