Trenton Canyon Gold Mine

Site Name

Primary: Trenton Canyon Gold Mine
Secondary: North Peak deposit
Secondary: Valmy deposit
Secondary: Trenton Canyon deposit
Secondary: Chevron-Duval-Santa Fe claims

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Commodity

Primary: Gold

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Lander
District: Buffalo Valley

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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.

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Newmont Gold Company

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: Distal disseminated Ag-Au
Operation Type: Surface
Discovery Year: 1991
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: M

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Distal disseminated Ag-Au

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Orebody

Not available

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Structure

Type: R
Description: The Roberts Mountain Thrust fault and the Golconda Thrust fault both affect rocks in the region of the mine

Type: L
Description: The West Side Fault is a major N-S-trending range-front fault bounding the Battle Mountain block on the west side of the range, and is adjacent to the North Peak deposit. The Oyarbide Fault is a NE-trending fault that transects the range, with the Trenton Canyon deposit lying south of the fault and the North Peak and Valmy deposits lying north of the fault.

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Alterations

Not available

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Rocks

Name: Chert
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Permian
Age Old: Middle Pennsylvanian

Name: Sandstone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Permian
Age Old: Middle Pennsylvanian

Name: Limestone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Permian
Age Old: Middle Pennsylvanian

Name: Siltstone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Permian
Age Old: Middle Pennsylvanian

Name: Sedimentary Rock
Role: Host
Description: siliciclastic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Ordovician

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold

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Comments

Comment (Location): The North Peak orebody center is 3.5 km WNW of the Trenton Canyon orebody center, and the Valmy orebody center is 6 km NNE of the Trenton Canyon orebody center. Even if one considers orebody edge-to-edge distances, this MRDS record probably contains three separate deposits. The Valmy orebody edge is separated from the Marigold 30 gold zone by only 1 km, so the Valmy is more logically part of the Marigold district. Also a bit confusing is the fact that the summit of North Peak is much closer to Valmy than it is to the North Peak mine.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: free gold

Comment (Development): A joint venture involving Bow Valley Mining and Santa Fe Pacific discovered the main Trenton Canyon deposit (North Peak ) in 1988, as a result of follow up work on a stream sediment anomaly. 1989 drilling defined the mineralization and the deposit was drilled out from 1990 to 1994, at which time Santa Fe bought out Bow Valley's interest in the deposit. The Valmy deposit was found in 1989 just north of Hecla's Trout Creek deposit, and the two were consolidated when Santa Fe bought out Hecla's interest in 1992. An additional 140 drill holes were completed at Trenton Canyon in 1996 to define and extend mineralized areas and to investigate two new targets. One new zone of shallow oxide mineralization was encountered in the Valmy deposit area. The second, called the Hollywood zone, is on a ridge northeast of the Trenton Canyon deposit where seven drill holes have intercepted a high-angle zone of near-surface oxide mineralization with grades between 0.03 and 0.13 opt in intercepts 40 to 105 feet thick. Construction began on the Trenton Canyon project in early 1996, and by the end of that year, Santa Fe had begun loading ore mined from the North Peak deposit onto the heap leach pads at a rate of 30,000 tons per day. Gold-laden carbon from the leach pads was processed at the Lone Tree Mine facility. Newmont Gold Company acquired the properties when it merged with Santa Fe Pacific in May 1997. The mine was expected to begin producing at a rate of 70,000 ounces per year in 1997, increasing to about 100,000 ounces per year later in its eight-year projected mine life. In 1995, reserves increased 14 percent from 517,000 ounces to 590,000 ounces, contained in more than 20 million tons of ore. The first gold was produced in early 1997.

Comment (Geology): The two pits at the Valmy deposit are hosted entirely in the Valmy Formation, which in the pit area, is divided into an upper and a lower unit separated from each other by a low-angle thrust fault. The North Peak deposit is hosted entirely within the Havallah Unit, which is divided into three subunits in the pit area: a basal siltstone/limestone unit, a middle sandstone unit, and an upper chert/siltstone unit. The deposit is localized in a heavily fractured zone at the intersection of three high-angle Tertiary faults.

Comment (Identification): The Trenton Canyon Project is composed of three distinct deposits, the North Peak, Valmy, and Trenton Canyon deposits.

Comment (Deposit): All three deposits are structurally-controlled, sediment-hosted gold deposits

Comment (Economic Factors): In 1996, the deposit was estimated to contain a resource of 37,149,000 short tons of mineralized material grading 0.03 ounces of gold per ton. Newmont includes the Trenton Canyon Project production with that from the Lone Tree mine, so individual production data for Trenton is not available.

Comment (Location): The Trenton Canyon Project is located on the northwest flank of Battle Mountain and spans Trout and Cottonwood Creeks in Humboldt and Lander counties. UTM is to the Valmy Pit, from which the first ore was mined. UTM of the North Peak Pit is 4500400N, 481400E. UTM of one of the more centrally located of the Trenton Canyon Pits is 4499300N, 484400E. Actual location of the Valmy and North Peak pits and heap leach facilities is on private land, but the access and haul roads and the Trenton Canyon pits lie on both private and BLM administered lands. The pits of the North Peak and Valmy deposits are located in Humboldt County while the Trenton Canyon deposit workings are located in Lander County. The North Peak orebody is over 3 km WNW of the Trenton Canyon orebody, and the Valmy orebody is over 6 km NNE of the Trenton Canyon orebody. So this mine actually contains three separate deposits. The Valmy orebody is really part of the Marigold deposit.

Comment (Workings): The mine project is developed by several open pits

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References

Reference (Deposit): ROBERTS, R.J., AND D.C. ARNOLD, (1965), ORE DEPOSITS OF THE ANTLER PEAK QUAD HUMBOLDT AND LANDER COUNTIES, NEV.; U.S.G.S. PROF PAPER 459-B.

Reference (Deposit): Felder, R.P., 1998, Geology, mineralization, and exploration history of the Trenton Canyon project, in Theodore, T.G., Geology of pluton-related gold mineralization at Battle Mountain, Nevada: Tucson, Arizona, University of Arizona and U.S. Geological Survey Center for Mineral Resources, Monograph 2.

Reference (Deposit): Blake, D.W., Theodore, T.G., Batchelder, J.N., and Kretschmer, E.L., 1979, Structural relations of igneous rocks and mineralization in the Battle Mountain Mining District, Lander County, Nevada, in Ridge, J.D., ed., Papers on mineral deposits of western North America: International Association on the Genesis of Ore Deposits Symposium, 5th, Snowbird-Alta, Utah, 1978, Proceedings: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Report 33, p. 87?99.

Reference (Deposit): Driesner, Doug, and Coyner, Alan, 2008, Major Mines of Nevada 2007 - Mineral Industries in Nevada?s Economy: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology; The Nevada Division of Minerals, SPECIAL PUBLICATION P-19, p. 10 and 12. http://minerals.state.nv.us/forms/mining/MajorMinesOfNevada/mm2007.pdf
URL: http://minerals.state.nv.us/forms/mining/MajorMinesOfNevada/mm2007.pdf

Reference (Deposit): Johnston, Ivan, and others, 1999 Fall Field Trip Guidebook; Geology and Gold Mineralization of the Buffalo Valley Area, Northwestern Battle Mountain Trend, Trenton Canyon Mine, North Peak Mine, Buffalo Valley Mine, Redline Gold Skarn Deposit, Copper Canyon Gold Skarn-A Review, Marigold Mine; Geological Society of Nevada Special Publication No. 31, 261 pp. October 16-17, 1999.

Reference (Deposit): Denver Mining Record, 4/17/96

Reference (Deposit): Denver Mining Record,9/4/96

Reference (Deposit): Northern Miner,11/4/96

Reference (Deposit): Doebrich, J.L., 1995, Geology and mineral deposits of the Antler Peak 7.5-minute quadrangle, Lander County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 109, 44 p.

Reference (Deposit): Winnemucca BLM District, 1998, Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Trenton Canyon Project

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

Reference (Deposit): Geological Society of Nevada; 1996 fall field trip guidebook, geology and ore deposits of northwestern Nevada; Trenton Canyon Project, Long Tree Mine, Getchell Mine, Twin Creeks Mine, Florida Canyon Mine (DeLong, Richard, editor) ; GSN Special Publication No. 24.

Reference (Deposit): Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 90-206A, 33 p.; 98-206B. one 3.5 inch diskette.

Reference (Deposit): Pay Dirt, 11/1/96

Reference (Deposit): Santa Fe Pacific Gold 1996 SEC Form 10K

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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.