Mine Tour at Newmont's Phoenix Mining, Battle Mountain, Nevada

It was my first time, it was fun and it was very interesting.

Newmont Mining is one of the largest mines in the world. In Winnemucca, there are hundreds of people employed in Newmont. I tried to be one of them but I didn't have the luck. I did get an interview years ago but did not get the job. I was thinking, mining is not for me then :)

Anyway, it was my pleasure to get invited by Yuny, one of the Pinays here whose husband works for Newmont to attend to a Family Day event at Phoenix Mining. Phoenix Mining is just a small mine, I heard, compared to Twin Creeks which is also owned by Newmont.

There were many people attended the event, including children, roughly 150 people. I have seen quite a few people whom I kinda knew out there, including my very good friend Brenda and her husband with their grandson Cowen.

People were checking every table the company had prepared, showcasing what they got and what they offer. There were also information "corners" illustrating the processing of ore, etc. There were too many to mention.

And yes, there were foods too. Hamburger, hotdogs, potato chips were served, bottled water as well.

Here are the photos that I took. I wasn't able to take photos during the tour to the open pit because my battery went dead in the middle of the tour.

This is the mine entrance-we are behind that bus riding a company pick-up truck

Rowena registered us- one registration only per group.
We got "favors" after registration.

A pose with a haul truck driver :) Look at the huge truck behind us

These people will take a photo of you,( if you want), with that
huge equipment behind them
 then they will give you a copy of the photo.
We posed, got the photo but we didn't like it, hehehe!
 But we do appreciate their effort.

In this area, behind the one who was taking this photo,
 was a pile of T-shirts printed with "Newmont"
 in different sizes given to everyone. I got two,
both in black, my size :)

Look how big is the tire!
 One of the guys said that it's not that really big actually,
 they have bigger than that in another mine. I was like, "Seriously?"

Cuties! They are my former co-worker's kiddos.

This is a huge tire laid upside down in the ground for us to write our name.
Do you see "Bechay was here 6/22/13"? Pretty cool, huh?

These ladies are making bird seeds for the children to take home with them.

This photo is an illustration of how the gold is being processed.

This big bike is worth a fortune! This has been custom made for Newmont only

The favors we got, aside from backpack, T-shirts and good foods :)

That is me wearing hard hat for kiddos. Not a good photo but it's okay :)

Anyway, we took the bus going to the open pit, (the last photo was taken inside the bus) feeling awed by looking at the huge haul trucks, drills, and other big equipments while listening to the cute tour guide, hahaha! He was explaining to the best of his knowledge about what we saw at the mine, how the gold is being processed and how they strictly implement employee safety while at work, things like that. He threw some questions to us but only the people in front of him heard him, hehehe!

I learned a lot of things about mining that day and I have few things that I would like to share; Labor is the most expensive cost in mining, next is fuel and third is electricity. No wonder, Hycroft  mine, which is another mining company in Winnemucca laid off about 150 employees last month after the price of gold declined. Perhaps to cut the cost, huh? That makes sense.

Well, this has been my experience and I am glad to share it with you. Thanks for dropping by!