Boots, Pick, and Keyboard

I was in charge of slope stability for Newmont's Carlin operations in northern Nevada. Mine operations had been using the area at the base of the east Blue Star pit slope as a parking area for their haul trucks. I was informed of apparent movement of some of the monitoring prisms on that slope. After several weeks of additional monitoring, the prism movement rate accelerated to the point where it became clear the pit slope would soon fail. I notified operations to move their haul trucks immediately. A few days later, about a million tons of rock collapsed onto the area where the haul trucks had been parked.

The local newspaper published a weekly editorial section with incendiary articles on public land management. Their articles were intended to feed the fires of the "sagebrush rebellion". I wrote letters to the editor, in which I countered their disinformation. Thirteen of my letters were eventually published. Due to the outspoken nature of my letters, virtually everyone in Elko soon knew my name. I heard, "You're the guy who writes those letters to the editor!" more than a few times. During my next annual performance review, I was told that my political advocacy could/would affect my ability to be promoted. I was genuinely angered by what had been written in that review, so I decided to leave Newmont as soon as I could...