Tribes, Canadian company square off over proposed gold mine near Death Valley NP

LONE PINE, Calif. —

Perched high in the craggy Inyo Mountains, between the dusty Owens Valley floor and Death Valley National Park, looms a rugged, nearly roadless chunk of desert terrain teeming with wildlife and scarred by mining operations.

Conglomerate Mesa’s charcoal smelters helped give birth 150 years ago to the nearby rip-roaring silver town of Cerro Gordo, where ingots were produced and shipped off to the small pueblo of Los Angeles by steamboat and a 20-mule team.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-03-14/a-corporation-wants-to-mine-for-gold-near-death-valley-native-tribes-are-fighting-it