Wonder Gold Property

Site Name

Primary: Wonder Gold Property
Secondary: Nevada Wonder Mine

---

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Primary: Silver
Secondary: Lead
Secondary: Copper
Tertiary: Iron
Tertiary: Manganese
Tertiary: Barium-Barite

---

Location

State: Nevada
County: Churchill
District: Wonder District

---

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.

---

Holdings

Not available

---

Workings

Not available

---

Ownership

Owner Name: Arizuma Resources
Info Year: 1998

Owner Name: F. W. Lewis Co.
Info Year: 2004

Owner Name: Grand Central Silver Mines Inc.
Info Year: 1998

---

Production

Not available

---

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: Epithermal vein; replacement
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1907
Year Last Production: 1980
Discovery Year: 1906
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y

---

Physiography

Not available

---

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Epithermal vein, Comstock

---

Orebody

Form: tabular

---

Structure

Type: L
Description: high-angle fault zones

Type: R
Description: The mine lies within the eastern part of the Elevenmile Canyon Caldera

---

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Three main types of hydrothermal alteration affect the rocks in the mine area: propylitic, argillic and/or sericitic (bleaching), and silicification, which is particularly prevalent along high-angle fault zones

---

Rocks

Name: Dacite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Tuff
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Oligocene

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

---

Analytical Data

Not available

---

Materials

Ore: Stephanite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Argentite
Ore: Wulfenite
Ore: Cerargyrite
Gangue: Calcite
Gangue: Barite
Gangue: Limonite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Fluorite
Gangue: Adularia
Gangue: Pyrite

---

Comments

Comment (Deposit): The deposit includes the Nevada Wonder vein system, which follows in part the contact between rhyolite and intrusive dacite, and lies partly within the rhyolite. The veins consist of quartz crudely banded with feldspar and are limonite-stained. Veins are 2- to 15-meter-thick zones of silicified breccia and quartz replacing wallrock along high-angle fault zones. The main veins crop out irregularly forming craggy, resistant ledges 1-15 meters wide, and up to 5 kilometers long. The silver- gold ore minerals consist of argentite, free gold, halogen salts, cerargyrite, stephanite, and wulfenite occuring in a quartz-adularia gangue with fluorite, and limonite. Some veins consist of milky quartz +/- adularia, with Fe-Mn oxides, and local fluorite, calcite, and barite. Quartz and adularia are partly pseudomorphous after calcite and are commonly banded, sheared, brecciated or crushed. The fault gouge is strongly mineralized. The deposit is oxidized to the 1300-ft level with boxwork zones locally present. The main veins follow the contact which both trend about N30W.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: argentite, free gold, halogen salts, cerargyrite, stephanite, wulfenite

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, adularia, fluorite, limonite, manganese oxides, barite, calcite, pyrite

Comment (Location): UTM is to the location of the old Nevada Wonder Mine, which lies on the current gold property.

Comment (Workings): The historic mine was developed by old underground workings which have since been encompassed by more recent open pit workings.

Comment (Development): The rich silver-gold-bearing quartz veins of the Wonder district were discovered in 1906, givig rise to one of the last bonanza-type gold rushes in Nevada and formation of the Wonder camp. Most of the district production was from the Nevada Wonder mine between 1911 and 1919. Sporadic mining continued in the district until World War II, and the district was re-examined for bulk-mineable potential in the early 1980s. The Nevada Wonder waste dumps were reprocessed in the mid-1980s. In 1987 the property consisted of a single bench open pit and a small heap leach operation. In 1998, Grand Central Silver Mines Inc. signed and option to joint venture with Arizuma Resources on Arizuma's holdings in the Wonder district. The joint venture will explore for and develop ore below open pit mineable depths (500 feet). The joint venture will control approximately 2,200 acres in the heart of the district, including the Wonder property. Surface exploration was to be followed by drilling commencing in May, 1998. The drill program will test both strike potential and depth potential of the Wonder vein system. An Arizuma Res. property and grade-thickness map for Wonder (post-1997) outlines a geologic resource of 1.9 million tons of material grading 2.73 ounces of silver per ton and 0.016 ounces of gold per ton centeed in the area of the old underground workings.

Comment (Economic Factors): Between 1907 and 1942, the mine produced 413,059 short tons of ore grading 0.173 opt gold and 16.28 opt silver, totaling 71,597.39 oz gold and 6,726,946 oz silver. The reserves as reported in 1981 were 731,780 short tons of ore grading 0.019 opt gold and 2.42 opt Ag. An Arizuma property and grade-thickness map for Wonder (post-1997) outlines a geologic resource of 1.9 million tons of material grading 2.73 ounces of silver perton and 0.016 ounces of gold per ton centeed ijn the area of the old underground workings. In 2000 there was a reported preliminary oxide resource of 4.1 million tons of material 2.83 equivalent opt Ag (11.5 million tons of material equivalent oz Ag); 2000: Probable resource: 1.9 Mt, 2.73 opt Ag, 0.016 opt Au.

Comment (Identification): The present gold property includes the old Nevada Wonder or Wonder Mine, (MRDS record #W700384) and surrounding area in the heart of the Wonder District.

---

References

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): NDOM Staff, 1988, Directory of Nevada Mine Operations Active During Calendar Year 1987: Nevada Division Of Mine Inspection, 84 p.

Reference (Deposit): Arizuma Co. unpublished geologic map and section of the central Wonder District mine area (post-1997).

Reference (Deposit): Poloni, 1981, NBMG Mining District File 21, item #I25

Reference (Deposit): Lewis,1967, NBMG Mining District File 21, item #I4

Reference (Deposit): Engineering and Mining Journal, pages 763-765. 1907

Reference (Deposit): Economic Geology, pages 546-549. 1918.

Reference (Deposit): Economic Geology, pages 224-225, 1918

Reference (Deposit): Pay Dirt, Feb, 1989

Reference (Deposit): NBMG Map 91

Reference (Deposit): NBMG OFR 90-2, 3

Reference (Deposit): The Mining Record. 4/29/98

Reference (Deposit): Economic Geology. Pages 589-593. 1917

Reference (Deposit): Engineering and Mining Journal, pages 289-292,1909

Reference (Deposit): NBMG Map 109, 1997

Reference (Deposit): John, D.A., Geology of the Wonder Mountain Quadrangle, Churchill County, NV, NBMG Map 109, Text and References, 16p.

Reference (Deposit): Economic Geology and the Bulletin of the Society of Economic Geologists, 14; 5, pages 427-430, 1919

Reference (Deposit): Isochron/West, 8, pages 31-35, 1973

---

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.