Pine Nut Molybdenum Prospect

Site Name

Primary: Pine Nut Molybdenum Prospect
Secondary: Gardnerville Mine Area
Secondary: Alpine Claim
Secondary: Cosmos Claim
Secondary: Extension Claim
Secondary: Owl Claim
Secondary: Ramona Claim
Secondary: Scheelite Claim
Secondary: Tungstate Claim

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Commodity

Primary: Molybdenum
Primary: Tungsten
Secondary: Gold
Secondary: Copper

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Douglas
District: Gardnerville 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: Carson City BLM District

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Climax Molybdenum Company, 1960s
Info Year: 1960

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: Pluton-related
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1937
Year Last Production: 1956
Discovery Year: 1960
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: Porphyry Mo, low-F

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Orebody

Form: disseminated

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Structure

Type: L
Description: Rocks in the district have been affected by a broad NNE-trending anticline, and by two sets of faults, one striking NNE and one striking NW to NNW, more prominent in the prospect area.

Type: R
Description: Rocks in the district have been affected by a broad NNE-trending anticline, and by two sets of faults, one striking NNE and one striking NW to NNW, more prominent in the prospect area.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Host rocks have been silicified, sericitized, and K-feldspar altered.

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Rocks

Name: Schist
Role: Associated
Description: spotted
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Triassic

Name: Schist
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Triassic

Name: Porphyry
Role: Associated
Description: quartz monzonite
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Quartz Monzonite
Role: Associated
Description: porphyry
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Dolomite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Triassic

Name: Skarn (Tactite)
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Triassic

Name: Metavolcanic Rock
Role: Host
Description: altered
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Triassic

Name: Metasedimentary Rock
Role: Host
Description: altered
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Triassic

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Scheelite
Ore: Limonite
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Calcite
Ore: Sericite
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Huebnerite
Ore: Molybdenite
Ore: Powellite
Ore: Hematite
Gangue: Quartz

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Comments

Comment (Development): The Gardnerville mine at the center of the molybdenum prospect, was first operated in 1937 by the Nevada Tungsten Corporation, who built a small gravity mill and produced 723 units of WO3. Rare Metals Corporation acquired the property in 1940 and did some additional development work in an unsuccessful search for more ore. Various owners and lessees operated on the claims from 1951 to 1956, producing more than 12,000 units of WO3. Climax Molybdenum Company, began exploring the property in 1963 for porphyry-type molybdenum mineralization. A broad zone of molybdenite mineralization was detected by surface geochemical exploration, and subsequent diamond drilling encountered significant molybdenum mineralization.

Comment (Economic Factors): The Gardnerville Tungsten Mine produced 12,938 units of WO3 during the years 1937-1940 and 1951-1956. there has been no molybdenum production and the size of the molybdenum resource is unknown but reportedly significant. Pine Nut is considered by the USGS to be one of the ?Giant Porphyry-Related Metal Camps of the World?

Comment (Identification): Information form the old Gardnerville Mine record #D001198 has been incorporatd into this record. The porphyry -type molybdenum prospect is in the vicinity of the old Gardnerville mine and mill, and should not be confused with the Pine Nut/Pine Nut Consolidated/Preacher Mine about 4 km to the WSW. Refer to Stager and Tingley, p. 46 for property identification.

Comment (Location): The molybdenum prospect encompasses the area surrounding the old Gardnerville tungsten mine and mill.

Comment (Workings): The old Gardnerville mine workings consist of 2 shafts with several thousand feet of drifts and crosscuts and numerous pits and trenches. More recent drilling was done after 1960.

Comment (Geology): The rocks exposed in the Gardnerville District are Triassic to Jurassic age metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks that have been cut by light gray felsic dikes. Small outcrops of biotite-quartz monzonite are found locally and it is probable that a larger mass of Cretaceous granitic rock underlies the metasedimanetary rocks at a shallow depth. Scheelite occurs in thin beds of skarn which have replaced impure limestone and dolomite in the metasedimentary section. In the southern part of the district in the vicinity of the Gardnerville Mine, molybdenite mineralization has been found in a stockwork of quartz veins generally related to the underlying quartz monzonite stock.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: scheelite, powellite, molybdenite, huebnerite

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, pyrite, sericite, calcite, pyrite, limonite, and hematite.

Comment (Deposit): At the old Gardnerville Mine, scheelite occurs in skarn that partially replaces a 6-ft thick bed of dolomite. The dolomite strikes NW and dips 45-75 SW with a footwall of at least 20 feet of spotted schist and a hanging wall of schist 10 feet thick. Only part of the host dolomite has been changed to skarn and only part of that skarn contains scheelite. The best tungsten ore ran 1.5 % WO3 and was 2-3 feet wide. No tungsten ore was found below the 200 foot level. Powellite occurs with the scheelite especially in the lower levels. On the 400 level of the old Gardnerville Mine, powellite is abundant and fine-grained molybdenum is common. In the 1960s, a broad zone of molybdenite mineralization was detected by surface geochemical exploration and subsequent diamond drilling encountered significant molybdenum mineralization. Molybdenite occurs in a stockwork of quartz and quartz-pyrite veins accompanied by sericite and quartz-K-feldspar alteration. Huebnerite has been identified in some of the quartz-pyrite veins.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Muncaster, N., 1967, A review of the Pine Nut, Nevada molybdenum prospect: Climax Molybdenum Company unpublished report, 6p

Reference (Deposit): Stager and Tingley, 1988, NBMG Bull. 105, p. 46.

Reference (Deposit): Unpubl. Nev. Bureau of Mines Files

Reference (Deposit): Lemmon, D.M., Unpublished Data.

Reference (Deposit): Lemmon, D.M., and Tweto, O.L., 1962, Tungsten in The U.S., USGS Map, MR-25.

Reference (Deposit): Moore, J. G., 1969 , Geology and Mineral Deposits of Lyon, Douglas and Ormsby Counties, Nev., Nevada Bureau Of Mines, Bulletin 75.

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): Lyon, R. J. P., 1975, Correlation between ground metal analysis, vegetation reflectance, and ERTS brightness over a molybdenum skarn deposit, Pine Nut Mountains, western Nevada; Proceedings of the International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, no.10, Vol. 2, pp.1031-1037.

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): Hill, J. M., 1915 , Some Mining Districts in NE Calif. and NW Nev., USGS, Bull. 594

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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.