Untapped mineral potential in Nevada heap-leach facilities supports pathways to strengthen United States resource security

Abstract Gold, silver, and copper heap leach metal processing is widespread in Nevada, one of the world’s most productive mining regions. Decades of large-scale operations have generated extensive inventories of leached tailings that retain significant quantities of unrecovered base, precious, and critical metals due to the selective nature of heap-leach extraction. This study compiles a comprehensive statewide inventory of active and inactive heap-leach sites and estimates the remaining recoverable metal endowment within these materials. Our analysis indicates that Nevada’s leached tailings contain approximately $88 billion United States Dollars in precious metals and >$15 billion United States Dollars in critical metals at current market prices. Reprocessing these materials could meet or exceed annual United States demand for several critical metals while mitigating environmental liabilities at legacy waste sites. As global demand grows amid supply-chain vulnerabilities, tailings reprocessing represents a promising opportunity to strengthen domestic resource security and advance sustainable mining strategies.