Hardrock mining, Nevada's oldest major revenue-producing industry, has shaped the state's economic and political history. From the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859 to the 1950s, mining was one of the state's primary sources of jobs.

Today, Nevada is the third largest gold producer in the world behind South Africa and Australia. The discovery of microscopic gold in central Nevada in the 1960s triggered the state's latest Gold Rush. In 2003, Nevada mines produced 82 percent of the nation's gold and 26 percent of its silver.

Acid drainage leaching from the abandoned Buckskin mine in the Santa Rosa Mountains | Photo credit: Great Basin Mine Watch