Danner gold Property

Site Name

Primary: Danner gold Property
Secondary: Danner Mines
Secondary: Red Hawk Mine
Secondary: Ben H. Jackson Mine (earlier tungsten properties)

---

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Primary: Tungsten
Secondary: Zinc
Tertiary: Molybdenum

---

Location

State: Nevada
County: Pershing
District: Mill City 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.
Administrative Organization: Winnemucca BLM district

---

Holdings

Not available

---

Workings

Not available

---

Ownership

Owner Name: Danner Mines, Inc.
Info Year: 1997

---

Production

Not available

---

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: tactite; tungsten gold skarn
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1917
Year Last Production: 1950
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

---

Physiography

Not available

---

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Model Name: W skarn

---

Orebody

Form: tabular to irregular

---

Structure

Not available

---

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: The intrusions often exhibit sericite-clay type alteration. A moderately sized stock, immediately southwest of the Danner Mines, exhibits a fresh granodiorite basal exposure and grades upwards into a quartz-rich, pervasively sericitized leucogranite cupola.

---

Rocks

Name: Aplite
Role: Associated
Description: sill
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Quartzite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Jurassic
Age Old: Late Triassic

Name: Shale
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Jurassic
Age Old: Late Triassic

---

Analytical Data

Not available

---

Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Clay
Ore: Sericite
Ore: Pyroxene
Ore: Sphalerite
Ore: Quartz
Ore: Epidote
Ore: Scheelite
Ore: Molybdenite
Gangue: Garnet

---

Comments

Comment (Workings): The historic tungsten mine was developed by crosscuts, drifts and a winze. More recent prospecting has been surface work.

Comment (Development): Historically, the mine was a tungsten mine. In 1917 the claims were owned by Nagle and Campbell of Winnemucca who drove a 40-ft cross cut and drifted 35 ft along a steeply-dipping ore bed and sunk a 20-ft winze on it. In 1928 property was owned by Murphy and Brechtel of Winnemucca who leased it to Leverett Davis in 1942. In 1950 the Tungsten Lead Co. drove about 140 ft of new drifts and produced 142 tons of noncommercial ore. By 1956, R. E. Danner had obtained control of the property and other nearby prospects. A small gravity concentrating plant was installed west of the fork in Pole Canyon. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Danner produced some scheelite concentrate from the property that was sold to Kennametal in Fallon. Most of the production during this period was from a small open pit along the north border of sec. 16, north of the old Red Hawk adit. The more recent work has been on a gold prospect in the vicinity of the old scheelite mine. Danner planned to sell the claims in 1997.

Comment (Deposit): Although best developed in the Raspberry Formation, small scheelite occurrences are ubiquitous throughout the Eugene Mountains where granodiorite plugs come in contact with limestone beds. The Danner Mines property is such an occurrence, located in the Triassic siliciclastics unit. Rocks exposed in the area consist of a sequence of dark lavender to black pelitic strata interbedded with thin lenses of fine-grained channel sandstone and quartzite and with thin, discontinuous lenses of limestone. The metasedimentary rocks are cut by numerous small stocks, plugs, and dikes of granodiorite. In addition, dikes of andesite, aplite, and leucogranite are common in the area. The intrusions often exhibit sericite-clay type alteration. A moderately sized stock, immediately southwest of the Danner Mines, exhibits a fresh granodiorite basal exposure and grades upwards into a quartz-rich, pervasively sericitized leucogranite cupola. Scheelite mineralization occurs in two sets of quartz veins in the granodiorite and in skarn developed in limestone. The quartz veins are commonly 1 inch to 1 foot thick and are spaced about 10 feet apart. The veins are oriented N30E, dipping about 55SE and N70E, dipping 60S. They consist of white quartz and minor adularia and muscovite, and in places, are stained with copper and iron oxides. The veins commonly contain about 0.01% WO3. The most significant scheelite mineralization in the Danner area occurs as skarn replacement of limestone. Located at the SE corner of section 17, T34N, R34E, the largest deposit has approximately a 600- foot strike length and 4-foot thickness. The deposit is developed in a limestone bed that has been irregularly replaced by an assemblage of garnet, epidote, quartz, diopside, and 0.3 to 2% scheelite, 0.2 to 2% sphalerite, and traces of molybdenite. There are three known ledges of ore believed to be part of one continuous ore bed at least half a mile long. Scheelite mineralization within the beds may not be continuous, but confined to irregular shoots at points favorable to mineral deposition.

Comment (Economic Factors): In 1990, the estimated gold resource was 2 million tons of ore grading 0.03 ounces of gold per ton. Between 1917 and 1950 the Danner area mines produced about 470 tons of ore grading from 11 to 2.5% WO3.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold, scheelite

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: Skarn minerals: garnet, epidote, quartz, sphalerite, pyroxene, sericite, clay, and minor molybdenite.

Comment (Identification): This deposit encompasses the area covered by MRDS record #M060312 for the Red Hawk (tungsten) Mine. This record includes all pertinent material from the earlier record which has been incorporated into this new record along with additional material pretinent to the gold deposit.

Comment (Location): The Danner Mines property is located at the head of Pole Canyon, about 2.5 miles northwesterly from the Nevada- Massachusetts Company Tungsten Mines. The old Red Hawk and Ben H. Jackson Mines lie within the currently described Danner property as do several other prospects at the heads of Bonita and Woody Canyons. The largest orebody is located in the SE corner of section 17, T34N, R34E,

Comment (Geology): Although best developed in the Raspberry Formation, small scheelite occurrences are ubiquitous throughout the Eugene Mountains where granodiorite plugs come in contact with limestone beds. One such occurrence, the Danner Mines, is located in the Triassic siliciclastics unit at the head of Pole Canyon, about 2.5 miles northwesterly from the Nevada- Massachusetts Company Mines. The old Red Hawk and Ben H. Jackson Mines are within the Danner properties as are several prospects at the head of Bonita and Woody Canyons. Rocks exposed in the area consist of a sequence of dark lavender to black pelitic strata interbedded with thin lenses of finegrained channel sandstone and quartzite and with thin, discontinuous lenses of limestone. The metasedimentary rocks are cut by numerous small stocks, plugs, and dikes of granodiorite. In addition, dikes of andesite, aplite, and leucogranite are common in the area. The intrusions often exhibit sericite-clay type alteration. A moderately sized stock, immediately southwest of the Danner Mines, exhibits a fresh granodiorite basal exposure and grades upwards into a quartzrich, pervasively sericitized leucogranite cupola. Scheelite mineralization occurs in two sets of quartz veins in the granodiorite and in skarn developed in limestone. The quartz veins are commonly 1 inch to 1 foot thick and are spaced about 10 feet apart. The veins are oriented N30?E, 55?SE and N70?E, 60?SE. They consist of white quartz and minor adularia and muscovite, and in places, are stained with copper and iron oxides. The veins commonly contain about 0.01% WO3. The most significant scheelite mineralization in the Danner area occurs as skarn replacement of limestone. Johnson and Benson (1963) reported that between 1917 and 1950 about 470 tons of ore grading from 11 to 2.5% WO3 was produced from several of these deposits in the Danner area. Located at the SE corner of section 17, T34N, R34E, the largest deposit has approximately a 600- foot strike length and 4-foot thickness. The deposit is developed in a limestone bed that has been irregularly replaced by an assemblage of garnet, epidote, quartz, diopside, and 0.3 to 2% scheelite, 0.2 to 2% sphalerite, and traces of molybdenite.

---

References

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

Reference (Deposit): Johnson and Benson, 1963, Tungsten Resources of Nevada: USBM

Reference (Deposit): Klepper, M.R., 1943, unpublished report

Reference (Deposit): Stager, H. K. and Tingley, 1988, Tungsten Deposits in Nevada, NBMG Bull. 105.

Reference (Deposit): Gardiner and Giancola, 1991.

Reference (Deposit): Giancola, 1995, 1996

Reference (Deposit): Tingley, 1998

Reference (Deposit): United States Bureau of Land Management, 1975c, 1999a

Reference (Deposit): United States Geological Survey, 1982.

Reference (Deposit): Ronald H. Thole and Douglas W. Prihar, 1999, Geology of the Eugene Mountains, northwestern Nevada, NBMG Map 115.

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): Melbye, Charles, 1956, Geologic and Economic Evaluation of the Danner Tungsten Properties, Peshing Count, Nevada; Item 58, NBMG Mining District file 282.

---

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.