RENO, Nev. (AP) — Residents of Nevada's historic Comstock district are fighting plans by a mining company to use a state highway to haul truckloads of ore from a mine to a processing site near Virginia City.

Opponents say big, heavy trucks on winding State Highway 342 will be a safety hazard and impede tourism.

"This is the road that people use to go to work. This is the road that tourists use to get to Virginia City," said David Toll, an organizer of the Comstock Residents Association. "This is insane."

Comstock Mining Inc. plans to use a mile-long stretch of the highway near Gold Hill for truck traffic between the two sites, The Reno Gazette-Journal (http://on.rgj.com/OakHSv) reported Tuesday.

That plan came after a dispute between the company and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over land previously used by the company to connect the locations.

Use of the highway would be temporary until the dispute is resolved, the company said.

Storey County commissioners will consider the company's highway plan during a meeting Thursday.

The dispute arose as Comstock Mining geared up to start major operations in about a month in the area made famous by mining more than 150 years ago.

"We're looking at late August for pouring gold and silver," said Doug McQuide, spokesman for Comstock Mining, which says it has identified up to $3 billion worth of mineral resources in the area.

In May, the BLM issued a cease-and-desist notice, ordering the company to halt activity on a portion of the haul road linking its pit mine and processing plant. Concern centered on a 25-acre parcel the BLM contends is public land but the company says it owns and has been in private hands since the late 1800s.

With the property dispute still unresolved, Comstock Mining recently submitted a right of way request that would allow it to continue using the land for a haul road. BLM officials are working to determine what level of environmental analysis that proposal would require, with a decision expected soon, said Leon Thomas, Sierra Front field manager for the BLM.

A simple environmental assessment could be done in about six months, but a more detailed study could take much longer, Thomas said.

As an interim measure, the BLM has granted Comstock Mining right of way to access its processing plant via American Flat Road "so they can keep their operations going," Thomas said. That, however, would require trucks to also use the mile-long stretch of highway to access the new route.

The mining company proposes to haul ore using conventional big-rig semi-trucks. Plans call for seven trucks to be used five days a week over an eight-hour period from the afternoon into the evening, McQuide said. Precise hours have yet to be determined. Each truck would make two trips an hour between the mine and processing plant McQuide said.

Use of the highway would be temporary, McQuide insists. He said he expects truck traffic to resume over the previous haul road either through completion of the BLM's environmental review or through resolution of a separate administrative appeal his company is pursuing.

"From our perspective, it's at most six months" the highway would be used, he said.

Storey County officials said they have little choice but to allow Comstock Mining the ability to legally use a public highway, though the Comstock Residents Association and other critics challenge that assertion.

Comstock Mining has little choice but to use the highway if mining is to proceed as planned, McQuide said.

"This is the only way to proceed in the short term without delays to the operation," he said.