Pinson Gold Mine

Site Name

Primary: Pinson Gold Mine
Secondary: Ogee and Pinson Mine
Secondary: A Zone
Secondary: B Zone
Secondary: C Zone
Secondary: CX
Secondary: CX West
Secondary: Felix Canyon
Secondary: Mag
Secondary: Blue Bell

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver
Tertiary: Tungsten

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Humboldt
District: Getchell District

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Land Status

Land ownership: BLM Administrative Area
Note: the land ownership field only identifies whether the area the mine is in is generally on public lands like Forest Service or BLM land, or if it is in an area that is generally private property. It does not definitively identify property status, nor does it indicate claim status or whether an area is open to prospecting. Always respect private property.
Administrative Organization: Winnemucca BLM Administrative District

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Pinson Mining Co.
Info Year: 2004

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: replacement/fault zone
Operation Type: Surface
Year First Production: 1949
Discovery Year: 1945
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Sediment-hosted Au

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Orebody

Form: Irregular to tabular, in fault zone

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Structure

Not available

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Alterations

Not available

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Rocks

Name: Granodiorite
Role: Associated
Description: granodiorite
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Phyllite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Cambrian
Age Old: Middle Cambrian

Name: Argillite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Middle Ordovician
Age Old: Late Cambrian

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold
Gangue: Fluorite
Gangue: Barite
Gangue: Kaolinite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Chiastolite
Gangue: Andalusite
Gangue: Cordierite

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Comments

Comment (Development): The original claims were staked by Clovis Pinson in 1945, and were held in the family through 1979. It was mined in 1949 by open pit methods. The new Pinson Deposit was discovered on leased claims in 1971 by John Livermore and Pete Galli of Cordex. The Pinson Mine was put in production in 1980 as an open pit mine and conventional gold mill processing approximately 300,000 tons ore per year. 1979 known reserves of medium grade ore were sufficent for five years' operations, with additional reserves of low-grade to extend mine life to 10 yr or more. In 1980 a heap leach operation was commenced to recover gold from 3,000, 000 tons of lower-grade ore. The mine was active in 1980, employing about 80 persons. The new Pinson Deposit was discovered in 1971 by John Livermore and Pete Galli. Known reserves in 1979 were 1.5 million tons plus more low grade ore. It was owned and operated in 1981 by Cordilleran Exploration (Cordex). It was listed as an active open pit mine and mill with cyanidation operation in 1983, employing a total of 130 persons. The property position was later consolidated with the Preble Mine to the south. The Preble-Pinson property is made up of 17 complete and 8 partial sections (approximately 20 square miles or 5,300 hectares) of the railroad checkerboard, covering much of the projected intersection zone where the Battle Mountain Gold Belt crosses the Getchell Gold Belt in portions of the Edna Mountain and Osgood Mountains areas. Portions of the property occur about 1 mile south of the Pinson Mine and about 1.3 miles NNE of the Preble mine. These two mines occur along the NNE trend of the Getchell Gold Belt. The southeast corner of the property is approximately 6 miles NW of the Lone Tree Mine, which occurs within the Battle Mountain Gold Belt. Preliminary work indicates that the main intersection zone is buried under basalt. Therefore some initial work closer to existing or abandoned mines will be undertaken such that the structural geometries within the Battle Mountain Gold Belt will provide convergence zones extrapolated below the basalts for future drilling. Early in 1997, Homestake Mining Co. and Barrick Gold Corp. purchased the interests in the Pinson property not already owned by them, to increase their ownership of the property to 50% each, with Homestake as the manager. Deep exploration potential was the reason for the purchase. By the end of the year, Barrick Gold Corp. announced that production was expected to wind down at Pinson by mid-year 1999 unless current exploration on the property succeeds in identifying new reserves. Reported 1997 production from the Pinson Mine was 51,600 oz of gold (DMR, 2/26/97; Homestake Mining Co. press release, 2/19/98; Humboldt Sun, 9/15/97; In 1999, At Homestake Mining Co.?s Pinson Mine, which was closed in January 1999, work is ongoing to recontour, cover, and revegetate the waste rock piles and tailings facility, and to neutralize the leach pads. Residual heap leach production continued throughout most of 1999. An exploration program with joint venture partner Barrick Gold Corp. will continue. The partners expect to spend approximately $3 million exploring for deep orebodies on the lands controlled by the Pinson joint venture (Yahoo Mining/Metals News, 1/29/99, 7/27/1999). Also in the Potosi district, Western Exploration recorded the BU Claims in T38N, R42E, (BLM mining claim records, 4/19/1999). In 2000, Homestake Mining was planning to test potential deep high-grade targets at the Pinson property while concurrent reclamation was ongoing. In 2003, Victoria Resource Corp. acquired the Preble-Pinson property as a lease of all of Newmont?s mineral interests in parts or all of approximately 24 square miles of the checkerboard property in the Edna and Osgood mountains.

Comment (Development): In 2005, Atna Resources began exploring the underground potential of a high-grade ore zone with a drift in the bottom of the Pinson open pit. In 2006, Atna Resources Ltd.(70%) announced that recent underground drill results at the Pinson/Ogee Zone Project include 10.5-15.8 feet @ 0.616 opt Au (UGOG-006); 47.5- 51.5 feet @ 0.260 opt Au (UGOG-008); 55.5-62 feet @ 0.115 opt Au (UGOG-013); 86.8-107.5 feet @ 0.454 opt Au (UGOG-013); 213-227 feet @ 0.549 opt Au (UGOG-013); 247.5-263.5 feet @ 0.289 opt Au (UGOG-014) and 74- 135.5 feet @ 0.505 opt Au (UGOG-015).

Comment (Economic Factors): Pinson reserves in 1980 were reported to be 3.245 million tons of ore grading 0.119 ounces of gold per ton. 1989 remaining reserves, including the Mag pit, were 480,000 ounces of gold. 1996 reserves for the combined mines of the Potosi district were reported as 2.6 million tons of ore grading 0.072 ounces of gold per ton. New Pinson Mine production was as follows: 1980: 56,000 ounces of gold. 1986?88: 189,864 ounces of gold. 1989: 72,489 ounces of gold.(includes Preble) 1990?91: 112,022 ounces of gold. 1992?94: 145,210 ounces of gold and 12,700 ounces of silver 1995: 44,854 ounces of gold. 1996?98: 128,935 ounces of gold and 7,990 ounces of silver 1999: 11,975 ounces of gold and 442 ounces of silver 2000: 1,116 ounces of gold and 31 ounces of silver 2001: 679 ounces of gold In 2006, the underground resource reported by Atna was 1,760,000 tons grading 0.302 ounces of gold per ton measured+indicated)

Comment (Location): The Pinson Mine is located on the south side of Granite Creek, on the eastern flank of Adam Peak in the Osgood Mountains.

Comment (Identification): This record is an update of earlier record #M232744 for the same deposit from which all material has been extracted and incorporated into the current record.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, chiastolite/andalusite, cordierite, fluorite, barite kaolinite.

Comment (Deposit): A 1984 report describes the deposit: the Pinson "A" zone is 1000 feet long by 60 feet thick containing 1,500,000 tons of ore averaging 0.18 ounces per ton gold, covered by 10-50 feet of alluvium. Further drilling indicated 1,700,000 tons averaging 0.15 ounces per ton gold, plus an additional tonnage of low-grade ore in the B zone in the vicinity of the old pit. A major NE-striking fault zone 50-70 feet wide, dipping 40-50 SE controls gold mineralization. It has been traced by drilling for 8,000 feet. The "A" orebody is localized by this shear zone where it coincides with the contact between the Preble and Comus Formations. It consists of fine disseminations in jasperoid. There are irregular zones of low-grade gold ore along bedding planes and minor fractures in argillite in the footwall of the ore-controlling fault. A conspicuous contact metamorphic aureole surrounds the granodiorite stock, extending irregularly up to 10,000 feet out from the margins of the intrusive. A number of tungsten-bearing tactite deposits rim the granodiorite, forming wherever a calcareous bed was present within the contact zone. The Pinson Mine also lies within this contact aureole, with granodiorite outcropping 1200 feet north of the mine. At Pinson gold occurs in fractures that cut calc-silicate rocks of the Comus Formation.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Hotz, P.E., and Willden, R., 1964, Geology and Mineral Deposits of the Osgood Mountains Quadrangle Humboldt County, Nev; U.S.G.S. Prof. Paper 431.

Reference (Deposit): Willden, R., 1964, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Humboldt County, Nev; Nev. Bur. Mines Bull. 59.

Reference (Deposit): Nev. Mining Assoc. Bull., Sept. 1979; "Consortium Budgets $14 Million to open Pinson Gold Mine."

Reference (Deposit): Powers, S.L., 1978, MS Thesis, UNR, Reno, NV.

Reference (Deposit): Geologic Society of Nevada, 1984 Meeting and Field Trip Road Log Pinson Mine, Florida Canyon Deposit, Rochester District, Relief Canyon Deposit, Sept. 21023, 1984. (contains numerous other unpublished references)

Reference (Deposit): Bonham, H.F., 1988, in NBMG MI-1987.

Reference (Deposit): Bonham, H.F., 1986, NBMG Map 91.

Reference (Deposit): Nevada State Inspector of Mines, 1981, Directory of Nevada Mine Operations active during 1980.

Reference (Deposit): The Northern Miner Newspaper, 1980 (Nov.20), Rayrock prepares Pinson for January set-up.

Reference (Deposit): Nevada Division of Minerals, 1994

Reference (Deposit): NBMG, 1994, MI-1993

Reference (Deposit): Foster, Joseph M

Reference (Deposit): Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Database of significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States; Part A, Database description and analysis; part B, Digital database: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-206, 33 p., one 3.5 inch diskette.

Reference (Deposit): Atna 2006 press release.

Reference (Deposit): http://www.arizonastar.com/337/Hilltop-Slaven_Property.htm
URL: http://www.arizonastar.com/337/Hilltop-Slaven_Property.htm

Reference (Deposit): www.franconevada.com, 9/11/2000.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-2003

Reference (Deposit): Victoria Resource Corp. press release, 1/21/2003

Reference (Deposit): Kretschmer, Edward L., 1990,Geology of the Mag Deposit, Pinson Mine, Humboldt County, Nevada; Geology and ore deposits of the Great Basin; program with abstracts.

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Nevada Gold

Nevada has a total of 368 distinct gold districts. Of the of those, just 36 are major producers with production and/or reserves of over 1,000,000 ounces, 49 have production and/or reserves of over 100,000 ounces, with the rest having less than 100,000 ounces. Read more: Gold Districts of Nevada.