VIRGINIA CITY, NV (AP).- More than 150 years after the discovery of one of the world’s richest silver veins touched off a mining frenzy that drew thousands of people west and made Virginia City a wealthy boomtown, a mining company wants to resume digging for riches in the dusty hills southeast of Reno. But unlike the scrappy miners who used picks and shovels to chisel away at the massive, underground pocket of silver and gold known as the Comstock Lode, the company’s plans are for open pit mining. They aren’t being met with open arms. Residents in the historic Comstock region embrace the catacombs of century-old mines with pride and purpose. But these days, it’s not wealth from gold and silver but the mining of tourists lured by the rich history of the Old West that keep the town humming. Tours are conducted in an old underground mine beneath a saloon, and