Mountain View Gold Project

Site Name

Primary: Mountain View Gold Project

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Primary: Silver
Secondary: Lead
Secondary: Copper
Tertiary: Mercury
Tertiary: Arsenic
Tertiary: Antimony

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Washoe
District: Deephole 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: Susanville BLM Administrative District(?)

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Vista Gold Corp.
Info Year: 2004

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: epithermal gold system
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Discovery Year: 1938
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: Hot-spring Au-Ag

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Orebody

Form: irregular

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Structure

Type: R
Description: Basin and Range type extensional faulting

Type: L
Description: Shear zones; range-front fault on west side of the Granite Range.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: A skarn-hornfels zone is developed adjacent to a Cretaceous age granitic intrusive body. Widespread argillic alteration is developed in poorly exposed Mid-Miocene flow-banded rhyolitic volcanic rocks.

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Rocks

Name: Granodiorite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Basalt
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Quaternary

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: flow dome?
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Galena
Ore: Tennantite
Ore: Gold
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Marcasite
Gangue: Adularia
Gangue: Calcite
Gangue: Pyrite

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Comments

Comment (Deposit): The mineralized area consists of a sheeted vein zone of quartz veins cutting black schistose hornfels, associated with granodiorite. Calcite crystals are on dump of old workings, also calcite veining and copper oxides are present in intrusive rock on the dump. Pre-1985 exploration focused on gold-bearing, irregular, discontinuous, quartz-cemented breccia in pre-Tertiary limestone exposed in the footwall side pf the range-front fault forming the western side of the Granite Range. Originally recognized mineralization was in a weak skarn-hornfels zone associated with a Cretaceous age granitic intrusive body. Post-1985 activity discovered widespread argillic alteration in poorly exposed Mid-Miocene flow-banded rhyolitic volcanic rocks (flow dome?) in the hanging wall of the fault 1.5 mile SW of the old mine area. Locally high-grade gold mineralization does not outcrop at the surface and is buried under several hundred feet of colluvium. mineralization consists of of a multistage, pyritic, quartz-adularia stockwork within brecciated and silicified volcanic rocks. Stockwork veins are generally less than 3 cm in width composed of quartz-marcasite, and finely banded quartz-adularia with low sulfide content, bladed quartz after calcite and areas of gold grains with abundant fine-grained silver selenides. Gold also occurs in the siliceous breccia matrix. Basalt below the rhyolite is locally altered and mineralized.

Comment (Development): The historic Mountain View Mine located on the ridge to the east of the currently explored property was optioned in 1938 by Anaconda from the original claimants. From 1939 to 1941, the Burm-Ball Co. optioned the property and produced some gold ore from a winze sunk from the main (lower) adit level. This production was followed by intermittent unsuccessful attempts to rework the mine, the most recent in 1961-1962. The property was staked in1979, but there was no visible activity at the time of a field examination in 1984 by NBMG staff geologists. The current property which extends to the pediment area below the historic mine, has had several owners over the past two decades. In 1992, Canyon Resources Corp. and Independence Mining Company discovered gold mineralization 1.5 miles southwest of the old Mountain View Mine area. Subsequent owners of the property included Breckenridge Minerals, Inc. in 1999, and later, Newmont. Vista Gold acquired the Mountain View project in October 2002 from Newmont Capital Limited, a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corp., and began evaluating its potential for both high-grade mineralization and additional bulk tonnage resources beneath the currently defined resource area. A five-hole drill program completed in November 2003 was designed to test for both types of mineralization and produced promising intercepts in at least two of the holes. In 2004, Vista Gold Corp.completed drilling a five-hole reverse circulation program totaling 4,330 feet at the Mountain View Gold property. Intercepts in two holes (230 feet of 0.039 opt Au, and 165 feet of 0.026 opt Au) indicate the presence of a new zone of bulk mineralization approximately 400 feet east of the known core of mineralization. Higher grade gold intercepts included 5 feet of 0.370 opt Au and 20 feet of 0.112 opt Au.

Comment (Economic Factors): In 1998, Breckenridge reported reserves of 10.7 million tons of ore grading 0.055 opt Au, with a drill- indicated resource of 500,000 ocntaine d ounces of gold and 3 million ounces of silver. Gold resources of the Mountain View property as reported by Vista Gold prepared in 2002 were: a measured and indicated 23,219,000 short tons of ore grading 0.013 opt gold, for a contained 298,143 ounces of gold, and an inferred resource of 4,466,000 short tons of ore grading 0.039 opt gold for a contained 175,046 ounces of gold.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold, silver selenides, galena, tennantite

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, marcasite, adularia, calcite, pyrite

Comment (Environment): District mineralization is a large Mid-Miocene epithermal gold system that is part of the 15 Ma low-sulfidation, base-metal poor, Se-rich epithermal province characteristic of the NW great Basin, including the Sleeper, Hog Ranch and Delamar districts.

Comment (Identification): The Mountain View project deposit is on the alluvium-covered pediment below the old Mountain View Mine, MRDS # M242563, which is situated on the ridge to the east above the current prospect.

Comment (Location): The property is located about 2 miles northeast of Squaw Valley Ranch on the west flank of the Granite Range.

Comment (Workings): Historic workings consist of 2 adits, one up to 1000 ft long, open cut, 2 shafts, drifts, raises, winzes. More recent surface exploration work and drilling.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Margolis, Jacob, Marlowe, Karl, 1996, Middle Miocene, selenide-rich, low-sulfidation, epithermal gold mineralization, Mountain View District, northwestern Nevada; Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol.28, no.7, pp.93.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-95; MI-96; MI-97 and MI-2002

Reference (Deposit): Vista Gold website, 2004

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

Reference (Deposit): Jones, R.B., 1984, Field examination, 7-8-84

Reference (Deposit): Bonham, H.L., Jr, 1969, NBMG Bull 70,p. 59.

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.

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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.