Striking Gold: The Saga of Ordrich Gold Reserves

Round Mountain was little more than a speck of a town about sixty miles outside of Tonopah, Nevada, when Cal Owens first visited the property in the late 1960s. People had been trying to get gold out of Round Mountain since the early 1900s. Back in the early prospector days you simply pulled out your pick and shovel to dig up a little dirt and then found a bit of water for your pan as you teased those precious gold flakes and nuggets out. The early miners were able to get to the ore at and near the surface. People and companies continued to come and go through the 1950s; they extracted gold, but encountered more problems than their efforts were worth. So what made Cal Owens, an airline flight engineer, and Elwood Dietrich, a mining promoter, think they could successfully mine this property when so many before had given up? The interest was there, the determination was there, a few investors were there, the work ethic was there, and even the gold was there. All that remained was getting the gold out of the ground.

Ordrich Gold Reserves Corporation (Ordrich) was born as the group of investors grew larger. Buying the property was one thing, but what to do next? With Elwood Dietrich recovering from a stroke in Arizona, Cal Owens had no other choice than to figure it out as he talked to as many people as possible and learned as much as he could each step of the way. He had the ability to ask questions and listen to experts, a trait that goes a long way in this world. Holding down a full time job and raising four children with his wife Viki did not consume all twenty-four hours in a day, so he thought he still had time to find a way to get the gold out of Round Mountain. How hard could it be? You simply had to get that pretty yellow "stuff" out of the ground and then mill the gold and refine it into gold bars. Cal quickly learned just how difficult it could be. Mining precious ore took knowledge, expertise, deep pockets, and a willingness to dig into those pockets. The Ordrich partners could have lost their investment time and time again if it were not for the tenacity and stubbornness of Cal Owens.