Dong Jung

Upon graduating from high school in 1948, I went to work in the logging woods of Northern California as a faller. After working at this for a year, I decided to study Mining Engineering as my interests had leaned this way for some time. I enrolled at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota. I completed three years of study in Rapid City working in the summer recess periods as a faller and a cat-skinner in California. At the end of my Junior Year (1952), I decided to quit school temporarily and get my service commitment taken care of. I was inducted into the Army in November 1952 and spent 16 months in Pusan, Korea in the 152th M.P. Company. Upon discharge from the Army in November of 1954 I went to Ely, Nevada and began working a small tungsten mine near Oceola with a friend of my father’s. We worked this mine for about a year until we could find no more ore and then I went to the south end of the Snake Range near Minerva and leased another small tungsten mine. We worked this property until the buying program of tungsten ended in 1956. I then moved to Ely and went to work for Kennecott as Shaft Repairman in the Deep Ruth shaft. In January of 1957 I enrolled at The Mackey School; of Mines, University of Nevada, Reno and completed my schooling. I graduated in June 1958 with a B.S. in Mining Engineering. During the summer recess of 1957 I worked for Union Carbide in their exploration department. The summer was spent working on nickel prospects in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

Upon graduation from UNR, along with another man, I obtained a lease on the New Pass Gold Mine near Austin, Nevada. My father and I eventually bought this mine.

The Spring of 1960 I went to Haines. Alaska and worked on a placer project. This was uneconomical and I returned to the New Pass. In 1962 I went to work at Asbestos Corporation, Ltd. I worked in their exploration department and prospected for and sampled asbestos occurrences in Central and Northern California.

In 1963 I returned to New Pass and worked it for a while longer but it was tough to make it on $35.00 gold.

In 1964 I went to work for Grand Deposit Mining Company as a Mine Engineer at the Pan American near Pioche, Nevada. This mine is a bedded deposit in limestone, lead, zinc. silver ore. We mined it with rubber tired equipment, loader and jumbos crawler tracks and production was about 600 tons per shift. I worked here until 1967 when I went to work for Eugene Jordan Associates as Manager at their Atlanta gold mine. This mine was open pit with a CCD cyanide plant. It was not successful due to extreme hardness of ore and low metal prices.

In the Fall of 1967 I was employed by Sun Oil at their Cordero mercury mine near McDermitt, Nevada. I worked as Mine Foreman on the swing shift. This was an underground mercury mine, using the square set method of mining.

In 1969 we returned to New Pass and did some work on the mill and then I went to work for Rawhide Mining Company as Mine Superintendent. This is the scheelite mine near Fallon, Nevada. Again at this mine the method was principally square set. I ran this mine for two years and was quite successful in maintaining ore grade and tonnage requirements for the mill, thanks in large part to the good crew I had.

In 1972 we obtained an OME loan for 1600 feet of exploration drifting at New Pass and so I returned and we began this project. I have since been at New Pass managing the property. We have been doing exploration work, development, mining, and milling.

My experience in mining has been quite varied and I have had to do many things while operating small mines, such as mining maintenance, diamond drilling, heavy equipment operator, engineering and mill construction and operation. At New Pass we are also running a successful leaching operation using a cyanide leach and carbon absorption.

My expertise is in production and I am long on common sense and mechanical ability, which are so important in operating profitably any type of mining operation.