Atlanta Mine

Site Name

Primary: Atlanta Mine
Secondary: Atlanta Home Claim
Secondary: Atlanta Nos. 1-3 Claim
Secondary: Atlanta Strip No. 1 Claim
Secondary: Hillside Claim
Secondary: Sparrow Hawk Claim
Secondary: Pactolion Fraction Claim
Secondary: Belle Claim
Secondary: Standard Slag Mine

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver
Tertiary: Iron
Tertiary: Manganese
Tertiary: Uranium

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Lincoln
District: Atlanta (Silver Park, Silver Springs) 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.
Administrative Organization: Ely BLM administrative district

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Golden Chief Resources, Inc.
Info Year: 2001

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: sediment-hosted, breccia
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1870
Year Last Production: 1985
Discovery Year: 1869
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: Hot-spring Au-Ag

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Orebody

Form: pipe

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Structure

Type: R
Description: Basin-and-Range-style extension produced widely spaced normal faults that clearly cut all caldera-related structures and volcanic units, including the 28 Ma Ryan Spring Formation and some Quaternary gravels.

Type: L
Description: Faults and breccia zones associated with the intersection of two caldera systems; the Atlanta Fault Zone, Mine Fault, and the Gold Fault. Ore is associated with a north-south trending caldera rim fracture.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Alteration consists of silicification (jasperoid formation) and oxidation. Adjacent to the silicified zone, intracaldera volcanic rocks are altered to illite with some pyrite. Dolomite within the caldera wall is partly recrystallized and contains barite, calcite, and disseminated hematite. Weathering of pyrite in altered rocks produced supergene kaolinite alteration, which overprints much of the mineralized area.

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Rocks

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

Name: Rhyodacite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Oligocene

Name: Tuff
Role: Associated
Description: rhyolitic
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Oligocene

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Oligocene

Name: Volcanic Breccia (Agglomerate)
Role: Host
Description: rhyolitic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

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

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: ash-flow tuff
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Oligocene

Name: Quartzite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Ordovician
Age Old: Middle Ordovician

Name: Limestone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Ordovician

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Pyrite
Gangue: Chert
Gangue: Jasper
Gangue: Limonite
Gangue: Clay
Gangue: Alunite

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Comments

Comment (Deposit): Mineralization occurs in silicified breccia and jasperoid, adjacent to a low-angle normal fault separating Oligocene ash-flow tuffs and Ordovician carbonate rocks. Potential exists for disseminated mineralization in fractured ash-flow tuffs and deep jasperoids in carbonate rocks beneath the Atlanta open pit. Prominent irregular jasperoid bodies, pods and lenses, commonly accompanied by either iron or manganese oxides, occur along the Atlanta ore zone that dips about 45 SW. In places, breccia pipes and fault zones in the dolomite overlying the Eureka quartzite are extensively silicified into drusy quartz and brecciated greenish-gray jasperoid. Commonly these brecciated, mineralized zones carry sub-microscopic gold, silver minerals, and minor amounts of uranium. The ore deposit contains brecciated fragments of limestone, quartzite, volcanic rocks, and jasperoid, cemented by quartz. Gold is submicroscopic. The Atlanta mine is situated near the intersection of two caldera systems. The older Indian Peak caldera is bounded by a fault zone that dips 70-90 degrees into the caldera, and is exposed in the Atlanta open-pit gold mine. The caldera-bounding fault is a one- to six-meter-wide breccia zone associated with tuff dikes that has accommodated over 500 m of subsidence of the caldera floor. South of the mine area, the location of Indian Peak caldera margin is constrained by exposures of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks outside the caldera and thick collapse breccias containing large blocks of Paleozoic rocks, which thin into the caldera. The Indian Peak caldera margin is truncated by the Ryan Spring caldera near the center of the district. The fault zone that bounds the Indian Peak caldera locally contains ore-grade gold, silver, and uranium mineralization within silicified breccias. Silica-pyrite mineralization is localized along the caldera-bounding fault zone and near tuff dikes within the Atlanta mine. Ore occurred in a hematite-rich silicified breccia of limestone and Tertiary volcanic rocks, along a north-south trending caldera rim fracture.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: native gold

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, pyrite, chert, jasper, limonite, manganese oxides, clay, alunite

Comment (Geology): The stratigraphy of the district includes Ordovician and Silurian limestone, quartzite, and dolomite that are unconformably overlain by five Tertiary ash-flow tuffs, associated lavas, and sedimentary deposits. The oldest of these eruptions occurred about 33 Ma from a caldera approximately 35 km southeast of the district, producing rhyolite lavas and bedded tuffs of the Escalante Desert Formation in this area. The next two tuffs erupted from calderas that are partly exposed in the Atlanta district the Wah Wah Springs Formation overlies the Escalante Desert Formation, and was erupted from the Indian Peak caldera about 29.5 Ma. This formation includes andesite lavas, a voluminous crystal-rich dacite ash-flow tuff, tuff dikes that are believed to be feeders for the ash-flow tuff eruption, a granodiorite porphyry plug, collapse breccias and sedimentary deposits along the caldera margin. All members of this formation are hydrothermally altered to varying degrees. Unmineralized rhyolite ash-flow tuff of the Ryan Spring Formation overlies the Wah Wah Springs Formation.

Comment (Identification): This record is a new record that includes all material in earlier MRDS record W031572 as well as additional new information.

Comment (Location): The Atlanta Mine is located at the north end of the Wilson Creek Range about 0.5 mile east of Atlanta site.

Comment (Workings): Underground workings include two shafts, a raise, a winze, crosscuts, and drifts. The open pit is south of the main shaft.

Comment (Economic Factors): The Atlanta mine in Lincoln County, NV, produced over 100,000 ounces of gold during the time period 1870-1985. Current inferred plus drill-indicated gold resources are about 460,000 ounces of gold and 3,900,000 ounces of silver at a cutoff grade of 0.02 ounces of gold per ton. Golden Chief reported measured reserves on the property as 300,000 ounces of gold and 3 million ounces of silver. Total production in the 1970s was approximately 120,000 ounces of gold (1.5 million tons grading 0.08 opt Au) when the Standard Slag Company was the operator.

Comment (Development): The Atlanta mine produced over 100,000 ounces of gold during the time period 1870-1985, mostly from an open-pit mine that was reactivated by the Standard Slag Company in a joint venture with Bob Cat Properties, Inc. in fall of 1974. Production from this operation began in 1975 and lasted through much of the 1980s. Capacity of the cyanide plant was gradually increased from 300 tpd to an average of 570 tpd in 1982. The property was listed as an active open pit mine and mill in 1983 employing a total of 45 persons. In 1996, Golden Chief Resources planned to drill eight holes on the Atlanta Gold property to test gold mineralization trending from the main Atlanta pit to the south and southeast. The property was still owned in 2001 by Golden Chief Resources, Inc. In August 2000, Franc-Or Resources Corporation announced that the Cordilleran Nevada syndicate, of which it is a forty percent partner, signed a lease agreement on the ground adjoining its Atlanta claim block in east-central Nevada. The lease will add 183 unpatented claims to the Cordilleran property, bringing the total land position to 447 unpatented claims. The lease does not include the 26 unpatented and 13 patented claims that cover the existing pit, dumps, and milling facilities

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References

Reference (Deposit): Garside, L. J., 1973, Radioactive Mineral Occurrences in Nevada, Nevada Bureau of Mines Bulletin 81, P. 69.

Reference (Deposit): Tschantz, C. M., Pampeyan, E. H., 1970, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Lincoln Co., Nevada, Nevada Bureau of Mines Bulletin 73, pp. 162- 163.

Reference (Deposit): Hill, J., 1916, USGS Bull 648.

Reference (Deposit): Hulse, P., 1978, Gold Operations at the Atlanta Mine, Min. Eng, vol. 30, Sept, 1978, p. 1299-1301.

Reference (Deposit): Meyers, P. W., 1915, Developments at Atlanta, Nevada; Eng. and Min. Jour, vol. 99, no. 12, p. 541-542.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG mining district file 164, items 2, 3, 4, 6, 8,9

Reference (Deposit): Cox, John W., 1981, Geology and Mineralization of the Atlanta District, Lincoln County, Nevada; M. S. Thesis, Univ. of Nevada, Reno.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG, 1994, MI-1993

Reference (Deposit): LaBerge, Rene D.,1995, Epithermal gold mineralization related to caldera volcanism at the Atlanta District, east-central Nevada; in Geology and ore deposits of the American Cordillera; symposium proceedings, Geological Society of Nevada, Reno, NV, United States (USA), Coyner, Alan R; Fahey, Patrick L., eds.

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): S. Olmore, 2005, The Atlanta Gold Mine, Lincoln County, NV - Mineralization and Exploration Potential: 2005 SME Annual Meeting & Exhibit, February 28 - March 2; Salt Lake City, Utah.

Reference (Deposit): Northern Miner, 6/3/96

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-1996.

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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.