VERIS GOLD JERRITT CANYON MINE

The Veris Gold Jerritt Canyon Mine sits 48 miles north of Elko, Nevada on State Highway 225 — an underground gold operation currently in care-and-maintenance whose EPA ECHO compliance file tells two distinct stories at once. One story is recent and quiet: a single violation quarter in the trailing 24 months. The other is historical and loud: a derived penalty total of $24.4 million over that same window, drawn from a five-year cumulative penalty pool of $61,044,398 [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. PollutionScan assigns the facility a Grade D composite score. Twelve formal enforcement actions are logged under the Clean Air Act program, and 3 total inspections appear on the multi-program record [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. ECHO facility identifier 110043970398 shows zero active permits and a latest permit date of July 1, 2022, consistent with the mine's suspended operating status [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Ownership has changed hands. Veris Gold Corp., the Canadian operator that filed the NI 43-101 technical report dated July 11, 2013 [source: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/veris-gold-corp-files-technical-report-for-jerritt-canyon-512709781.html], entered insolvency. First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE: AG) acquired the asset and on April 9, 2026 confirmed a restart scheduled for 2027 [source: https://www.kolotv.com/2026/04/09/mining-operations-resume-jerritt-canyon-next-year/]. First Majestic produced 34,341 ounces of gold and 3.5 million ounces of silver in Q1 2026, with Jerritt Canyon contributing limited output during the planning phase [source: https://elkodaily.com/news/local/business/mining/article_8053a878-d4ba-44eb-9aed-d8500caebc77.html]. That distinction matters for any forward-looking assessment: the legacy enforcement record attaches to the facility, not the corporate shell. Restart plans therefore inherit the full Clean Air Act history tied to the on-site roaster circuit [source: https://businessdailymedia.com/business-news/newsfile/8634-ely-gold-royalties-congratulates-first-majestic-sliver-on-jerritt-canyon-mine-acquisition].

Jerritt Canyon is one of only three permitted gold processing plants in Nevada using roasting to treat refractory ore. The other two are operated by Nevada Gold Mines, the Barrick-Newmont joint venture [source: https://businessdailymedia.com/business-news/newsfile/8634-ely-gold-royalties-congratulates-first-majestic-sliver-on-jerritt-canyon-mine-acquisition]. That rarity matters. The roaster circuit is the dominant driver of the facility's Clean Air Act exposure, and the enforcement record reflects it. ECHO's program-level breakdown shows 12 formal actions logged against the Clean Air Act file, alongside a compliance history grid populated with unresolved-status quarters across both CAA and RCRA Hazardous Waste programs over the last three years [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. Days-since-last-evaluation on the CAA program stood at 1,339 per the PollutionScan mirror of ECHO's exporter feed — a figure that reflects how the suspended operating status has suppressed routine inspection cadence rather than any improvement in underlying compliance posture [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv].

The chronological narrative of the past 24 months opens with the facility in care-and-maintenance following the Veris Gold insolvency. On March 2, 2026, local reporting confirmed First Majestic's exploration program was underway, with no resumption of mining expected before 2026 or 2027 [source: https://elkodaily.com/news/local/business/mining/article_00493448-455e-11ef-81c3-1f5becf08fe8.html]. By April 2026, First Majestic formalized a 2027 restart timeline. CEO Keith Neumeyer stated the company was "focusing our attention on restarting Jerritt Canyon" with "enhanced operations, including owner-operated mining and an optimized mine plan" [source: https://elkodaily.com/news/local/business/mining/article_0baef9c2-64ea-496a-ba07-a1b8c0dbe4c2.html]. The Mining Record reported the restart decision was driven by an expanded Mineral Resource base, strengthened long-term gold price assumptions, and drilling results accumulated over the preceding two years [source: https://miningrecord.com/commencement-of-exploration-drill-program-at-cyclone-isr-project-4-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-3-3-2-2-3-2-3-2-2-2-6-6-2-3-4-3-2-4-2-3-3-2-3-3-2-4-2-2-4-2-2-2-10-6-4-2-2-5-2-5-2-5-7-2-3-2-2-2-2-5-3-5-3-4-352/].

ECHO's derivation methodology applies the facility-level five-year penalty pool prorated to a 24-month window, yielding $24,417,759 as the trailing penalty figure against a single violation quarter in the same period [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. That ratio — one NC-flagged quarter against roughly $24.4 million in prorated penalty exposure — reflects the weight of the historical formal-action docket rather than a spike in current-period violations. The latest permit date of July 1, 2022 coincides with the late-Veris-Gold operating window. No new active permits have been recorded since, consistent with the mine's idle status and the ownership transfer to First Majestic [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The EJ Index average is reported at 0.0, which reflects the remote Elko County location 48 miles from the nearest population center rather than an EJ screen result indicating an absence of sensitive receptors [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv].

The anchor historical action on the Jerritt Canyon file is the September 25, 2014 settlement. Veris Gold Corp. paid a $182,000 civil penalty to resolve EPA allegations that the company failed to correctly report the release of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals at the Nevada gold mine under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act reporting regime [source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/veris-gold-pays-182000-penalty-for-chemical-releases-at-jerritt-canyon-gold-mine-in-nevada]. The Associated Press wire confirms the Canadian-based owner agreed to the $182,000 civil penalty for failing to correctly report to federal environmental regulators the release of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals [source: https://preprod.sandiegouniontribune.com/2014/09/25/firm-pays-fine-for-not-reporting-mine-pollution/]. That settlement, modest in dollar terms, established the pattern: a gap between what was released at the site and what was disclosed to regulators.

ECHO aggregates 12 formal enforcement actions on the Clean Air Act program at facility ID 110043970398, along with 3 total inspections on the multi-program file [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. The five-year cumulative penalty total stands at $61,044,398. ECHO's derivation formula — total_5yr multiplied by 24/60 — produces the $24,417,759 trailing 24-month figure [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. One violation quarter is flagged in the trailing 24 months across CAA and RCRA Hazardous Waste program tracks [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. The RCRA compliance history grid shows a continuous string of unresolved-status quarters over the three-year display window. In ECHO's convention, that designation denotes data-unknown rather than confirmed noncompliance — a distinction worth preserving when reading the grid [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. No Safe Drinking Water Act or Clean Water Act enforcement penalties are separately itemized in the available ECHO bundle for the trailing 24-month window. The ECHO exporter records zero active permits against the facility as of the May 4, 2026 as-of date [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Veris Gold Jerritt Canyon Mine — Elko County, NV; ECHO ID 110043970398 — is the sole facility on the file. Located 48 miles north of Elko on State Highway 225, it is flagged as a Major Facility across Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, RCRA Hazardous Waste, and Safe Drinking Water Act program codes. It carries Active regulatory status despite the suspended mining operations [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. The PollutionScan composite grade is D, scored at 45 out of 100, placing the facility better than approximately 15% of the universe in the same comparison set [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. The on-site roaster — one of three permitted gold roasting circuits in Nevada — is the core Clean Air Act emission source and the locus of all 12 formal CAA actions on the record [source: https://businessdailymedia.com/business-news/newsfile/8634-ely-gold-royalties-congratulates-first-majestic-sliver-on-jerritt-canyon-mine-acquisition]. The NI 43-101 technical report filed July 11, 2013 documents the underground mine configuration and the tailings management infrastructure that underpins the RCRA program file [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1286799/000106299313003425/exhibit99-1.htm]. No additional facilities appear on the ECHO roster under this company identifier. The per-facility view therefore collapses entirely to the single Jerritt Canyon site, with no subsidiary or affiliated locations to distribute the enforcement exposure [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

ECHO's top_pollutants array returns empty for this facility in the trailing 24-month window. That is a function of the suspended operating status and the absence of current-period Toxics Release Inventory filings under the idle regime [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The historical record is more informative. The 2014 EPCRA settlement addressed the underreporting of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals released from the mine site, with the underlying release categories tied to refractory gold ore processing. Mercury, sulfur dioxide, and particulate metals are the pollutants typically associated with roaster-based refractory gold circuits in Nevada [source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/veris-gold-pays-182000-penalty-for-chemical-releases-at-jerritt-canyon-gold-mine-in-nevada]. Mercury is the signal pollutant for Nevada gold roasters. EPA's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants Subpart EEEEEEE applies to gold mine ore processing and production facilities, and the Jerritt Canyon roaster falls within scope of that standard [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv].

Exposure pathways at this isolated northern Nevada site run through atmospheric dispersion of mercury and sulfur compounds from the roaster stack, and through tailings seepage and surface water pathways governed under the RCRA and Clean Water Act programs on the facility file [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv]. Veris Gold's own disclosure on the commissioning of a new tailings facility indicates the tailings pathway was an acknowledged engineered containment risk addressed through capital spending during the prior operating cycle [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv].

EJ implications register as limited by the ECHO EJ index average of 0.0, driven by the 48-mile offset from Elko and the absence of dense residential receptors within the standard EJScreen buffer. Downwind tribal lands and ranching operations in the Independence Range area sit outside the standard buffer but remain relevant to any restart air-dispersion modeling that First Majestic commissions ahead of the 2027 resumption [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv].

The NAICS 212220 (Gold Ore Mining) peer benchmark returned no populated rows in the research bundle, so a quantified peer-violation and peer-penalty comparison cannot be constructed from the available data. Qualitative context is available. Jerritt Canyon is one of three permitted gold roasting circuits in Nevada, with the other two operated by Nevada Gold Mines, the Barrick-Newmont joint venture [source: https://businessdailymedia.com/business-news/newsfile/8634-ely-gold-royalties-congratulates-first-majestic-sliver-on-jerritt-canyon-mine-acquisition]. Within that three-facility peer set, Jerritt Canyon's five-year cumulative penalty total of $61,044,398 and 12 formal Clean Air Act actions on the ECHO file place it in the upper tier of CAA enforcement exposure among Nevada gold roasters. Direct numeric comparison against the Barrick-Newmont facility files is not possible from the supplied bundle [source: https://pollutionscan.com/facility/110043970398/veris-gold-jerritt-canyon-mine-elko-nv].

No Item 1A risk-factor text is available in the research bundle. The Veris Gold Corp. CIK 1286799 SEC file surface contained in the bundle is limited to the 2013 NI 43-101 technical report filed as Exhibit 99.1 — a property-level technical disclosure, not an annual report risk-factor section [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1286799/000106299313003425/exhibit99-1.htm]. The current operator, First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE: AG; TSX: AG), is a Canadian issuer, and the bundle does not include the First Majestic 10-K or 40-F risk-factor text. Forward environmental risk disclosed in operator communications is limited to the 2027 restart-timing statement and the reference to "enhanced operations, including owner-operated mining and an optimized mine plan" — without a quantified emission target, tailings commitment, or water-program benchmark attached to any of those phrases [source: https://elkodaily.com/news/local/business/mining/article_0baef9c2-64ea-496a-ba07-a1b8c0dbe4c2.html]. The roaster circuit's Clean Air Act history, the RCRA program's unresolved-status quarters, and the absence of active permits as of May 4, 2026 collectively define the compliance baseline that any restart permitting process will need to address before the 2027 timeline becomes operational.