Robinson Mine

Site Name

Primary: Robinson Mine
Secondary: Aultman Pit
Secondary: Kimberly Pit
Secondary: Liberty Pit
Secondary: Ruth Pit
Secondary: Tripp Pit
Secondary: Veteran Pit
Secondary: Wedge Pit
Secondary: Veteran Extension
Secondary: Twin Peaks
Secondary: Puritan
Secondary: Pilot Knob
Secondary: Northwest Ruth
Secondary: New Liberty
Secondary: Nellie
Secondary: Los Angeles
Secondary: Kranovich
Secondary: J. D. Hill
Secondary: Alpha
Secondary: Rob Roy
Secondary: Robinson Gold

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Commodity

Primary: Copper
Primary: Gold
Secondary: Molybdenum
Secondary: Silver

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Location

State: Nevada
County: White Pine
District: Robinson 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 area

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Magma Copper Company
Info Year: 2004
Years: 1990 - 1997

Owner Name: Nevada Mines Divison of Kennecott Copper Coporation
Info Year: 2004
Years: 1958 - 1978

Owner Name: BHP Ltd.
Info Year: 2004
Years: 1997 - 2003

Owner Name: Quadra Mining Limited
Home Office: Suite 2414, Four Bentall Centre 1055 Dunsmuir Street, P.O. Box 49185 Vancouver, BC, Canada
Info Year: 2004
Years: 2003 -

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Production

Year: 2010
Material type: Quadra NR 24_Jan_2011
Year: 2009
Mined: 13549000.000 mt
Material type: Ore milled. Quadra NR 11_Jan_2010.
Year: 2008
Mined: 13842000.000 mt
Material type: Ore milled. Quadra NR 19_Jan_2009.
Year: 2006
Mined: 13860000.000 mt
Material type: Ore milled. 15,281,000 mt ore mined. Quadra NR 15_Jan_2007.
Year: 2007
Mined: 14171000.000 mt
Material type: Ore milled. Quadra NR 19_Jan_2009.
Year: 2005
Mined: 13748000.000 mt
Material type: Ore milled. Quadra NR 09_Jan_2006. Quadra NR 10_Mar_2006.
Year: 1999
Material type: Metal in concentrates. Major Mines of Nevada 1999. http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/mm/mm99.pdf
Year: 2004
Material type: Quadra NR 22_Feb_2005.
Year: 1998
Material type: Metal in concentrates. Major Mines of Nevada 1998. http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/mm/mm98.pdf
Year: 1997
Material type: Metal in concentrates. Nevada Major Mines of 1997. http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/Pubs/mm/p9/mm97.htm
Year: 1996
Material type: Metal contained in concentrates. Major Mines of Nevada 1996. http://minerals.state.nv.us/forms/mining/MajorMinesOfNevada/mm1996.pdf

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Deposit

Record Type: Deposit
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: Porphyry Cu-Au
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Mining Method: Open Pit
Milling Method: Flotation
Year First Production: 1860
Year Last Production: 2009
Discovery Year: 1868
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: Porphyry Cu-Au
Model Name: Porphyry Cu, skarn-related

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Orebody

Form: variable from tabular to blanket to disseminated

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Structure

Type: R
Structure: east-trending anticline with moderate to gentle dipping flanks

Type: L
Structure: Host rocks have been folded, faulted, and fractured.

Type: R
Description: Rocks in the are folded into na east-trending anticline with moderate to gentle dipping flanks, later intruded by pluton and cut by nomal faults.

Type: L
Description: Host rocks have been folded, faulted, and fractured. Mineralization follows fractures in some cases.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Most significant is the hydrothermal alteration from monzonite intrusion. The deposit generally follows the typical porphyry copper deposit model in the pattern of alteration and mineralization. Anhydrous skarn developed in sedimentary rocks adjacent to potassically altered quartz monzonite. Peripheral to this is a quartz-sericite alteration zone followed by a quartz-clay-pyrite zone. Lacally present are advanced argillic alteration and some formation of retrograde hydrous skarn.

Alteration Type: L
Alteration: potassic, quartz-sericite, quartz-clay-pyrite, argillic

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Rocks

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

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

Name: Limestone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Permian
Age Old: Late Mississippian

Name: Siltstone
Role: Host
Description: impure
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Mississippian
Age Old: Early Mississippian

Name: Quartz Monzonite
Role: Associated
Description: porphyry
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Oligocene
Age Old: Eocene

Name: Porphyry
Role: Associated
Description: quartz monzonite
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Oligocene
Age Old: Eocene

Name: Sandstone
Role: Host
Description: impure
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Mississippian
Age Old: Early Mississippian

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Copper
Ore: Galena
Ore: Sphalerite
Ore: Bornite
Ore: Cuprite
Ore: Azurite
Ore: Malachite
Ore: Chrysocolla
Ore: Molybdenite
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Ore: Chalcocite
Gangue: Fluorite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Magnetite
Gangue: Clay
Gangue: Sericite
Gangue: Pyrite
Gangue: Chalcopyrite
Gangue: Pyrite
Gangue: Argentite
Gangue: Limonite

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Comments

Comment (Deposit): The Ely (Robinson) porphyry Cu-(Au-Mo) deposit, Cu-and Fe-skarns, and precious metaldeposits were once part of a contiguous mineralized system of Cretaceous age that was cut up and rotated by Tertiary Basin and Range-type normal faulting. The Robinson deposit generally follows the typical porphyry copper deposit model in the pattern of alteration and mineralization. associated with emplacement of a quartz monzonite pluton. Additional oreodies formed in adjacent sedimentary rocks. Silty to sandy layers of the Chainman Shale provided initial permeability, enhanced by later faulting. At the Ada, Rob Roy, and Los Angeles deposits, ore formation occurred in a favorable zone bounded by massive Ely Limestone and impermeable Chainman black shales. These ore horizons are oxidized stratabound blankets of silica-clay-pyrite-rich material.

Comment (General): *****SEE related Deposit-Star Pointer Gold Mine- Deposit ID 10310382 Ruth Mine- Deposit ID 10080427

Comment (Location): The Robinson district mine workings are spread out in an east-west linear belt extending from about 1.5 mile west of Ely to about 6.5 miles west of Ely.

Comment (Geology): In mid-Cretaceous time, Paleozoic miogeosynclinal sedimentary rocks were deformed into an overturned E-W-trending anticline whose upper limb was thrust to the southwest. The axis if the anticline was subsequently intruded by a composite quartz monzonite stock dated at 110 million years. Hydrothermal alteration and mineralization associated with emplacement of the pluton formed the Ruth porphyry copper-gold system. Basin-and-Range normal faulting successively down-dropped the upper portions of the system to the east. A post-ore rhyolite intrusive cut the system 30 million years ago.

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: pyrite, sericite, clay minerals, fluorite, quartz, garnet- diopside skarn, magnetite, limonite

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: chalcocite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, copper oxides; chrysocolla, malachite, azurite, cuprite, native copper, bornite, sphalerite, galena, pyrite, magnetite chalcopyrite, argentite

Comment (Workings): The mine area has been developed by many large open pits, several of which have merged and have obliterated many of the early underground workings. The resulting pit is one of the largest in the world; in 1998, the copper pit measured 2 miles long, 1 mile wide and 1000 feet deep.

Comment (Identification): This record includes information from earlier MRDS records W700594 and W031574 as well as many other individual mine records form the many properties that make up the Robinson mine property.

Comment (Economic Factors): Robinson is considered by the USGS to be one of the ?Giant Porphyry-Related Metal Camps of the World. By 1978, when the large porphyry copper mines closed, the Robinson mine area deposits had produced nearly 360 million tons of 1% copper ore, which included 2.7 million ounces of byproduct gold. In 1994, the geologic resource of the deposit was reported as 252 million tons of ore grading 0.553% Cu, 0.0102 opt Au. In 1996, the reserves of the deposit were reported as 264 million tons of ore grading 0.55% Cu and 0.316 opt Au. In 1999 reserves were reported as 194 million tons of ore grading 0.59% Cu and 0.007 opt Au proven and probable. The Robinson mine produced 61.8 million pounds of copper concentrate in 1999, along with 26,250 ounces of gold and 153,104 ounces of silver, the last year of production. In 2004, Quadra Mining Ltd. announced updated proven and probable reserves at its Robinson Mine total 146.3 million tons grading 0.687% Cu and 0.008 opt Au. Over 97% of the mineral reserves at the mine are in the proven category. Contained and recoverable copper at the Robinson Mine has increased from 1.67 and 1.38 billion pounds to 2.0 and 1.67 billion pounds respectively. The increased reserves add 2 years to the estimated 8 year mine life. Quadra began commercial production at Robinson on October 1, 2004, and produced 23.6 million pounds of copper and 10,490 ounces of gold in concentrate in the remainder of 2004. In 2006, proven and probable reserves were reported as 160,067,000 tons grading 0.69% copper and 0.007 ounces of gold per ton.

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Quadra Robinson property, expected mine life - 2016 (2017 with stockpile processing). Quadra website accessed on 3/1/2011. http://www.quadrafnx.com/s/RobinsonMine.asp

Comment (Development): After Kennecott shut down its copper operations in White Pine County, several other mining companies became interested in the Robinson district mines, more for their gold potential than for copper. Alta Gold and Magma Copper operated in the Robinson District from 1995 to 1996 and BHP operated from 1996 until 1999. Due to low copper and gold prices, BHP announced the closure of all of their North American holdings and laid off 462 employees in 1999. In 2004, the mine was acquired by Quadra Mining Ltd. who is reopening the mine (2004) to produce copper and gold. Quadra Mining Ltd. announced updated proven and probable reserves at its Robinson Mine total 146.3 million tons grading 0.687% Cu and 0.008 opt Au. Over 97% of the mineral reserves at the mine are in the proven category. Contained and recoverable copper at the Robinson Mine has increased from 1.67 and 1.38 billion pounds to 2.0 and 1.67 billion pounds respectively. The increased reserves add 2 years to the estimated 8 year mine life. Quadra began commercial production at Robinson on October 1, 2004, and produced 23.6 million pounds of copper and 10,490 ounces of gold in concentrate in the remainder of 2004.

Comment (Development): Gold and silver were first discovered in the area by Thomas Robinson in 1867-1868, who gave his name to the district. Other nearby gold properties were soon claimed and worked sporadically ubtil the end of the19th century. Copper was discovered here in the early 1870s, but insufficient demand, lack of transportation, low grade of the ore, and the difficulty in extracting the copper made it unprofitable to mine it. The abundance of low-grade copper ore interfered with the extraction of the gold and silver using the processes common at that time. In 1897, Charles D. Lane, from California , purchased the Chainman Mine and Mill on the hillside west of Mineral City. The town name was changed to Lane City and Lane spent $168,000 in the next two years on a water ditch, power plant, and cyanide plant to treat the oxide copper ore, but failed. An Eastern company bought the property and erected a second cyanide plant near the first one, but sulfide ore was encountered at 180 feet deep and the cyanide processes were ineffective on the sulfide ore; the mine shut down after just a few months of operations. The Chainman Mine properties then purchased by the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company but litigation stymied operations. On the opposite side of the canyon closer to Ely, the Ely Mining and Milling Company bought the Robinson Group and built a cyanide plant near the mine. Sulfides at a shallow depth caused that mill to shut down too. In 1900, Mark Requa, the son of a Comstock engineer, optioned the copper claims of Edwin Gray and Dave Bartley. His initial interest in the area was to build a feeder railroad to the Eureka and Palisade Railroad. However, the copper soon interested him and he organized the White Pine Copper Company in 1902, and soon solved problems related to metal extraction and transportation. About the same time, Thomas Kearns, David Keith and others organized the McDonald - Ely Company with D. C. McDonald as manager. The Giroux, Ely Mines, Chainman, Ely Central & Butte and Ely Mine companies merged with the White Pine Copper Company financed by Mark L. Requa and this organization became the Consolidated Copper Company, which prepared to build a smelter at McGill that would have a capacity to process 10,000 tons of ore a day. The Consolidated Copper Company led by Requa brought the Nevada Northern Railroad a distance of 150 miles from Cobre (near current Interstate 80) to Ely to transport the copper ore. On September 30, 1906, Mark Requa drove a copper spike made from Ruth Mine copper ore into the ground to celebrate the arrival of the train. With new management, cheap transportation, and more effective extraction processes, the copper deposits of Robinson were finally developed productively, and by 1907, when the smelter in nearby McGill was completed, thirty mining companies were in operation in the Robinson District. The first blister copper was shipped in 1908. The mine earned only $622,470 in the first year, but produced $6,561,787 worth of copper in 1909. Over the years, the Consolidated Copper Company developed the Richards, Alpha, Emma and Morris underground mines and employed about 1,200 men from World War I through the 1920s. Copper prices dropped to 5 cents per pound in 1932 initiating a decline that resulted in the closure of the Kimberly mines until January 1937. By 1941 there were again more than 1,000 men on the payroll and the skip was surfacing 9,000 tons of ore a day. The underground mines shut down in 1949 and by 1951 were converted into open pit mines. In 1958, Kennecott bought out Consolidated Copper Company's Robinson District copper mines, and the Kennecott Copper Company operated until declining copper prices forced closure in 1978. In that time, more than 4.5 billion pounds of copper were taken from the Robinson District. At that time, ore production capa

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References

Reference (Geology): James, L.P., 1990, Gold in the Ely (Robinson) copper district, White Pine County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1857?E, p. E28?E42.

Reference (Age): McDowell, F.W., and Kulp, J.L., 1967, Age of intrusion and ore deposition in the Robinson mining district of Nevada: Economic Geology, v. 62, p. 905?909

Reference (Geology): James, L.P., 1976b, Zoned alteration in limestone at porphyry copper deposits, Ely, Nevada: Economic Geology, v. 71, p. 488?512.

Reference (Geology): Maher, David, 1996, Stratigraphy, structure, and alteration of igneous and carbonate wall rocks at Veteran Extension in the Robinson (Ely) porphyry copper district, Nevada, in Coyner, A.R., and Fahey, P.L., eds., Geology and ore deposits of the American Cordillian

Reference (Geology): Einaudi, M.T., 1982, Description of skarns associated with porphyry copper plutons, in Titley, S.R., ed., Advances in geology of the porphyry copper deposits, southwestern North America: Tucson, University of Arizona Press, p. 139-183.

Reference (Geology): Bauer, H.L., Jr., Breitrick, R.A., Cooper, J.J., and Anderson, J.A., 1966, Porphyry copper deposits in the Robinson mining district, Nevada, in Titley, S.R., and Hicks, C.L., eds., Geology of the porphyry copper deposits, southwestern North America: Univ. of AZ Press, Tucson, AZ

Reference (Reserve-Resource): Revised Reserve Table as of Janurary 1, 2006 http://www.quadramining.com/i/pdf/2006-01-20_NR.pdf
URL: http://www.quadramining.com/i/pdf/2006-01-20_NR.pdf

Reference (Production): Production Results from Quadra Mining Ltd. http://www.quadramining.com/s/RobinsonMine.asp
URL: http://www.quadramining.com/s/RobinsonMine.asp

Reference (Deposit): http://www.quadramining.com/s/RobinsonMine.asp
URL: http://www.quadramining.com/s/RobinsonMine.asp

Reference (Ownership): http://www.quadramining.com/i/pdf/RobinsonNI43-101Final.pdf
URL: http://www.quadramining.com/i/pdf/RobinsonNI43-101Final.pdf

Reference (Reserve-Resource): http://www.quadramining.com/i/pdf/RobinsonNI43-101Final.pdf, pg 68
URL: http://www.quadramining.com/i/pdf/RobinsonNI43-101Final.pdf

Reference (Geology): Westra, G., 1979b, Porphyry copper genesis at Ely, Nevada, in Ridge, J.D., ed., Papers on mineral deposits of Western North America, The International association on the genesis of ore Deposits, Fifth Quadrennial Symposium Proceedings, v.2: Nevada Bureau of Mines

Reference (Geology): Shaver, S.A., and Jeanne, R.A., 1996, The geology and evolution of the weakly Au-(Cu)-mineralized far eastern side of the Robinson mining district, Ely, Nevada, in Coyner, A.R., and Fahey, P.L., eds., Geology and ore deposits of the American Cordillera

Reference (Geology): Seedorff, E., 1993, Robinson mining district geology and mineralization, summer field trip: Geological Society of Nevada Special Publication 17, 69 p.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-2004.

Reference (Geology): Westra, G., 1982, Alteration and mineralization in the Ruth porphyry copper deposit near Ely, Nevada, Economic Geology; v. 77; no. 4; p. 950-970

Reference (Deposit): Quadra Mining Ltd. news releases, 8/11/2004, 2/22/2005.

Reference (Deposit): Mining Magazine, January 1989, p. 44.

Reference (Deposit): Spencer, A. C., 1917, The Geology and Ore Deposits of Ely, Nevada, USGS Professional Paper 96, 189 pp.

Reference (Deposit): Wilson, W. R., 1978, Geology of the Robinson Mining District, Nevada, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Report 32, pp. 55 - 61.

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): 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): Durgin, Dana, 1989, Alta Gold's Robinson Project, in GSN Special Pub. #9, Geology and Mineral Deposits of White Pine County, 1989 Spring Field Trip Guide Book, eds. Schafer and Buffa.

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.

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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.