It was happenstance that first brought Amanda Hilton into the mining industry. Two decades later, she now heads the association that serves as the voice of the industry.
Hilton was named president of the Nevada Mining Association last October and began the job in January. As president, she will lead the association that represents mining in legislative matters, community engagement, public education, and workforce development.
It’s a big step for a person who said she started out in the industry as the proverbial “accidental miner.”
Hilton grew up in Reno and Ely and graduated from White Pine High School. After graduating from the University of Utah with a degree in accounting, she was working as a CPA in Boise when her desire to return home coincided with opportunity.
“I lived in Boise and I spent all my vacation days coming to Ely and I kept thinking, ‘The world’s such a big place, I need to just move to Ely so I can go on vacation to other places,’” Hilton said.
A position opened up at a copper mine outside of Ely in 2004, and Hilton became a staff accountant at Robinson Nevada Mining Company.
“Over the course of the next few years, I just became so passionate about this industry, and I was able to promote within the company quite a bit,” she said.
Her rise eventually culminated in her becoming the first female general manager of that site in 2018, and it began when the chief operating officer asked her what she wanted to do with her career.
“It took every little piece of courage I had, and I told him that I wanted to become the general manager,” Hilton said.
General managers of mine sites have historically been male engineers, so Hilton was an unconventional candidate as a young female accountant. But in that COO, Hilton found an ally who helped prepare her for the challenges that eventually led to the job she has now.
“He created a development plan for me so I could get the experience I needed at the mine site to become a viable general manager candidate,” Hilton said.
Along the way, Hilton developed a love for the mining industry, and she said she is glad to be in a position to represent and advocate for the entire mining community.
“I’m really proud to represent the people who are working in the field and who are supporting the mines,” she said.
One of Hilton’s priorities in her new role as NVMA president is helping mining companies with workforce development.
“All of our operators and members are taking a bit of a different approach when it comes to how they’re developing the workforce of the future and as an association, it’s a great opportunity to be able to share all of the best practices and to be able to help communicate to our members what’s working well for some members and see how they can join forces in the future,” she said.
The mining industry in Nevada currently employes about 35,000 people, but Hilton said that number is only going to grow with some of the projects coming online in the future, and those jobs encompass a wide variety of skills.
“The industry needs electricians, the industry needs mechanics, HR professionals, operators, engineers, metallurgists,” Hilton said. “So as an industry, we have to take a multi-faceted approach to how we’re going to develop the workforce of the future and that includes everything from trade schools to the Mackay School at the University of Nevada.”
At the Robinson Mine, Hilton said they brought every 8th grader in White Pine County to spend a day at the mine site to be able to learn about the mining industry, the importance of copper, and about jobs available in the industry. Likewise, she said Nevada Gold Mines does a lot of work to attract students in Las Vegas, while Kinross Gold is doing a lot of work with the Jobs for America’s Graduates program.
“There are a lot of workforce programs going on in Washoe County and Clark County,” Hilton said. “Our members can determine which of those programs are a good fit for them.”
Meanwhile, Hilton said those workers who are already in the industry are making a difference in the lives of every Nevadan. She said in 2022 mining produced $12.7 billion in economic impact for the state, paid $3 billion in wages and salaries across the state and paid $389 million in taxes.
“Within several rural counties, mining is the economic heartbeat of those communities, but I also want to point out how significant mining is to the state of Nevada, because we want to be very clear how we’re impacting the state,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where they live in the state, those taxes made a difference.”
After the new mining education tax was created in 2021, Hilton said mining paid $67 million directly into that education fund.
“The impact on our state cannot be understated,” she said.
A large part of Hilton’s job will be representing mining interests in the legislature, as well as with the state’s congressional delegation and local governments. Within her first three months on the job, Hilton said she had already met with more than 35 legislators or legislative candidates in starting to develop and foster strong relationships.
“The purpose of those meetings is to develop relationships with the legislators or candidates and create a pathway of communication about our industry,” she said. “It is very important, and we have a strong, open dialogue with all of our federal delegation and also with our state elected officials and with the governor.”
Hilton said it is also important for the association to have strong relationships across industries, and one of her priorities has been meeting leaders of chambers of commerce across the state.
“Because at the end of the day, mining is a business, so we are very cognizant of any potential legislation that will impact business,” she said.
Hilton said the association is a strong supporter of the Tech Hub consortium, recently designated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. She said the association submitted a 10-page letter of support detailing the ways the association can support the Tech Hub designation.
“The Tech Hub leaders have already presented to our board of directors and next month I’ll be presenting to our 200+ vendor members because one of the pillars of the Tech Hub is developing the supply chain for mining in Nevada and we want to get our vendor members involved with that so they can see what’s coming and what sort of support could be available for them,” she said.
While it was gold and silver that first drew prospectors to Nevada, and more recently copper that has been the main product, Hilton said she is excited about some new projects coming online, including lithium mines at the Rhyolite Ridge and Thacker Pass projects.
She is also excited about the infrastructure to support the mine sites and the families who will be moving to those communities, such as housing and childcare. The Boys & Girls Club is expanding into rural communities and providing educational care for children, and in some cases, opening up early learning centers for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old.
“As an association, we are able to promote those ideas and support those ideas because those are transformational for the communities because those are the sort of building blocks that are required for these mining projects to be successful,” Hilton said. “And many of our companies have really stepped up to the plate to take advantage of the opportunity to improve things. Because we need to have the quality of life there for the employees and for their families for these projects to be successful.”
While Hilton is intimately familiar with the Robinson Mine where she was general manager, she said she is working diligently to get familiar with the other mine sites in the state and those that are coming.
“I feel very passionate that we need to be out in the field meeting with our members, seeing the mine sites firsthand and making sure we understand them so that we can speak about them accurately and that we can also identify opportunities for synergy between our different members,” she said. “From those visits, we get really excellent nuggets of information about how we can best serve our members and how we can best tell the story of our members.”
NVMA has a staff of five full-time employees, one part-time to do the work of getting the word out about the industry and representing it in legislative circles.
“Nevada miners are so very proud of the work they do and the sites where they work,” she said. “Being able to share that with people is incredible.”
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