Officials say Rio Tinto mines will get $25 million cleanup
ELKO - Federal and state officials have announced a $25 million cleanup plan for the abandoned Rio Tinto copper mine in Elko County.
Officials say the state of Nevada will oversee the cleanup with input from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Shoshone Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley. The project involves removing mine tailings from Mill Creek and the East Fork Owyhee River, and improving the creek to support redband trout.
The four corporations paying for the environmental project are successors to the companies that ran the mine from 1932 to 1976. They include Atlantic Richfield Co., DuPont and Co., The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. and Teck American Inc.
The mine is about 2.5 miles south of Mountain City.
