US oil company reports striking gold in Nevada
| New York
The Pennzoil Company may have just unearthed one of the biggest gold mines in the free world outside of South Africa, Monitor correspondent Ron Scherer reports.
The Duval Corporation, a subsidiary of the Houston-based Pennzoil, found the gold and silver motherlodes at Battle Mountain, Nev.
A company spokeswoman said the ore deposit contains an estimated 2.4 million ounces of gold and 9.2 million ounces of silver. Based on current prices, Mr. Scherer says, the gold is worth $1.1 billion and the silver, $84 million. The mine will produce 150,000 ounces of gold a year - equivalent to 16 percent of US production last year, making Pennzoil the third largest gold producer in the US.
