Little Bald Mountain Mine

Site Name

Primary: Little Bald Mountain Mine
Secondary: LBM Claims
Secondary: North pit
Secondary: South pit
Secondary: Little Bald Mountain II
Secondary: Lbm Mine

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Primary: Silver
Tertiary: Mercury

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Location

State: Nevada
County: White Pine
District: Bald Mountain 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: Ely BLM district

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: New Dynasty Mines (U. S.), Inc.

Owner Name: Northern Dynasty WP Syndicate (Westfield, Whim Creek Cons., and En Nec Int.)
Percent: 42.60
Years: 1988 -

Owner Name: Barrick Gold Corp.
Info Year: 2006

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Production

Year: 1986
Time Period: 1985-1986
Material type: ORE
Description: Cp_Grade: ^0.08 Oz Au/Ton
Year: 1991
Description: Gold 990 T Oz/Yr
Year: 1992
Description: Gold 501 T Oz/Yr

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: sediment-hosted disseminated gold
Plant Type: Leach
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Mining Method: Combined Methods
Milling Method: Heap Leach-Agglomerate-Carbon Column-Merrill-Crowe
Year First Production: 1985
Year Last Production: 2004
Discovery Year: 1984
Discovery Method: Ore-Mineral In Place
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: Distal disseminated Ag-Au

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Orebody

Not available

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Structure

Type: R
Description: The Bald Mountain district is located in an area of thinned crust along the eastern side of the Late Proterozoic rift that split the North American craton. It is also in the west-central portion of the Late Devonian-Early Mississippian Antler foreland basin, and near the eastern edge of deformation related to the late Paleozoic Humboldt orogeny To the west of the Bald Mountain district, geologic interpretations are dominated by recognition of Paleozoic deformation, whereas to the east, interpretations emphasize Mesozoic contraction and plutonism and Tertiary extension.

Type: L
Description: The rocks in the mine area have been affected by N-trending faults and less prominent W-trending fractures.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Alteration at the mine property consists predominantly of argillization and sericitization of igneous rocks, and sillicification of host rocks.

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Rocks

Name: Porphyry
Role: Associated
Description: quartz monzonite stock with satellitic dikes and sills
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age in Years: 159.000000+-
Age Young: Late Jurassic

Name: Quartz Monzonite
Role: Associated
Description: porphyry stock with satellitic dikes and sills
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Jurassic

Name: Sedimentary Rock
Role: Host
Description: Fine-grained clastic and calcareous
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Ordovician
Age Old: Middle Ordovician

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Clay
Ore: Limonite

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Comments

Comment (Environment): The Bald Mountain deposits are interpreted as forming in a dilational zone along a west- to northwest strike-slip fault during Jurassic compression, and at depths of 3-6 km.

Comment (Identification): This record includes all material from earlier records M242962 and W700447 which should be deleted from the database.

Comment (Location): The Little Bald Mountain Mine is located less than a km NE of the Top Deposit, and the Little Bald Mountain II deposit is located about 3 km SSE of LBM.

Comment (Workings): The pit design was planned in 1984. The mine was developed by both open pit and trackless underground

Comment (Deposit): The Little Bald Mountain deposit consists of 2 mineralized stratigraphic horizons extending from the surface to a depth of 300 feet, connected by at least 2 vertical jasperoid zones of good grade ore. The Main feeder zone is 70-100 feet wide, extending 500 or more feet down the footwall of a major fault structure. Rich ore was encountered in an intensely pyritic, clay-altered shear zone. There are a total of 6 or more altered and/or mineralized zones. Mercury anomalies are roughly indicative of gold mineralization.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: free gold

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: pyrite, clay limonite, jasperoid

Comment (Development): In 1984, Northern Dynasty Explorations discovered gold mineralization in a drilling program on its Little Bald Mountain property. Further drilling indicated heap leach potential and a feasibility study was made. Adit Resources had a 19.5% interest in LBM in 1984 when they merged with Yellowstone Resources Inc. Mining was planned to start in spring 1985. Northern Dynasty owned 65% of the LBM property in 1984. WX Syndicate (25% Westfield) acquired a 42.6% interest in LBM mine in 1985. Northern Dynasty decided to Little Bald Mountain into production and construction began with start-up planned for July, 1985. First pour was in August, 1985. Announced resumption of heap leach activity in 1986. Underground work began in mid-1986. McChip Resources acquired a 10% interest in LBM in 1986. An increase in reserves was announced in August of 1986. Underground work was expected to increase annual production to 9000 ounces per year by 1988. In 1993, Placer Dome acquired the LBM claims from Northern Dynasty Mines and continued mining it until the Barrick takeover in 2006.

Comment (Economic Factors): Reserves in 1989 were: 200 kilotonnes of ore grading 0.13 opt Au, with a geologic resource of 260 Kilotonnes grading 0.127 opt gold. In 1993, reserves were: 140 kilotonnes of ore grading 0.13 opt Au, with a geologic resource of 21,800 ounces of gold. Production between 1985 and 1989 was 27,200 ounces of gold. In 1989 the mine produced 1500 ounces of silver.

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References

Reference (Deposit): NEVADA BUREAU OF MINES & GEOLOGY, SPE. PUB. 10, 1990, P16.

Reference (Deposit): GSN 1985 Meeting and Fall Field Trip Road Log

Reference (Deposit): Adamson, T.J., 1987, in Bulk Mineable Precious Metal Deposits of the Western U.S., 1987 GSN, Field Trip Guidebook and Technical Volume.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG Mining District Files 323, Press

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): Nutt, C.J., Hofstra, A.H., Hart, K.S., and Mortensen, J.K., 2000, Structural setting and genesis of gold deposits in the Bald Mountain-Alligator Ridge area, east-central Nevada, in Cluer, J.K., Price, J.G., Struhsacker, E.M., Hardyman, R.F., and Morris, C.L., eds., Geology and Ore Deposits 2000: The Great Basin and Beyond: Geological Society of Nevada Symposium Proceedings, May 15-18, 2000, p. 513-537.

Reference (Deposit): BLM, 2004, Bald Mountain Mine Exploration Program Programmatic Environmental Assessment NV040-04-023, Case File # N78825.

Reference (Deposit): Amer. Mines (1989) through Amer. Mines (1991-92)

Reference (Deposit): AMERICAN MINES HANDBOOK, 1996, P181.

Reference (Deposit): RANDOL MINING DIRECTORY, 1996/97, U.S. MINES & MINING COMPANIES, P254.

Reference (Deposit): RANDOL MINING DIRECTORY, 1994/95, U.S. MINES & MINING COMPANIES, P331.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-86 through MI-02

Reference (Deposit): NBMG Map 91, 1st, 2nd, 3rd

Reference (Deposit): DEIS, 1995

Reference (Deposit): FEIS, 1995

Reference (Deposit): Hitchborn and others, 1996, Geology and Gold Deposits of the Bald Mountain Mining District, White Pine County, Nevada, in Geology and Ore Deposits of the American Cordillera Symposium Proceedings, eds. A. Coyner and P. Fahey.

Reference (Deposit): The Geological Society of Nevada 1996 Spring Field trip, Geology and Gold Deposits of Eastern Nevada, GSN Special Publication No. 23

Reference (Deposit): MASMILS 0320330513; Nevada Land Status, 1990

Reference (Deposit): www.placerdome.com

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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.