Fraudulent Mining Promotions

Mining scams have historically been limited to the precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium, and/or iridium). This is because the high unit value of these metals usually requires assaying to identify the presence of economic concentrations of the metals, and special or proprietary assaying or extraction methods can be fraudulently promoted. When one or more of the precious metal prices increases significantly, there is generally an
increase in mining scam activity. Platinum-group elements have recently experienced substant ial price increases (especially palladium and rhodium) and an increase in fraudulent mining promotions involving these metals should be anticipated.

For further information:

--NBMG Special Publication 22, Gold from Water (And Other Mining Scams)
--Division of Minerals, Mining Fraud and Mining Investment Page

Contacts:

Primary contact:

Simon Jowitt
Director/State Geologist, Professor-Economic Geologist
e-mail: sjowitt@unr.edu
phone: 775-784-6691
fax: 775-784-1709

If Simon is not available, please contact:

Rachel Micander
Geologic Information Specialist
e-mail: rmicander@unr.edu
phone: 775-682-8767
fax: 775-784-6690