Goldfield District Gold Deposits

Site Name

Primary: Goldfield District Gold Deposits
Secondary: Jumbo
Secondary: Mohawk No. 1 and No. 2
Secondary: Combination
Secondary: Combination No. 2 and No. 3
Secondary: January
Secondary: February
Secondary: Hazel Queen
Secondary: Rustler Fraction
Secondary: Slim Jim Fraction
Secondary: Goldwedge
Secondary: Lucky Boy
Secondary: Red Top
Secondary: Grizzly Bear
Secondary: Clermont
Secondary: Vinegorone
Secondary: Miss Jessie
Secondary: Laguna
Secondary: Last Chance
Secondary: Golconda
Secondary: Wonder
Secondary: Goldstone
Secondary: Mammoth
Secondary: Red Boy
Secondary: Commonwealth
Secondary: Blue Bull
Secondary: Atlanta
Secondary: C.O.D.
Secondary: Goldfield Merger

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver
Secondary: Copper
Secondary: Lead
Tertiary: Bismuth
Tertiary: Potassium
Tertiary: Antimony
Tertiary: Tin

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Esmeralda
District: Goldfield District:

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Land Status

Land ownership: Private
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.

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: MULTIPLE

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: District
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: silicified zones at shear intersections
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1904
Year Last Production: 1996
Discovery Year: 1902
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: L

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Epithermal quartz-alunite Au

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Orebody

Form: irregular, tabular or knobs

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Structure

Type: L
Description: The N-S-trending Columbia Mountain Fault, with left lateral offsets at intersections with E-W-trending faults (800-900 feet of offset).

Type: R
Description: Tertiary deposits, domed and faulted post Miocene: steeply dipping N-S and E-W faults,

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: silicification, hydrothermal; oxidation

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Rocks

Name: Basalt
Role: Associated
Description: basalt
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Associated
Description: rhyolite
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Dacite
Role: Associated
Description: dacite
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Andesite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Sedimentary Rock
Role: Associated
Description: lacustrine
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Miocene

Name: Granite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Early Cretaceous

Name: Alkali-Granite (Alaskite)
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Early Cretaceous

Name: Limestone
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cambrian

Name: Quartzite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cambrian

Name: Shale
Role: Associated
Description: siliceous
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cambrian

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: rhyolite
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Andesite
Role: Host
Description: porphyritic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Miocene

Name: Andesite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Miocene

Name: Dacite
Role: Host
Description: dacite
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Bismuthinite
Ore: Goldfieldite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Silver
Gangue: Limonite
Gangue: Gypsum
Gangue: Barite
Gangue: Alunite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Kaolinite

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Comments

Comment (Commodity): Commodity Info: Some early ore averaged $6000 to $7000 per ton in gold values.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: pyrite, bismuthinite, goldfieldite, native gold, native silver (rare)

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, alunite, barite, gypsum, limonite, kaolinite, and sulfide minerals

Comment (Deposit): The majority of Goldfield?s historic production was derived from a small number of numerous silicified, sub-linear fissures, or ledges, within a 100+ km2 area of altered Miocene volcanic and pre-Tertiary rocks. Ledges that contain the most ore consist of microcrystalline quartz that replaced andesites and rhyolites, and internal breccias with multiple generations of clasts encrusted and replaced by gold, pyrite, and a large number of Cu-As-Sb-Au-Ag-Bi-Sn-Te-Se minerals (e.g., enargite-luzonite, famatinite, goldfieldite, bismuthinite, and calaverite), minor sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite, alunite, kaolinite, dickite, and pyrophyllite. Ledges are flanked by broad selvages of altered andesite consisting of proximal to distal quartz?alunite?kaolinite+pyrite, quartz+kaolinite+K-mica+pyrite, montmorillonite+pyrite, and, calcite+chlorite?, respectively. More than 95% of district production came from a small area, the ?main district?, near the town of Goldfield. Prominent lithologies in the district are Miocene rhyolites, latites and andesites, which overlie Mesozoic and Paleozoic granitic and sedimentary rocks. Most production came from silicified, sub-linear fissures, or ledges, in Milltown Andesite and porphyritic andesite (dacite of Ransome, 1909; porphyritic rhyodacite of Ashley, 1974). Ledges consist mainly of microcrystalline quartz that has replaced andesites. Internal breccias constituted most ore and consist of multiple generations of clasts encrusted and replaced by gold, pyrite, and a large number of Cu-As-Sb-Ag-Bi-Sn-Te-Se minerals (e.g., enargite-luzonite, famatinite, goldfieldite, bisthmuthinite, calverite), minor sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite, alunite, kaolinite, and pyrophyllite. Ledges commonly consist of en echelon segments that form a broadly elliptical pattern in the district. Contiguous ledge segments are generally meters to tens of meters in length by meters in width. Ledges are flanked by broad selvages of altered andesite consisting of proximal to distal quartz?alunite?kaolinite+pyrite, quartz+kaolinite+K-mica+pyrite, montmorillonite+pyrite, and, calcite+chlorite? pyrite, respectively. The abundance of ledges coupled with coalescing alteration selvages resulted in a very large volume (tens of km3) of altered rocks in the district. Extremely rich Ore shoots show concentric banding.

Comment (Development): Gold was discovered at Goldfield in 1902, its year of incorporation. The first claims at Goldfield were staked by Billy Marsh and Harry Stimler late in 1902 on Columbia Mountain, 30 miles due south of Tonopah. By early in 1903 a tent camp had formed on the claim, and in October 1903 the Goldfield Townsite Company platted the new town about halfway between the mines at Columbia Mountain and Malpais Mesa to the west. Goldfield experienced very rapid growth; by 1906 more than 150 buildings were going up monthly, and the town had a population of over 15,000. Despite a miners stike and a nation-wide financial panic in 1907, Goldfield continued to produce gold ore, and by 1908 Goldfield was Nevada?s largest city with a population of more than 20,000 people. By 1904 the Goldfield district produced about 800 tons of ore, valued at $2,300,000, 30% of the state's production that year. Goldfield reached a peak population of about 30,000 people in 1906 and in 1907 became the county seatThe mines continued to do well with a peak production of $11 million attained in 1910. In 1913 heavy rains resulted in flash floods sweeping through Goldfield, and in 1923 a fire wiped out 53 square blocks of the city. These events combined with low metal prices resulted in mine closures and the gradual decline of the once great city.

Comment (Economic Factors): Production from Goldfield?s mines between 1903 and 1945 was 4.19 million ounces of gold and 1.45 million ounces of silver. Production between 1989 and 1996 was : 26,917 ounces of gold and 1549 ounces of silver. Goldfield's mines produced more than $86 million. The Goldfield district, Esmeralda County, Nevada, produced 4.2 Moz Au, 1.5 Moz Ag, and 3,800 tons Cu during the early part of the twentieth century. Goldfield is considered by the USGS to be one of the ?Giant Porphyry-Related Metal Camps of the World?

Comment (Location): The most productive mines are concentrated in an area just east of the center of the town of Goldfield .

Comment (Workings): The mines of the Goldfield District were developed by hundreds of thousands of feet of underground workings as well as by open pits.

Comment (Geology): Principal structure: Columbia Mt Fault, N-S, with left lateral offsets at intersections with E-W faults (800-900 ft offset) ore found at W turns of main fault (N 20 deg W). Lake deposits (Siebert Formation) 1000' thick. El Dorado siliceous shale, limestone. Malpais basalt. Rhyolite, dacite, andesite (post lacustrine). Pre-lacustrine volcanic rocks host the veins. Abstract for Vikre et al poster: the purpose of this investigation was to determine if 40Ar/39Ar ages, chemical compositions and stable isotope compositions of magmatic hydrothermal alunites throughout the Goldfield district are useful in distinguishing mineralized ledges. Although alunites differ in age and composition, no single characteristic uniquely separates alunites in mineralized ledges in the main district from those associated with no known mineralization. However, mineralized ledge alunites are ~20.3 to 19.8 Ma, and have relatively homogeneous K/Na/Ca compositions, whereas alunites from smaller deposits and unmineralized ledges may be older or younger, and have more variable K/Na/Ca compositions. In addition, disequilibrium sulfur isotope (alunite-pyrite) temperatures at Preble Mountain contrast with sulfur isotope temperatures in main district mineralized ledges that are broadly similar to fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures.

Comment (Identification): This new record is for the historic Goldfield District centered on the town of Goldfield. It contains material from the older MRDS record W002900 for the Goldfield District as well as material from individual mine records and other sources.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Ransome, F.L., 1909, The geology and ore deposits of Goldfield, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 66, 258 p.

Reference (Deposit): Searls, F. Jr., 1948, Geology and Ore Deposits of Goldfield, Nev.: Nevada Univ. Bull., vol. 42, No. 5, Geology and Mining Series, 48, 24 p.

Reference (Deposit): Koschmann, A. H. and Bergendahl, M. H., 1968; Principal Gold Producing Districts of the United States: USGS Prof. Paper 610

Reference (Deposit): Felix E. Mutschler, Steve Ludington, and Arthur A. Bookstrom, 1999, Giant Porphyry-Related Metal Camps of the World-A Database; USGS Open-File Report 99-556.

Reference (Deposit): Peter Vikre, Robert Fleck, and Robert Rye, 2005, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1258; Ages and geochemistry of magmatic hydrothermal alunites in the Goldfield district, Esmeralda Co., Nevada; poster displayed May 15-18 at the 2005 Geological Society of Nevada Symposium "Window to the World" in Sparks, Nevada.

Reference (Deposit): Ashley, R.P. 1974, Goldfield mining district: in, Guidebook to the geology of four Tertiary volcanic centers in central Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Report 19, pp. 49-66.

Reference (Deposit): Spurr, J E, 1905, The Ores of Goldfield, Nev.: USGS Bull. No. 260, p. 132-139.

Reference (Deposit): Lincoln, F C, 1923, Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada, Reno, Nev. Newsletter Pub., p. 67-73.

Reference (Deposit): Albers, J.P. and Stewart, J.H., 1972, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Esmeralda County, Nevada: NBMG Bull. 78, p. 67-69.

Reference (Deposit): R. P. Ashley, and M. L. Silberman, 1976, Direct dating of mineralization at Goldfield, Nevada, by potassium-argon and fission-track methods; Economic Geology,v. 71; no. 5, p. 904-924.

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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.