Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine

Site Name

Primary: Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine
Secondary: Enfield Bell Mine
Secondary: Generator
Secondary: Alchem
Secondary: Marlboro Deposits

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver
Secondary: Mercury
Tertiary: Antimony
Tertiary: Barium-Barite
Tertiary: Arsenic

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Elko
District: Jerritt Canyon District

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Land Status

Land ownership: National Forest
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: Elko District U S Forest Service

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Queenstake Resources
Info Year: 2006

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: replacement
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1918
Discovery Year: 1918
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: Sediment-hosted Au

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Orebody

Form: tabular; pods; beds.

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Structure

Type: L
Description: breccia zone, faults, fractures

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: silicification, oxidation of sulphides, bleaching, argillization, decalcification

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Rocks

Name: Siltstone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Devonian
Age Old: Wenlock

Name: Limestone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Silurian
Age Old: Middle Ordovician

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Realgar
Ore: Barite
Ore: Stibnite
Ore: Clay
Ore: Limonite
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Quartz
Ore: Orpiment
Gangue: Calcite

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Comments

Comment (Development): Historic Sb development consisted of a 29 ft. shaft, 80ft of underground workings, and an open pit. 20 tons of antimony was produced in1918, 12 1/2 tons in 1945. The Sb mine was owned by D. Williams and D. Andrae in 1957. In the mid-1970's, FMC showed an initial interest in the area due to the occurrence of the antimony deposits as described by Lawrence in his Antimony bulletin. When gold was discovered by sampling surface exposures and drilling, FMC asked Freeport Gold Co. (later Independence Mining Co. and still later, Anglo Gold) to joint venture with them. Construction of the mine began in 1980, at a cost of about 105 million dollars. In 1983, the mine and mill together employed about 272 persons. The claim block includes 374 sections along the crest of the Independence Range where additional exploratory drilling was ongoing by 5 rigs in 1982. Producing mine since 1981-see production comments. Eventually the Alchem, Marlboro Canyon, West Generator, and North Generator deposits merged into a single multi-lobed pit area, and when open pit working became less profitable, mining of the higher-grade deeper zones took over. Additional nearby deposits were discovered in windows through the Roberts Mountains thrust. Several of these have also been mined with ore trucked to the Jerritt Canyon mill. Currently (2000) the only remaining surface mining is ongoing from the Dash pit, with most of the deposits developed by underground workings (Murray, Deep, SSX).

Comment (Commodity): Commodity Info: Ore contains very low to essentially no Ag, is high in Sb, As, Hg, and some samples have Tl. Ore is carbonaceous and contains some barite.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: calcite, quartz, pyrite, oxidation products, limonite, clays, stibnite, barite, realgar, orpiment

Comment (Deposit): Fracture zone contains crystals, pods, & veinlets in brecciated footwall limestone. Ore also occurs along bedding planes usually within ten feet of the fracture zone.

Comment (Economic Factors): Production from 1981 through 1996 for the Jerritt Canyon Mines (Burns Basin, Enfield Bell, Pattani Springs, and including Saval Canyon ) was 140.6 tonnes of gold and more than 0.75 tonnes of silver from 29,408 kilotonnes of ore. In 1996, the remaining resource in the Jerritt Canyon deposits was estimated to be about 237 tonnes of gold and an unknown amount of silver contained in 36,433 kilotonnes of ore.

Comment (Geology): Fracture zone contains crystals, pods, & veinlets in brecciated footwall limestone. Ore also occurs along bedding planes usually within ten feet of the fracture zone. calcite, quartz, pyrite, oxidation products, limonite, clays, stibnite, barite Within the Generator/ marlboro Canyon deposits, ore occurs in a fracture zone 12 to 18" wide containing single crystals, pods, & veinlets of stibnite within the brecciated footwall limestone. Ore also occurs along bedding planes usually within 10' of the fracture zone. A sample of stockpiled ore contained 17% stibnite, and .5 oz silver per ton. Upper plate rocks are exposed in several windows. Jasperoids and jasperoid breccias are abundant and important in prospecting. According to company geologists, there is no way to discern a au-bearing jasperoid from a barren one. The jasperoids above the Marlboro and Generator pits are anomalous in gold as well as Sb and Ba. Outcrops of jasperoid contain abundant barite, stibnite and calcite in pods and vugs. Rocks show open-space textures with many vugs and crosscutting veinlets of drusy quartz. The E-W trending generator jasperoids show multiple brecciation or fracturing and are cut by many quartz veinlets. Barite crystals up to 0.5 in commonly fill iron-stained quartz-encrusted vugs. The Marlboro jasperoids reportedly ran 0.1-0.04 oz/t au. They cover the entire hillside n of the Marlboro pit. Jasperoids occur over, under, adjacent to, and far from the orebodies. In the generator pit, the jasperoids are mined.

Comment (Identification): Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine encompasses several individual orebodies which are also described in individual MRDS records:

Comment (Location): UTM is to near center of the Generator Pit.

Comment (Workings): Initial development in the 19??s consisted of 2 adjoining open pits: the Generator and the Marlboro Canyon with one more pit projected to the SE to explore the defined Aalchem orebody. In 1982, active mining was going on in the Generator pit and stripping in the Marlboro pit. Ore was hauled 7.5 miles to the millsite where ore was crushed, treated or cyanide leached at the millsite.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Hofstra, A.H., and Rowe, W.A., 1987, Sediment-hosted disseminated gold mineralization at Jerritt Canyon, Nevada, II--Jasperoid paragenesis and occurrence of gold: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 19, p. 704.

Reference (Deposit): Hofstra, A.H., Daly, W.E., Birak, D.J., and Doe, T.C., 1991, Geologic framework and genesis of Carlin-type gold deposits in the Jerritt Canyon district, Nevada, U.S.A., in Ladeira, E.A., ed., BRAZILGOLD '91, The economics, geology, geochemistry and genesis of gold deposits: A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, p. 77-87.

Reference (Deposit): Hofstra, A.H., Landis, G.P., Rye, R.O., Birak, D.J., Dahl, A.R., Daly, W.E., and Jones, M.B., 1989, Geology and origin of the Jerritt Canyon sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits, Nevada, in Schindler, K.S., ed., U.S. Geological Survey Research on Mineral Resources-1989, Programs and Abstracts: Circular 1035, p. 30-32.

Reference (Deposit): Birak, D.J., and Hawkins, R.J., 1985, The geology of the Enfield Bell Mine and Jerritt Canyon district, Elko County, Nevada, in Tooker, E.W., ed., Geologic characteristics of sediment- and volcanic-hosted disseminated gold deposits-search for an occurrence model: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1646, p. 95-105. .

Reference (Deposit): Hofstra, A.H., Leventhal, J.S., Northrop, H.R., Landis, G.P., Rye, R.O., Birak, D.J., and Dahl, A.R., 1991, Genesis of sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits by fluid mixing and sulfidation: chemical reaction path modeling of ore depositional processes documented in the Jerritt Canyon District, Nevada: Geology, v. 19, no. 1, p. 36-40.

Reference (Deposit): Hofstra, A.H., Northrop, H.R., Rye, R.O., Landis, G.P., and Birak, D.J., 1988, Origin of sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits by fluid mixing: Evidence from jasperoids in the Jerritt Canyon gold district, Nevada, USA, in Goode, A.D.T., and Bosma, L.I., eds., Geological Society of Australia, Proceedings of Bicentennial Gold' 88: Economic Geology, Abstract Series no. 22, p. 284-289.

Reference (Deposit): Mks, Welb Ams File (1979) USBM(?)

Reference (Deposit): Hawkins, Robert B., (1973), The geology and mineralization of the Jerritt Creek area, Northern Independence Mts, Nev., Idaho State Univ, MS Thesis 104 p.

Reference (Deposit): Garside, L. J.; Bentz, J.; Smith, P., Brooks, S., 1982, Field examination and mine tour report, 8/13/82.

Reference (Deposit): Hawkins, R. B., 1982, Discovery of the Bell gold mine, Jerritt District, Elko Co., NV: Mining Congress Journal, Feb 1982, P. 28-32.

Reference (Deposit): Doe, T.C., Birak, D.J., and Dahl, A.R., 1990, Geology and exploration of the Burns Basin and Pattani Springs orebodies, Jerritt Canyon district, Elko County, Nevada [unpub. report]: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology mining district file #79A.

Reference (Deposit): Folger, H.W., Snee, L.W., Mehnert, H.H., and Hofstra, A.H., 1996,Significance of K-Ar and 40Ar/39Ar dates from mica in Carlin-type gold deposits: Evidence from the Jerritt Canyon District, Nevada, in Coyner, A.R., and Fahey, P.L., eds., Geology and Ore Deposits of the American Cordillera: Geological Society of Nevada Symposium Proceedings, Reno-Sparks, Nevada, April 1995, p. 41-60.

Reference (Deposit): Hawkins, R.B., 1984, Discovery of the Bell Mine, Jerritt Canyon district, Elko County, Nevada, in Wilkins, J., Jr., ed., Gold and silver deposits of the Basin and Range province western U.S.A.: Arizona Geological Society Digest, v. XV, p. 53-58.

Reference (Deposit): Hofstra, A.H., 1994, Geology and genesis of the Carlin-type gold deposits in the Jerritt Canyon district, Nevada [Ph.D. thesis]: University of Colorado, Boulder, 719 p.

Reference (Deposit): Northrop, H.R., Rye, R.O., Landis, G.P., Lustwerk, R., Jones, M.B., and Daly, W.E., 1987, Sediment-hosted disseminated gold mineralization at Jerritt Canyon, Nevada, V-Stable isotope geochemistry and a model of ore deposition: Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, Abstracts with programs, v. 19, p. 791. Phinisey, J.D., 1995, Petrography, alteration, and mineralization of igneous dikes of the Jerritt Canyon District, Elko County, Nevada [M.S. thesis]: University of Nevada, Reno, 173 p.

Reference (Deposit): Phinisey, J.D., Hofstra, A.H., Snee, L.W., Roberts, T.T., Dahl, A.R., and Loranger, R.J., 1996, Evidence for multiple episodes of igneous and hydrothermal activity and constraints on the timing of gold mineralization, Jerritt Canyon district, Elko County, Nevada, in Coyner, A.R., and Fahey, P.L., eds., Geology and Ore Deposits of the American Cordillera: Geological Society of Nevada Symposium Proceedings, Reno, April 1995, p. 15-39.

Reference (Deposit): Weideman, W.L., Dahl, A.R., and MacDonald, G.D., 1991, The geology of the MAP area gold deposits, Enfield Bell mine, Jerritt Canyon district, Elko County, Nevada, in Raines, G.L., Lisle, R.E., Shafer, R.W, and Wilkinson, W.H., eds., Geology and ore deposits in the Great Basin, symposium proceedings: Geological Society of Nevada, Reno, v. 2, p. 603-606.

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.