Lynn District

Lynn District

Overview

Other Names: Goldville, Leeville, Carlin Trend

County: Eureka

Discovered: 1907

Commodities: gold, mercury, antimony, copper, turquoise, barite

Comments

The Lynn district is located in the Tuscarora Mountains about 19 miles northwest of the town of Carlin. The mines of the district are mainly in T35N, R50 and 51E. The district is within the area sometimes referred to as the Carlin Trend, an informal grouping of disseminated gold deposits that extends from the southern Railroad district in the Piñon Range, on the southeast, to Bootstrap district, on the northwest.

References

Hill, 1912, p. 211; Lincoln, 1923, p. 94; Stoddard, 1932, p. 43; Vanderburg, 1938b, p. 49; Lawrence, 1963, p. 70; Morrissey, 1966, p. 10; Roberts and others, 1967, p. 90; Papke, 1984, table 3; Ryneer, 1987, p. 265; Ekburg and others, 1991, p. 625; Hall, 1994, p. 21

Lynn Placer District Description

Location

Along Lynn, Sheep, and Rodeo Creeks in the southern Tusca- rora Mountains, T. 35 N., Rs. 50 and 51 E.

Topographic Maps

Rodeo Creek NE 7 1/2-minute quadrangle (preliminary).

Geologic Maps

Roberts, Montgomery, and Lehner, 1967, Geologic map of Eureka County, Nevada (pi. 3), scale 1:250,000; Map of part of the Lynn mining district, Eureka County, Nevada (pi. 7), scale 1 in.=200 feet.

Access

From Carlin, 20 miles northwest on light-duty road through the Maggie Creek Canyon, to Lynn Creek on the east slope of the Tuscarora Mountains.

Extent

Placers are found near the headwaters of Lynn, Sheep, and Rodeo Creeks on the summit of a low divide in the southern Tuscorora Mountains adjacent to the north end of Carlin gold mine. Most of the placers are concentrated on and near the crest of the divide (E/l 2 sec. 11 and W/2 sec. 12, T. 35 N., R. 50 E.) in streambed and hillside gravels. Lynn Creek was placered from near the headwaters downstream to the head of the dissected alluvial fan at the eastern edge of the mountain front(sec. 12,T.35N.,R.50E.;sec. 18,T.35N.,R.51E.)

The gravels along this part of the creek have an average width of about 25 feet and a thickness of 10-28 feet; most of the placer gold was concentrated in the 4 feet of gravel immediately overlying bedrock. The hillsides on the south side of Lynn Creek, especially near the headwaters, were also placered; here, the gravels in one placer were 3-5 feet thick, and the gold was concentrated in the 1-1 1/2 feet of gravel overlying bedrock.

Sheep Creek heads on the low divide a few hundred feet southwest of Lynn Greek and flows south and then west, into the Carlin mine tailings pond. The placers were concentrated in that part of the creekbed that trends south for a distance of about 2,500 feet (SE 1/4 sec. 11, T. 35 N., R. 50 E.). The gravels in this area occupy a channel 25-40 feet wide and about 8 feet deep; the gold is concentrated in the lowermost 1.5-4 feet above bedrock.

Rodeo Creek drains northwest on the opposite side of the divide; the placers here were apparently concentrated in a small area near the upper reaches of the stream (NW1/4 sec. 11, T. 35 N., R. 50 E.).

Production History

The placers in the Lynn district were discovered in 1907 by Joe Lynn; placer mining has been almost continual since that time and has yielded a few tens to hundreds of ounces of gold per year. The gold recovered from the Lynn district placers is exceedingly fine (average 920-960). Most of the placer mining was done by hand methods and small concentrating machines.

Most of the placer areas along the upper reaches of the streams and adjacent hillsides that yielded as much as $1.50 to $8.00 per cubic yard have been thoroughly worked over, but the Southern Pacific Company (1964) reports an area of potential placer ground in the lower part of Lynn Creek (N1/2 sec. 17, T. 35 N., R. 50 E.) along a dissected alluvial fan. The company estimates reserves exceeding 1 million cubic yards, some of which carries 22 cents per cubic yard in placer gold.

Source

The placer gold in the Lynn district is derived from small auriferous quartz veins and stringers in chert of the Ordovician Vinini Formation that, in the Lynn area, contains shales and quartzites. Most of the placer-mining activity occurred in the upper reaches of stream channels that drain the mineralized chert. Only along Lynn Creek is gold found for an appreciable distance away from the bedrock source at the head of the creek.

The occurrence of gold in lodes and placers in the Lynn district contrasts with the finely disseminated gold in the carbonate rocks of the Silurian Roberts Mountains Formation about a mile south of the Lynn district at the Carlin gold mine. The Roberts Mountains thrust lies between the Carlin deposit and the placers of Sheep and Simon Creeks.

The closeness of the Lynn and Carlin deposits suggests that the two ore bodies may be related despite their occurrence in such different host rocks. Current investigations by the U.S. Geological Survey on these ores may shed light on possible genetic relations of the two deposits.

Literature

Emmons, 1910: Production from Hilltop placer claim; notes presence of placer gold in several gulches.

Koschmann and Bergendahl, 1968: Production.

Lincoln, 1923: Location, brief history, and extent of placers.

Roberts and others, 1967: Location and extent of placers; sketch map locates placers; width and depth of placer channel in Lynn Creek; width and depth of placer channel in Sheep Creek; source of placer gold.

Smith and Vanderburg, 1932: History; production estimates; accessory minerals; extent of placers; detailed description of placer-mining operations in Sheep and Lynn Creeks in 1932; depth and width of placer channel at Bulldog placer on Lynn Creek; thickness of pay-streak; average gold content of gravel.

uthern Pacific Company, 1964: Locates potential placer ground in lower Lynn Creek; average per cubicyard; estimate of gravel reserves.

Vanderburg, 1936a: Detailed descriptions of placer-mining operations in 1935; location of placer operations; extent of placer ground that has been worked; size of nuggets recovered from Lynn Creek; placer extent on hillsides. 1938a: Placer discovery; names placer creeks; distribution of gold in gravels; size and fineness of placer gold.