Goldbanks Gold Deposit

Site Name

Primary: Goldbanks Gold Deposit

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver
Tertiary: Mercury

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Pershing
District: Goldbanks 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: Winnemucca BLM District

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Kinross Gold
Info Year: 2000

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: Hot-Spring Au-Ag
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Discovery Year: 1986
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: blanket

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Structure

Type: L
Description: An extensive network of NNW-, NE-, and strong NW to almostE-W-trending faults dissect the property in the vicinity of the Main Zone.

Type: R
Description: Late Paleozoic rocks in the area are part of the allochthonous block of the Golconda thrust plate emplaced during the Sonoma Orogeny.

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Widespread, pervasive silicification affects all rock units stratigraphically below the mudstone. Breccia units are most strongly silicified as is the lithic sandstone in some areas. Very fine-grained adularia accompanies silicification. Argillic alteration overprints the silica with illite as the main alteration clay mineral. Zones of intense iron oxidation (goethite and limonite) follow fractures and veins to depths as much as 365 meters below the surface. In the Main gold zone, a gray pervasive silicification resembling jasperoid is associated with gold mineralization, although open-space drusy quartz is also common. A thick layer of opaline sinter overlies the gold mineralized units and capping mudstone. The opalite hosted the mercury deposits in the area.

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Rocks

Name: Granite
Role: Host
Description: leuco-
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

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

Name: Sedimentary Breccia
Role: Host
Description: polylithic breccia
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Sandstone
Role: Host
Description: lithic (litharenite)
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Name: Tuff
Role: Host
Description: rhyolitic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Permian
Age Old: Early Triassic

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: tuffs
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Permian
Age Old: Early Triassic

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Arsenopyrite
Ore: Marcasite
Ore: Goethite
Ore: Hematite
Ore: Cinnabar
Gangue: Quartz

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Comments

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, pyrite, arsenopyrite, marcasite, goethite, hematite, cinnabar

Comment (Deposit): Mineralization does not crop out, and is covered by a cap of basaltic flows and weakly consolidated Tertiary sediments. Kinross has delineated two mineralized deposits: the Main Zone, and the KW area. Main ore host rocks are Tertiary basin sediments deposited about 17 million years ago. The best hosts for gold mineralization are permeable lithic sandstone and the polylithic breccia at the base of the basin sequence. Fractured areas in Paleozoic Havallah sequence and leucogranite intrusive rocks also host minor amounts of gold mineralization. The epithermal mineralization is interpreted to have been formed by gold and silica-rich solutions ascending along steep fault structures until they encountered permeable clastic sediments along which the solutions migrated outwards to form a siliceous blanket-shaped deposit in the Main Zone measuring 2 km by 1 km and approximately 90 m thick. Mineralization in the KW area is largely structurally controlledwith higher grade mineralization localized in a pipe-like breccia body at the intersection of N- and NNE-trending faults. The higher-grade material in the KW zone does not have a significant envelope of lower grade mineralization around it, as is the case in the Main Zone. Gold mineralization in the KW area occurs primarily within polylithic breccia, the Havallah sequence rocks and brecciated Koipato rhyolite.

Comment (Development): The Goldbanks district was first explored for gold, which was discovered in 1907. Around 1912, mercury in cinnabar was discovered a few miles west of the gold deposits, in the area of the current gold property. During World War I, the Goldbanks Quicksilver mine yielded over 34,473 kg of mercury. After a 20-year lull, the area again produced 10,342 kg mercury in 1937 and produced an additional 45,573 kg of mercury, between 1941 and 1969. The cinnabar area was most productive in the 1960s when Star City Mines, Ltd. operated silica pits in the area. In 1986, G. L. Grauberger located 300 lode mining claims in the Goldbanks district and through 1988 drilled 21 reverse circulation holes on approximate 305 meter centers,which outlined a gold mineralized zone approximately 1,830 m by 914 m. In November 1990, the property was assigned to Restoration Minerals, a new company controlled by Grauberger, and drilling continued on the property. In May 1995, Kinross Gold USA, Inc. executed a joint venture agreement to further explore and develop the Goldbanks property under the corporate name of Kinross Goldbanks Mining Company and in 1998, Kinross acquired a 100 percent interest. Work carried out to date includes core drilling, reverse- circulation drilling and metallurgical testing. This work has delineated two distinct gold deposits along a north-south trending axis 6.4 kilometers in length: the Main Zone, with 92 percent of the gold resource, centered under Squaw Butte and the KW area, 3.2 kilometers to the north. The Goldbanks deposit has had 1176 holes drilled to outline a geologic resource of 166 million tonnes with a grade of 0.48 g/t gold and 1.40 g/t silver. In 1999, plans to open the Kinross Goldbanks Mine were put on an indefinite hold. The company planned to complete the EIS for the mine, but all other permit applications were put on hold.

Comment (Economic Factors): The estimated resources of the Goldbanks deposit in 1996 were 392000 kilotonnes of ore containing 188 tonnes of gold and an unknown amount of silver. In 2000, the drill-outlined geologic resource was 166 million tonnes with a grade of 0.48 g/t gold and 1.40 g/t silver.

Comment (Environment): The mineralized area is in the headwaters of both the Grass Valley drainage to the north and the Pleasant Valley drainage to the southeast.

Comment (Workings): The ollder workings for mercury include numerous bulldozer cuts, short adits, shallow shafts, and two small open pits. More recently drill roads and diamond drill holes have been put in.

Comment (Geology): The Tertiary rocks have been subdivided, based on dominant lithologies, into six rock units at Goldbanks, although interbedding, intertonguing and facies changes are apparent within individual units. The basal unit (main ore host) is a lithic sandstone (litharenite) and is followed successively upwards by polylithic breccia (main ore host), lacustrine mudstone, opaline sinter, weakly-cemented sediments and basalt flows. The Tertiary strata were deposited into a rapidly subsiding basin, which covers most of the Goldbanks area. Basin margins are buried under basalt or Quaternary alluvium in the south and west portions of the property, but have been mapped in areas to the north and east. The basin development probably coincided with the onset of Basin and Range faulting approximately 16 Ma, and most mappable structures within the basin are consistent with Basin and Range trends.

Comment (Identification): The currently described gold property encompasses an area that includes the old Goldbanks Quicksilver mine, MRDS record M060491.

Comment (Location): The site is in the Goldbanks Hills centered about 800 m northeast of Squaw Butte, in the vicinity of the old QuickSilver Mine.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Stone, Barton, Thomas, Dennis, Snider, Larry, McDermott, Ryan, and Nyman, Mark, 2000, The Goldbanks deposit, a recent discovery of disseminated gold in Tertiary volcaniclastics, Pershing County, Nevada, in Cluer, J.K., Price, J.G.,Struhsacker, E.M., Hardyman, R.F., and Morris, C.L., eds., Geology and Ore Deposits 2000: The Great Basin and Beyond: Geological Society of Nevada Symposium Proceedings, May 15-18, 2000, p. 289-303.

Reference (Deposit): Lovelock Review Miner. 2/18/99.

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.

Reference (Deposit): Dreyer, R. M., 1940, Goldbanks Mining District, Pershing County Nevada: NBMG Bull. 33, P. 28-30.

Reference (Deposit): Vanderburg, W.O., 1936, Reconnaissance of Mining Districts in Pershing County Nevada: USBM Information Circular 6902, P. 15.

Reference (Deposit): Garside, L.J., 1984, Goldbanks Merger Mines-Field Examination and Sample Analysis, Pershing County, Goldbanks District: NBMG Unpublished File(Tingley).

Reference (Deposit): Bailey, E.H. & Phoenix, D.A., 1944, Quicksliver Deposits in Nevada: NBMG Bull. 41.

Reference (Deposit): Johnson, M. G., 1977, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Pershing County Nevada: NBMG Bull. 89, p. 56-57.

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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.