Cover Story
YubaNet Launches Special Report: Golden Gamble in Grass Valley
Mar 7, 2005 – Most residents agree that the quality of Grass Valley’s natural landscape is an essential part of the town’s permanent economic base. Entrepreneurs, professionals, young families and retirees continue to move here to enjoy the town’s extraordinary quality of life – the best of old-time California located in the foothills of the…
Golden Gamble in Grass Valley, Part 1: Intro
Mar 7, 2005 – A four-lane freeway runs past it. A hospital overlooks it. Apartment complexes, homes, shopping centers, businesses and warehouses sit on or near it. High-tech companies fill the nearby industrial park. In short, this swath of land a couple miles from downtown Grass Valley, population 13,000, looks nothing like it did in…
Golden Gamble in Grass Valley, Part 2: Who is Emgold?
March 20, 2005 – John Woods has never heard of Emgold Mining Corp., and it’s hard to blame him. As editor and publisher of Stockwatch, which tracks Canada’s publicly traded companies, he has seen hundreds of mining outfits come and go over the past 20 years. And mostly, they go. By far, of Canada’s hundreds…
Golden Gamble in Grass Valley, Part 3: Dewatering an Old Gold Mine
Apr. 11, 2005 – It doesn’t take a background in hydrogeology to know that water runs downhill. It’s also easy to grasp that, underground, water collects in aquifers. But things get tricky when you begin trying to predict how water moves underneath the Sierra Nevada foothills. In western Nevada County, groundwater collects in granite fractures…
Golden Gamble in Grass Valley, Part 4: Tailings to Tiles
May 16, 2005 – Gold is a shaky market commodity. Its price fluctuates with the slightest economic twinge, and when prices dip enough, gold mines close, workers lose jobs and investors get left in the lurch. Something similar happened at the Idaho-Maryland Mine in Grass Valley, Calif. In the mid-1990s, when the price for an…
Golden Gamble in Grass Valley, Part 5: A Legacy of Risk
Aug 16, 2005 – At the Idaho-Maryland Mine, up to four tons of ore would have to be processed to produce one ounce of gold. But the steps taken to scrape together that ounce pose what scientists call two of the mining industry’s biggest environmental risks: cyanide contamination and acid mine drainage. Emgold Mining Corp.…
