The Bureau of Land Management will conduct a competitive geothermal lease sale on Oct. 20 offering 83 parcels that total 265,691 acres in Lyon, Churchill, Mineral, Humboldt, Esmeralda, Lander, Nye, Eureka, Lincoln and White Pine counties.

The online auction will be held via Efficient Markets. Successful lessees receive an initial 10-year term that can be extended with production or diligent exploration. Fifty percent of bids, rentals and royalties go to the state, 25 percent to the county of the parcel, and 25 percent to the U.S. Treasury.

BLM completed NEPA environmental assessments with public comment opportunities before including the parcels. Stipulations protect other resources; any later exploration or development will require additional site-specific review.

Valley residents and grazers with allotments near nominated ground in Nye or Mineral counties may want to review the sale notice and maps on the BLM Nevada geothermal page. No immediate surface disturbance is authorized by a lease alone. Information from the official BLM announcement dated Aug. 21 and subsequent sale materials; exact parcel locations within Gabbs Valley were not individually confirmed in this roundup.