Jarbidge Gold Prospect

Site Name

Primary: Jarbidge Gold Prospect
Secondary: Covers the historic Pavlak
Secondary: Bourne
Secondary: Bluster
Secondary: Elkoro Mines

---

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver

---

Location

State: Nevada
County: Elko
District: Jarbidge district

---

Land Status

Land ownership: National Forest
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: Elko district

---

Holdings

Not available

---

Workings

Not available

---

Ownership

Owner Name: Atna Resources Ltd.

---

Production

Not available

---

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: sheeted vein zone
Operation Type: Underground
Year First Production: 1910
Year Last Production: 1930
Discovery Year: 1909
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

---

Physiography

Not available

---

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Epithermal vein, Comstock

---

Orebody

Form: tabular

---

Structure

Type: L
Description: faults

Type: R
Description: faults

---

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Hydrothermal alteration is widespread and intense along a north-south trend. Chlorite-epidote-carbonate alteration with associated veinlets of barren quartz is pervasive within the lower part of the rhyolite pile and underlying conglomerates. Later adularia-sericite alteration is widespread in the middle portion of the Jarbidge Rhyolite and occurs as envelopes to veins. Higher levels of the system have local argillic alteration with chalcedonic veinlets. Kaolinization, silicification, and pyritization of host rock are prevalent in mineralized areas.

---

Rocks

Name: Quartzite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Paleozoic

Name: Ash-Flow Tuff
Role: Host
Description: rhyolitic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Miocene
Age Old: Oligocene

Name: Tuff
Role: Host
Description: felsic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Eocene

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: Porphyritic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age in Years: 16.800000+-
Age Young: Early Miocene

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: Porphyritic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age in Years: 15.400000+-
Age Young: Middle Miocene

---

Analytical Data

Not available

---

Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Argentite
Ore: Adularia
Ore: Sericite
Ore: Fluorite
Gangue: Quartz

---

Comments

Comment (Identification): The currently explored mineralization extends over several of the historic mines in the main part of the Jarbidge district, each of which has its own MRDS record in the database.

Comment (Location): Mineralization in the Jarbidge district extended from the town of Jarbidge south for more than a mile.

Comment (Workings): The historic Jarbidge mines were developed by miles of underground workings including shafts, drifts, tunnels, and stopes extending several hundred feet deep.

Comment (Development): Gold-bearing veins were first discovered at Jarbidge in 1909, and a mill was erected in 1911 and ran intermittently for 4 months with poor recovery. The bulk of historic production occurried between 1918 and 1932. The district was revisited and explored for bulk-minable precious metal potential in the 1970s by companies includiong Freeport MacMoran and FMC. In January 2004, Atna Resources Ltd. optioned and staked approximately 1300 hectares of mining claims surrounding and covering a substantial portion of the mined out core of the historic Jarbidge gold camp. Atna may acquire a 100% interest in the Jarbidge property by making an initial cash payment of $10,000 and escalating annual payments totaling US$600,000 over the following six-year period. The vendor retains a 1.5% NSR which increases to 2.5% when the gold price exceeds $400. Atna may purchase the royalty for US$1,500,000. Atna is obligated to spend a minimum of US$100,000 on exploration of the Property in each of the first three years of the agreement to maintain its option in good standing. Atna plans an active program of surface exploration and drilling in 2004. Numerous prospective targets on the property include: 1. The faulted offset of one of the major past producing veins. Recent mapping and geochemistry suggest an apparent fault solution and target, which has never been tested. 2. A strong soil anomaly (>6000 ppb Au) associated with the projected extension of a formerly productive vein. 3. Parallel zones of vein and hydrothermal brecciation north of the main northwest striking vein set. 4. An unexplored area east of Jarbidge, with reported outcropping gold values up to 124.4 g/ton Au. 5. An unexplored area of intense silicification, argillic alteration and brecciation mapped west of Jarbidge.

Comment (Economic Factors): Historic production of the Jarbidge gold camp from 1910 to 1930 is estimated to have been 355,000 oz. gold and 1,600,000 oz. silver, from 800,000 tons of ore (average about 0.45 oz/ton Au and 4.5 oz/ton Ag). Estimates of the current gold and silver resource of the Jarbidge prospect area are unknown but thought to be significant.

Comment (Environment): Magmatism is associated with continental extension under reducing conditions.

Comment (Geology): Basement rocks in the deposit area are overlain by thick lenticular accumulations of conglomerate and light-colored silicic tuffs and by an extensive blanket of intermediate to silicic tuff and lava. The older volcanic rocks and the basement on which they rest have been extensively faulted; the youngest lavas of this sequence are the host rocks for the gold-silver deposits and have been eroded to a surface of low relief.

Comment (Deposit): Mineralization is hosted by Eocene felsic tuffs, and widespread Oligocene to early Miocene rhyolitic ash-flow tuffs. A sheeted vein system of quartz-adularia veins is hosted by the Jarbidge Rhyolite. Three vein systems are present: the earliest veins have a northwest trend, and occur as conjugate sets with moderate to steep dips, in horst and graben sets with limited offset. The second set has a north-northwest, steeply dipping set with hundreds of feet of strike and dip slip offset. The eastern part of the district has a north-south trending set. The bulk of production is from the northwest trending set. The quartz-adularia vein system has approximately 3000' of vertical extent, with the most productive regions spanning about 650' over vertical extent. Bladed quartz after calcite suggests that gold-mineralization occurs at bonanza levels where boiling has occurred. Low sulfide contents occur in the veins, with gold mineralization occurring as electrum, and silver mineralization within silver selenides or argentite. There are multiple veins on the property; two of the most productive were the Pavlak and Taft veins. Free gold is commonly in nodules or reniform lumps formed by concretionary growths of gangue, usually around an enclosed fragment of rhyolite. In concretionary ore, gold usually occurs along dark lines of banding in brecciated fault zones.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: free gold, argentite

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, adularia, sericite, fluorite.

---

References

Reference (Deposit): Schrader, F.C.,(1912),A Reconnaissance of the Jarbidge, Contact, and Elk Mountain Mining Districts, Elko County, Nev: U.S.G.S. Bull 497.

Reference (Deposit): Schrader, F.C.,(1923), The Jarbidge Mining District, Nevada; U.S.G.S. Open File Rept. 1976-56.

Reference (Deposit): Fairbank and O'Byrne, J.F.,(1911) Jarbidge Mining District Map

Reference (Deposit): Coats, Robert R. , 1964, Geology of the Jarbidge Quadrangle, Nevada-Idaho; U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin, Report: B 1141-M, pp.M1-M24.

Reference (Deposit): Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 90-206A, 33 p.; 98-206B. one 3.5 inch diskette.

---

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.