Pennsylvania Mine Project

Site Name

Primary: Pennsylvania Mine Project
Secondary: Tom Johnston Property (in part)
Secondary: Alta Claims (in part)
Secondary: Independence
Secondary: Jumbo Claim area?
Secondary: Pennsylvania Mine north
Secondary: Pennsylvania Mine south
Secondary: Culverwell adit

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Primary: Silver
Primary: Copper
Tertiary: Barium-Barite

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Lincoln
District: Pennsylvania 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 administative district

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Royal Standard Minerals
Info Year: 1997

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: vein, fault/breccia zone; pluton-related
Operation Type: Surface
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: Polymetallic veins

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Orebody

Form: tabular

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Structure

Type: R
Description: The Caliente caldera complex consists of an 80 km E-W by 35 km N-S area of nested calderas in this part of the southeastern Great Basin. It is bounded on its north and south sides by E-W shear zones that provided magmatic pathways for stratovolcanoes, volcanic domes, breccia pipes, and other volcanic vents. The E-W zones also provided fluid pathways that resulted in adjacent hydrothermal gold deposits of the Pennsylvania, and other mining districts. The E-W shear zones are interpreted as transverse zones, which are broad belts of accommodation that enabled crust north and south of them to extend at different rates, amounts, and methods.

Type: L
Description: Rocks in the mine area are cut by both NE- and NW- striking faults.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Argillization and silicification are the dominant alteration types in the mine area. Host rocks in the mine area are thoroughly kaolinized and silicified. Chloritically altered intrusive outcrops nearby.

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Rocks

Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock Unit
Age Young: Early Cambrian
Age Old: Neoproterozoic

Name: Andesite
Role: Host
Description: altered ash-flow tuff
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Miocene

Name: Diorite
Role: Associated
Description: altered intrusive
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock Unit
Age Young: Early Cambrian
Age Old: Middle Cambrian

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Chalcopyrite
Ore: Malachite
Ore: Azurite
Ore: Brochantite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Quartz
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Calcite
Gangue: Clay

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Comments

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: clay, iron oxides, quartz, pyrite, calcite

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: chalcopyrite, malachite, azurite, brochantite, gold, other very fine-grained gray sulfides

Comment (Development): Early exploration in the district was for silver. The U. S. Government explored it for copper in 1943, driving a "new" incline 230 ft n of the "old" incline, 500 ft down dip from the outcrop, thence 500 feet north and 200 feet south, drifting in quartz breccia with minor mineralization. Bear Creek Mining Company (Kennecott) began exploration in 1967, staking an additional 26 "Alta" claims around Johnston's claims. Homestake began exploration here in 1968, followed by Western Ventures in 1969 and Cordilleran Exploration in the early 1970s and Westward Energy and Resources, Inc. in 1983. Area is staked and there is recent surface exploration at and adjacent to the mine sites (1983). Although there was no activity at the time of NBMG examination in 1983, several core boxes and modern equipment indicated that the property had been recently drilled. The open pit operation appeared to date from about 1980. Orange flagging on outcrops at west edge of pit indicated recent sampling of the property at that time. Royal Standard Minerals, Inc. acquired the Caliente property in the Pennsyvania Mine area in the 1990s. In 1996, Royal Standard was assessing the ore potential of the partially developed resource on the property. Forty-eight new lode claims were staked to control the entire Pennsylvania quartz vein system, including the high-grade Jumbo open pit and several gold skarn zone targets on the property. Based on previous drilling, the high-grade Jumbo zone was believed to contain 10,000 to 30,000 tons grading 0.126 opt gold. This mineralization remains open down plunge toward the east.Based on assay results from a 1997 sampling program, Royal Standard planned an infill diamond drilling program to prove up and expand the reserve base of the Jumbo zone on its Caliente property. The mile-long gold-bearing sheeted quartz vein-breccia system has been partially developed by the Jumbo pit. Previous exploration identified a resource of 700,000 tons grading 0.039 opt gold in the central area of the system. The former heap leach pile contains about 50,000 tons of 0.03 opt gold and 0.80 opt silver which may also be classified as reserves. Deep exploration and evaluation of several gold skarn targets on the property were also planned.

Comment (Economic Factors): Based on previous drilling, the high-grade Jumbo zone was believed to contain 10,000 to 30,000 tons grading 0.126 opt gold. Previous exploration identified a resource of 700,000 tons grading 0.039 opt gold in the central area of the system. The former heap leach pile contains about 50,000 tons of 0.03 opt gold and 0.80 opt silver which may also be classified as reserves.

Comment (Deposit): The main Pennsylvania deposit consists of a mile-long sheeted quartz vein system and quartz-cemented breccia that was emplaced along a shear zone. The property also contains several gold skarn zone targets. In th emain vein system, intervening wall rock fragments and lenses consist of altered andesite, mapped as Miocene ash-flow tuff. The quartz is light green to tan to gray in color, sugary to massive in texture and characteristically vuggy with some gossany portions. The vugs are filled with euhedral iron-stained prismatic quartz. Fissure-type banding is common as is quartz after calcite texture and coarse white calcite vein material. Most of the veins are subparallel with a general N-NW strike and shallow E-NE dip. The outcrop is sheared (fractured) both parallel to and at a high angle to the sheeted vein system. The dominant NW- shearing and veining reflect a major NE-striking 30E-dipping fault that bounds the inferred southern limit of the Caliente caldera complex. The contact of intrusive with limestone is not well exposed, but orientation is probably NE-SW. Weathered, chloritically altered intrusive outcrops at bottom of trench just NW of the adit. Host rock has iron-stained fractures and carries a small amount of oxidized pyrite. An inclined shaft follows an iron-stained, silicified, gossan replacement zone in altered limestone. Mineralized dump rock is red-black, very dense and composed almost wholly of magnetite. Magnetite also occurs in calcite-veined tactite and as replacement pods in the limestone. Limestone shows various types of alteration including silication, marbelization, and replacement or staining by iron-oxides (gossan). The rock is banded, very dense, and contains lenses and veins of calcite and oxidized pods and crystals of magnetite, copper oxides, pyrite, and chalcopyrite. An elongate prospect in the NW part of mine area exposes propylitized, silicified, brecciated andesitic volcanics cut by mafic dikes and a N25W shear zone 10-30 ft wide that hosts the main Pennsylvania sheeted quartz vein system. Many of the veins are fissure-type, composed of bands of finely crystalline or chalcedonic quartz with open drusy quartz-encrusted centers. The quartz carries the minerals mentioned above and encloses altered andesite and possibly some sedimentary fragments. Some of the fragments are mineralized, containing pyrite, chalcopyrite and iron oxides. Several fragments display early stage vitreous quartz veinlets. The breccia itself is commonly crosscut by late-stage open-centered fissure veins. The rocks exposed in the trenches above the prospects are altered pink-gray, rhyolite ash-flow tuff. Within the trench, the rocks are bleached, argillized (kaolinized?) and sheared. The rocks are hydrothermally altered to bright red, yellow, and orange colors at the northwest end of the trench. They are clay-altered and show calcite and clay veining.

Comment (Location): The Pennsylvania Mine is located in a tributary to Pennsylvania Canyon about three miles south of Ella Mountain and 7 miles north of the railroad siding at Elgin.

Comment (Workings): The workings in the Pennsylvania District are all on the same vein system. 1980s trenching and bulldozer work obliterated the original old workings, which consisted of the Culverwell SE-trending adit, 2 inclined shafts, several prospect pits, several connecting shallow prospects trenches, and short drifts. There were the remains of a track near the adit portal. Prospect above the adit is a caved shaft inclined about 40NE. Development since the 1980s included a small shallow open-pit mine and ore stock piles of reworked dump material from other minesites in district. Fairly modern crushing and sorting equipment were present on the minesite. There were old charcoal kilns, (smelters) on site, several leach ponds in the drainage and canisters of chemicals. There had been recent shallow surface scraping in the drainage area. There were old timbers and piles of ore in the mine area In 1983, there were 3-4 small, mostly caved NE-trending prospects 3-7 years old, and 2 NW-trending bulldozer cuts above the adits. There was fairly recent trenching and bulldozing in the vicinity of the prospects, and the main ore shoot was mined 450 feet down dip.

Comment (Identification): This record is a new record for the current Pennsylvania Mine Project that includes all material in earlier MRDS records M241647, M241648, M032085, and M032086 as well as additional new information.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Snee, Lawrence W. and Rowley, Peter D. , 2000, New 40Ar/39Ar dates from the Caliente caldera complex, Nevada-Utah; at least 10 million years of Tertiary volcanism in one of the world's largest caldera complexes; Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, vol.32, no.7, pp.461.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-1996

Reference (Deposit): Denver Mining Record, 8/28/96.

Reference (Deposit): Denver Mining Record, 1/29/97.

Reference (Deposit): Bentz, J. and Smith, P., 1983, Field examination report on Sept 13,1983.

Reference (Deposit): Tschanz and Pampeyan, 1970, NBMG Bull 73, p. 170-172, Pl. I., Ii.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG District Files, Report on Tom Johnson property

Reference (Deposit): Grapevine Spring G-E-M Resources Area Technical Report, 1983, for BLM.

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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.