Casino Mine

Site Name

Primary: Casino Mine
Secondary: Keno Pit

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Commodity

Primary: Gold

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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: USMX, Inc. (51%)/Pegasus Gold Inc. (49%)

Owner Name: USMX, Inc.

Owner Name: Barrick Gold Corp.
Info Year: 2006

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Production

Year: 1991
Time Period: 1990-1991
Mined: 539000.000 mt
Description: Cp_Grade: ^0.054 Opt Au
Year: 1991
Mined: 268000.000 mt
Description: Ap_Grade: ^0.060 Opt Au

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: sediment-hosted gold
Operation Type: Surface
Year First Production: 1990
Year Last Production: 1992
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

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 Casino pit contains one moderately dipping normal fault as well as multiple high- and low-angle faults. At Casino, northeast structures are present, accompanied by north- and west-trending structures. The Keno fault zone is a moderately dipping normal-fault zone in siltstone and silty limestone with 55-100 m of dip-slip displacement. The fault changes character along strike from a single clay-rich slip plane 10-20 mm thick at the northern exposure in the pit to numerous hydrocarbon-bearing, calcite-filled, nearly vertical slip planes in a zone 15 m wide at the southern exposure. The hanging wall and footwall are intensely fractured but fracture densities do not vary markedly with distance from the fault.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Alteration at the Casino Deposit includes decalcification, pervasive silicification, and argillization. Silicification and the formation of jasperoid are the dominant alteration types.

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Rocks

Name: Limestone
Role: Host
Description: silty
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Devonian

Name: Siltstone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Mississippian

Name: Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic)
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Oligocene

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold

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Comments

Comment (Location): The Casino mine is located on the southeast flank of the Ruby Range about a mile east of Big Bald Mountain.

Comment (Workings): open pit mine

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold

Comment (Deposit): Host rocks for the deposit are Late Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. In the Casino area, unaltered Oligocene volcanic rocks rest on massive jasperoid. The Casino deposit is localized along the edge of a fold.

Comment (Development): Development in the northeastern part of the district began in 1987. The ARM Joint Venture (Amselco with, at different times, Occidental Petroleum, Nerco, Kennecott) began relinquishing claim groups north of Alligator Ridge Mine that were originally staked as part of an agreement with Lyle Campbell. Campbell retained and maintained the claim groups and, in November 1987, leased the Casino-Winrock area of claims to the USMX-Pegasus Joint Venture. Casino produced from 1990-1992, operated by a joint venture between USMX (51%) and Pegasus Gold Inc. (49%) Gold recovery was anticipated to be 80% using heap leach technology. Life of mine strip ratio was 3.8:1. In 2006, Barrick Gold Corp. acquired the Casino Mine property through its acquisition of Placer Dome U. S., Inc.

Comment (Economic Factors): In 1989, the Casino deposit reserves were reported at 804 Kilotonnes of ore grading 0.054 opt gold. From 1990-92, the mine is reported to have produced 46,800 ounces of gold. The Casino-Winrock mines produced an aggregate 20,000 ounces of gold in 1991 and produced an aggregate 19,800 ounces of gold in 1992, for a total production of 39,800 ounces for the two deposits. The Casino-Winrock heap leach pad contained 1.43 million tons of ore. Rinsing of the heap leach began in 1994 and was essentially complete by 1997. The deposit is often combined with Winrock in the literature.

Comment (Identification): This record includes all material from earlier record # RE00279 which should be deleted from the database. The deposit is often combined with Winrock in the literature. The Casino Mine is included by Placer Dome in its Bald Mountain Mine project.

Comment (Production): 1990-1991 CUMULATIVE FIGURES REPRESENT TOTAL LIFE OF MINE PRODUCTION.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Netcher, D. R., 1990, Environmental Assessment (EA-NV-040-90-03), USMX Inc., plan of operation for Casino Project Open Pit Mine.

Reference (Deposit): USMX, 1990, Annual Report for 1989.

Reference (Deposit): USMX, 1992, Annual Report for 1991.

Reference (Production): 1991 ANNUAL PRODUCTION: USMX, 1992, ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1991. 1990-1991 CUMULATIVE PRODUCTION: USMX, 1992, ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1991.

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): Hammond, K. Jill and Evans, James P., 2003, Geochemistry, mineralization, structure, and permeability of a normal-fault zone, Casino Mine, Alligator Ridge district, north central Nevada; Journal of Structural Geology, vol.25, no.5, pp.717-736.

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): NBMG MI-88 through MI-02

Reference (Deposit): NBMG Map 91, 3rd

Reference (Deposit): Casino EA 1990

Reference (Deposit): The Geological Society of Nevada 1996 Spring Field trip, Geology and Gold Deposits of Eastern Nevada, GSN Special Publication No. 23.1996

Reference (Deposit): Casino EIS, 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): Nevada Land Status, 1990

Reference (Deposit): MASMILS 0320330520

Reference (Deposit): Amer. Mines (1990), 1990) thru Amer. Mines (2000), 1999.

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

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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.