Golden Sage Project

The Golden Sage Project is a silver and gold mine located in Humboldt county, Nevada.

About the MRDS Data:

All mine locations were obtained from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System. The locations and other information in this database have not been verified for accuracy. It should be assumed that all mines are on private property.

Mine Info

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Site Name

Primary: Golden Sage Project
Secondary: Main Zone
Secondary: Central Zone

Commodity

Primary: Silver
Primary: Gold
Tertiary: Arsenic
Tertiary: Antimony
Tertiary: Mercury

Location

State: Nevada
County: Humboldt
District: Ten Mile District

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: Winnemucca BLM District

Holdings

Not available

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Owner Name: Blue Desert Mining, Inc.
Info Year: 1997

Production

Not available

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: adularia- sericite or low sulfidation epithermal gold
Operation Type: Surface
Year First Production: 1925
Discovery Year: 1900
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Model Name: Epithermal vein, quartz adularia

Orebody

Form: tabular to irregular

Structure

Type: L
Description: Mineralization is controlled by bedding plane faults and fractures that crosscut bedding,

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: pervasive alteration

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Electrum
Ore: Petzite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Adularia

Comments

Comment (Development): The Ten Mile district was reportedly active from about the early 1900s to the 1940s, with some production judging from the size of the dumps of the old underground workings.No significant production has occurred since then, although several claims are active in the area and in recent years prospectors with metal detectors have reported substantial finds of nuggets and pocket gold around the district. Early in 1997, Blue Desert Mining Inc. commenced a reverse circulation drilling project at the Golden Sage property where previous drilling had outlined a 500,000-oz gold resource located along the range front faults at the base of Blue Mountain. Difficult drilling conditions led to the suspension of drilling after only seven holes were completed, some of which fell short of their target depth. Drilling intersected pervasively altered volcanic rocks containing anomalous amounts of antimony, arsenic and mercury, indicator elements for epithermal gold deposits.

Comment (Identification): Ten Mile District area mines/prospects described in Bowell, Hunerlach, Parshley, and Sears are: Ten Mile Mine, Big Cut, Jake?s Cut, Black Widow, Golden Amethyst mine area

Comment (Location): The Ten Mile mining district is located between the Krum Hills and Blue Mountain in southeast Humboldt County, Nevada approximately 10-20miles west of Winnemucca. Main Zone and Central Zone noted.

Comment (Workings): Exploration drilling in 1997

Comment (Economic Factors): In 1997 reported reserves of the prospect were 500,000 ounces of gold. Few records of early production exist but the Ten Mile district mines are believed to have produced approximately 570 kg (20,000 ounces) of gold from about 1900 through 1942. Willden (1964) reports the value of gold and silver from the area in excess of $1 million.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold, electrum, petzite, possibly sulfides

Comment (Deposit): Mineralization occurs in pervasively altered volcanic rocks containing anomalous amounts of antimony, arsenic and mercury, indicator elements for epithermal gold deposits. Mineralization is comprised of stockworks and veins which are typically open spaced and vuggy grading into wider silicified zones at depth. The mines in the area worked oxidized deposits with all workings stopping just above sulfide ore. High-grade gold pockets (typically greater than 30 g/t Au (1 opt Au) were located with a metal detector and appear to be localized along a fault surface. Most of the gold is found along the footwall, where open-space-filling occurred during gold deposition; gold was concentrated in areas where solutions poold. The presence of some microbreccia and pebble-breccia fragments suggest that the fault was reactivated post-mineralization. Occasionally euhedral gold leaves are found rolled up with and within small breccia fragments, also indicating post gold movement. Mineralization appears to follow bedding plane faults and fractures that crosscut bedding, the largest observed gold-bearing strikes N. 55-60E and dips to the 55-65 NW. A second location where gold was found in situ is at the intersection of N-S and NE-SW- trending structures that converge and can be traced to the surface. Evidence exists of supergene enrichment in the upper zones where some exceptionally rich pockets of gold were found concentrated in favorable structural traps. Thus, crystalline native gold is believed to be bi-modal in origin.

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, adularia

References

Reference (Deposit): Willden, R., 1964, Geology and mineral deposits of Humboldt County,

Reference (Deposit): Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 59, 154 p.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-97

Reference (Deposit): Amer. Mines (1998), 1997

Reference (Deposit): International Mining News, 12 Mar 1997

Reference (Deposit): Blue Desert Mining Inc. press release, 5/14/97

Reference (Deposit): Denver Mining Record, 3/12/97

Reference (Deposit): D.A. Davis and J. V. Tingley, 1999, Gold and silver resources in Nevada, NBMG Map 120

Reference (Deposit): Bowell, R.J., Hunerlach, M.P., Parshley, J., and Sears, S., 2000, The Ten Mile mining district, Winnemucca, Nevada: Geology, mineralogy and supergene gold enrichment, 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, Reno/Sparks, May 2000, p. 349-363.

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.