Silver Peak, Nevada

Silver Peak, Nevada
Census-designated place

Chemetall Foote Lithium Operation at Silver Peak
Silver Peak

Location within the state of Nevada

Coordinates: 37°45′18″N 117°38′5″W / 37.75500°N 117.63472°W / 37.75500; -117.63472Coordinates: 37°45′18″N 117°38′5″W / 37.75500°N 117.63472°W / 37.75500; -117.63472
Country United States
State Nevada
County Esmeralda
Area
 • Total 0.99 sq mi (2.56 km2)
 • Land 0.99 sq mi (2.56 km2)
 • Water 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation 4,321 ft (1,317 m)
Population (2010)
 • Total 107
 • Density 109/sq mi (41.9/km2)
Time zone Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
 • Summer (DST) PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP code 89047
FIPS code 32-67000
GNIS feature ID 845661

Silver Peak (also Silverpeak) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Esmeralda County, Nevada, United States. It lies along State Route 265, 20 miles (32 km) south of U.S. Route 6 and 30 miles (48 km) west of Goldfield, the county seat of Esmeralda County.[1] Its elevation is 4,321 feet (1,317 m).[2] Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 89047.[3] The population of Silver Peak was 107 as of 2010.[4]

Economy

Silver Peak lies near a dry lake bed that is rich in lithium and other minerals.[5] The Chemetall Foote Lithium Operation in Clayton Valley is currently the only operating source of lithium in the United States. The mine is being expanded to double the capacity of its lithium carbonate production. The project is funded in part by a $28.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand and upgrade the production of lithium materials for advanced transportation batteries.[6]

The community gained some fame during California's 1999 electric power crisis. In the first major act of the power crisis causing an outage, on March 25, 1999, Enron energy traders allegedly rerouted 2,900MW (megawatts) of electricity destined for California to this small Nevada community. This caused a large shortage on the California power grid because the largest power feeder (intertie) from this area to California had a capacity of 15MW (about 0.5% of the required wheeling capacity).[7]

News accounts claim this single action created an estimated $7 million of revenue for Enron. The company was fined $25,000 for their action, suggesting to some that this was a viable way for the firm to make money.

History

Silver Peak is one of the oldest mining communities in Nevada. It was founded near a well in 1864,[8] two years after the founding of surrounding Esmeralda County, and one year after silver was discovered nearby and mining began.[9] A 10 stamp mill was built in 1865, and a 20 stamp mill by 1867. The Silver Peak Railroad was built by the Pittsburgh Silver Peak Gold Mining Company after it bought a group of mining properties in 1906 and established a 100 stamp mill at Blair, Nevada, in 1907. Blair's mill closed in 1915, and Blair was a ghost town by 1920.[10] Silver Peak maintained a population, however, even though it burned in 1948. It began to thrive again when Foote Mineral Company began extracting lithium from below the floor of Clayton Valley in 1966.

References

  1. ↑ Rand McNally. The Road Atlas '08. Chicago: Rand McNally, 2008, p. 64.
  2. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Silver Peak, Nevada, Geographic Names Information System, 1980-12-12. Accessed 2008-02-27.
  3. ↑ Zip Code Lookup
  4. ↑ "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Silver Peak CDP, Nevada". U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  5. ↑ Robinson, Paul T. (1972). "Petrology of the Potassic Silver Peak Volcanic Center, Western Nevada" (PDF). Geological Society of America Bulletin. 83 (6): 1693. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1972)83[1693:POTPSP]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0016-7606.
  6. ↑ Expansion of Chemetall Foote lithium operation in Nevada, company news release, 07/12/2010.
  7. ↑ Ernst ten Heuvelhof (2009). "Strategic Behaviour in Network Industries: A Multidisciplinary Approach". Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-1-84720-610-7.
  8. ↑ Esmeralda County's page on Silver Peak
  9. ↑ Silver Peak page at Ghosttowns.com
  10. ↑ Blair page at Ghosttowns.com
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