Sitting toward the southeast end of the Battle Mountain-Eureka-Cortez gold trend that stretches through northcentral Nevada, ...

Some 1,350 feet deep and two miles across at its widest point, the Cortez open-pit gold mine outside Elko, Nev., looks like an asteroid crater—the largest hole in the ground you’ve ever seen.

Some 1,350 feet deep and two miles across at its widest point, the Cortez open-pit gold mine outside Elko, Nev., looks like an asteroid crater—the largest hole in the ground you’ve ever seen. Standing ...