Aiming
hi gh
Ames Construction and its
Nevada crushing operation play
a vital role providing aggregates
for a prominent gold mine.
BY BRIAN RICHESSON
Crushing rock at 6,000 ft.
in northern Nevada and sometimes working
through severe weather conditions, Ames Construction has been the entrusted source of underground backfill material for a prominent gold-mining company.
For about 15 years, Ames has operated a crushing plant on the Barrick Goldstrike mine property
near Carlin, Nev., said to be the most prolific gold-mining district in the Western Hemisphere. The
Goldstrike property produced 1.71 million ounces
of gold in 2008 and, as of Dec. 31, 2008, had 12. 8
million ounces of gold reserves, according to the
company.
There’s no shortage of work for Ames, which
runs two 10-hour shifts per day, five days per week
and 50 weeks per year, supplying backfill material
for the Barrick Meikle and Rodeo underground
mines. It used to be that companies would simply
leave a tunnel after mining out the richest grade of
material, but Ames employs 17 people at the crushing plant to ensure Barrick has enough material to
Mike Shields, left, of Ames Construction works with Ray Deitz of Metso dealer Compass Equipment Inc.
