The Denton-Rawhide Mine is located within the western portion of the Basin and Range Physiographic Province, an area of northward-trending mountain ranges separated by alluvial valleys. The Rawhide epithermal gold-silver deposit is located along a northwest-trending structural zone that delineates the northeastern margin of the central Walker Lane.

The oldest rocks exposed near the Denton-Rawhide project area are limestone, shale and dolomite sequences that most likely correlate with the Triassic-age Luning Formation. These sequences, referred to as basement rocks by Gray (1996), occur in the Sand Springs Range north and east of the Denton-Rawhide Mine. Drilling around the open pits within the project area has encountered these older rocks to depths of 120 to 800 feet below the near surface volcanics (BLM, 1996)

The rock types within the Rawhide volcanic center have been subject to extensive faulting and hydrothermal alteration. The three primary units within the Mine area are referred to informally as lithic tuffs, andesite, and stratified tuffaceous sediments and volcanic breccias. The lithic tuffs (Tlt) consist of volcaniclastic and pyroclastic rocks 800 to 2,000 feet thick (Gray, 2000). The unit is locally divided into subunits based on textural and compositional criteria. Irregular flows of andesite (Ta), the principal host for bulk mineable ore, overlie the lithic tuff (Tlt). Thickness of the unit ranges from 0 to 400 feet (Gray, 1996).

The Rawhide mine is a fully permitted operation that produces gold and silver through an open pit heap leaching operation. Rawhide Mining received a mine expansion permit covering the Regent satellite deposit, and open pit mining commenced there in 2019.

Rawhide Mining continued production from the Regent open pit and former heap leach pads during 2021. And mining operations were suspended at year-end.

Regent Pits
Development of the proposed Regent and East Regent pits would result in a total surface disturbance of 68.4 acres on BLM-managed public land. The disturbance area for the proposed pits includes a 100-foot perimeter berm around each pit. The area between the two pits would include the Regent haul road (5.9 acres) and ancillary disturbance (33.9 acres). Approximately 3.4 million cubic yards (yd3) or 5.3 Mt of ore and 3.5 million yd3 or 5.5 Mt of waste rock would be excavated from the Regent Pit and East Regent Pit combined. Ore would be placed in the previously permitted Western Extension Phase 4 Heap Leach Pad (HLP) and Phase VI HLP, and the proposed Western Extension Phase 5 HLP, proposed T-Bone HLP, and proposed Phase VII HLP.

The Regent and East Regent pits would be mined using conventional open-pit mining methods (drilling, blasting, loading, and hauling). The Regent Pit bottom would be excavated to an elevation of approximately 4400 ft amsl and the East Regent Pit bottom would be developed to an elevation of approximately ........

The Denton-Rawhide mine site consists of heap leach pads (HLP), waste rock storage facilities (WRSF), process ponds, Merrill-Crowe Plant, and Carbon Adsorption-Desorption Refinery Plant.

During active mining operations, ore is fed into the three-stage crushing plant at a standard operating rate of 20,000 tons per day. Lime is added to the crushed ore and the material is transported to the heap leach pads via a series of portable conveyors.

Heap Leach Facilities
The existing heap leach facilities consist of a 295.2-acre heap leach pad constructed in several phases, with an additional 17.3-acre pad permitted but not constructed (Phase VI-A1), and a 21.5-acre pad permitted but not yet constructed (Western Extension Phase 4). Process ponds include ten double lined solution ponds and one single lined stormwater contingency pond (the single lined sludge settling pond is included in the discussion of the metal recovery system, below). The original Phase I through ........