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March 28, 2024 6:12 am
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Magnasite Tunnels Secured With Warning Signs & Fences

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

A new fence has been installed across the opening of the tunnels at the old Magnasite mining site. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress.

A favorite outdoor destination for Moapa Valley residents underwent a significant change in the name of safety last week. The two mine openings at Magnasite, an old mining site about four miles southwest of Overton, were secured with barbed wire fences and signs warning the public of the dangers of entering abandoned mines.

The fences were installed at Magnasite on Sunday, December 15, by a group of Boy Scouts from Henderson completing an Eagle Scout service project. But their efforts were coordinated by Bill Durbin of the Nevada Division of Minerals.

In an interview with the Progress, Durbin explained that the Eagle project was a small part of a long-running Abandoned Mine Program administered by the Nevada Division of Minerals. This program, funded with fees paid by the minerals industry as well as grants from the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), focuses on public safety at Nevada’s many abandoned mine sites, Durbin said.

“There are approximately 50,000 mine openings in the state that are considered hazardous,” Durbin said. “Over the years there have been a number of injuries and fatalities associated with these types of sites.”

The two abandoned mining tunnels at Magnasite, a favorite destination among Moapa Valley residents, were secured with barbed wire fencing and warning signage last week as part of a public safety project. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress

A Nevada Division of Minerals Fact Sheet shows that there have been 50 incidents of death or injury involving abandoned mine sites reported over the past 52 years in Nevada. Seventeen of these incidents involved fatalities. Many involved serious injuries. Eleven of the 50 involved pets trapped in abandoned mines.

Durbin explained that the Division has gone throughout the state identifying thousands of abandoned mine sites. Each site is ranked for its proximity to populated areas and its potential hazards.

In the case of Magnasite, the site was given a 2 out of five point ranking for its location, Durbin explained. This ranking was given because it is only 4-5 miles from the nearest paved road (at Moapa Valley Blvd and Magnasite Rd) and three miles from downtown Overton. Nevertheless it is not a high visibility site.

In the degree of hazard rankings, though, the site received a 3 out of 5 ranking. Durbin explained that the upper tunnel goes into the cliff face about 15 feet and then drops down 20 feet into the lower tunnel, creating a falling hazard. In addition, there was evidence of ATVs being ridden into the lower tunnel as well as fire pits inside the tunnel. This raised concerns about dangers of carbon monoxide asphyxiation as well as cave-ins, Durbin said.

“As far as I’m concerned it is idiotic to drive a gas powered vehicle into an opening like that,” Durbin said. “There is of course the carbon monoxide hazards. But also the ground is cracked nad fractured in locations and the vibration from the ATV might be enough to dislodge rocks that would fall on people causing injury.”

The Boy Scout group, under Durbin’s direction, installed five metal T-posts and four strands of barbed wire across the mouth of each of the two tunnels. At each opening a metal sign was posted reading “Danger; Unsafe Mine; Stay Out, Stay Alive”.

Durbin said that he realizes that the fence doesn’t keep people out of the tunnel who really want to go in.

“It just serves as a reminder to use good judgement,” he said. “And it is a warning of possible dangers.”

Durbin said that the fencing is only a first response. The Division has an agreement with the BLM to put up these warning fences without the need for a permit, he said.

“We are not doing any disturbance to land other than putting in fence posts,” Durbin said. “If that’s all we are doing, we can do it anytime. But if we reshape or disturb the landscape in any way, then we have to go and file for permits.”

Durbin said that the next step would be a permanent closure of the site. That would be up to the BLM or other managing agency of the land, he said. A permanent closure would involve sealing up the tunnel with polyurethane material to plug the entrance; or the use of heavy iron bars at the mouth of the tunnel.

“I don’t know if the Valley of Fire State Park or the BLM; or whoever is in charge out there; will, down the road, want to go to the next step and get them permanently closed or not,” Durbin said. “That’s a more involved process. But for now, this is all that will be done.”

Overton resident Lori Houston was unhappy about the project to fence off the tunnels. Her family enjoys going out to Magnasite 3-4 times a year. In an interview last week she said that it was a relatively close place to take visiting relatives out into the desert to see something interesting. In fact on that same Sunday afternoon she and her husband, Rick, took their niece and nephew to visit the site. They arrived just as the project was reaching completion.

Houston was frustrated that such an action would be taken without any notice to the community or any public process at all.

“It all seemed pretty intrusive,” she said. “Just to come out and lock something up that has been a part of our community for so long. It is a destination that people like to go to.”

She contested that there were any substantial safety concerns about the place. She dismissed the concern about carbon monoxide poisoning in the tunnel.

“The upper tunnel serves as a huge vent for that lower tunnel,” she said. “People have driven in and out of there tons of times and there has never been a problem. People have built fires in the tunnel and there hasn’t been a problem with that either.”

Houston didn’t consider the cave-in risk to high either.

“I suppose that it could happen,” she said. “But there has been a lot of activity in those tunnels over the years. I’ve heard of people going out there and cleaning things up in there so they could have prom date dinners and even weddings in there. It hasn’t ever caved in on anyone and it doesn’t really show any signs that it will. I just don’t think there is a problem with it. The fact is that it just isn’t really that much of a hazard. It makes me wonder if they’ve just run out of actually dangerous mine sites and now they are down to the ones that don’t really pose a danger.”

Houston felt that there should have been more of a public process involving the local community in the action.

“Look, if they had done some studies; brought out a carbon monoxide meter and done some measurements to show the dangers there and shared that data with the community; then that would be one thing,” Houston said. “But they didn’t do any of that. There isn’t any data to back up that there is a hazard there at all. They didn’t even involve a local Boy Scout in the project. They just came out from Las Vegas and put up a fence without any notice to anyone. I just don’t think that that’s fair to the community to tell us what we can and can’t do that way.”

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