John Livermore is a former Newmont Mining Exploration geologist credited with locating or collaborating in the location of at least four major gold deposits, including the Carlin deposit, the origin of the modern-day Carlin trend gold province in Nevada. Livermore is also known as the man who discovered "invisible gold" in Nevada deposits.

In 1961, after reading an article by Ralph Roberts (USGS Professional Paper 400-B, titled "Alinement of Mining Districts in North-Central Nevada") and hearing Roberts present his findings at an Eastern Nevada Geological Society meeting, Livermore, in collaboration with Roberts, J. Alan Coope, and others, designed a prospecting program. The exploration program encompassed former mining districts located within the Carlin "window" through the Roberts Mountains thrust fault and resulted in Newmont's 1962 discovery of the Carlin deposit, a four million ounce gold ore body. This discovery led to the further delineation of similar gold deposits that now form the Carlin trend. Today, the Carlin trend and its parallel Battle Mountain-Eureka trend have yielded gold reserves in excess of ninety million ounces, or nearly $30 billion.

John Livermore left Newmont Mining Company to become a successful mineral exploration consultant in private practice. He leads Public Resource Associates in Reno, Nevada, and is a benefactor to many geologic and engineering endeavors including endowed chairs and scholarship funds at the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering.