Nashville Mine

Site Name

Primary: Nashville Mine
Secondary: Havilah Mine
Secondary: Hendy Mine
Secondary: Tennesse-Nashville Mine

---

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver

---

Location

State: California
County: El Dorado
District: Nashville 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: El Dorado County Planning Dept.

---

Holdings

Not available

---

Workings

Not available

---

Ownership

Not available

---

Production

Not available

---

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: Hydrothermal vein
Operation Type: Underground
Discovery Year: 1851
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

---

Physiography

Not available

---

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein

---

Orebody

Form: Tabular

---

Structure

Type: L
Description: Melones Fault Zone

Type: R
Description: Melones Fault zone

---

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: None described

---

Rocks

Name: Slate
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Jurassic

---

Analytical Data

Not available

---

Materials

Ore: Gold
Gangue: Slate
Gangue: Calcite
Gangue: Chlorite

---

Comments

Comment (Development): The Nashville Mine, comprising three claims (Havilah, East Havilah, and Northeast Nashville claims) was first worked in 1851 and was credited with an output of $150,000 from its shallow workings. Early ore was worked in arrastras (Logan, 1934). The mine is claimed to be the first quartz mine worked in El Dorado County. The first "systematic" work was done in 1868, with the first three years work reportedly having paid for all development work, a $100,000 plant, and paid $50,000 in dividends (Logan, 1934). Litigation closed the mine in 1871, after which a Joshua Hendy took over the mine in 1880. By 1882, he had deepened the shaft to a depth of 642 feet. Ore from the lower 100 feet of the shaft was reportedly averaging $8.50 per ton. The mine lay idle until 1894 when a 20-stamp mill was erected. Between 1895 and 1896, G.E. Williams and Hendy produced $20,000 from ore mined between the 500 and 600 foot levels. No further work was done until 1903. Between 1903 and 1906, the shaft was deepened to the 1,200 foot level with drifts 500 feet south and 1,285 feet north from the shaft crosscut on that level. The only reported production for this 3 year period is for 1904 (by which time the shaft was 1,000 feet deep), and during which 4,000 tons of ore yielded $15,325. If there was production in 1905 and 1906, the separate figures ar not available as the mine was being jointly operated with the Montezuma Mine. No further work was done until 1934, with the exception of milling part of the mine dump. The Montezuma-Apex Mining Company operated the mine from 1934-1936 and the ore was treated at the neighboring Montezuma Mill (Clark and Carlson, 1956). The mine has been idle since 1936.

Comment (Geology): REGIONAL GEOLOGY The Nashville Mine area is within the Sierra Nevada foothills, where bedrock consists of north-trending tectonostratigraphic belts of metamorphosed sedimentary, volcanic, and intrusive rocks that range in age from late Paleozoic to Mesozoic. The structural belts, which extend about 235 miles along the western side of the Sierra, are flanked to the east by the Sierra Nevada Batholith and to the west by sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous and Jurassic Great Valley sequence. The structural belts are internally bounded by the Melones and Bear Mountains fault zones and are characterized by extensive faulting, shearing, and folding (Earhart, 1988). In the El Dorado County area, gold deposits occur in the West Belt, the Mother Lode Belt, and the East Belt. The Mother Lode Belt is responsible for most of the gold produced in the county. There has also been substantial gold produced from the West Belt and East Belt (Clark and Carlson, 1956). The West Belt consists of widely scattered gold deposits located west of the Mother Lode vein system. Gold occurs in irregular quartz veins in schist and granitic rocks, altered mafic rocks, and as gray ore in greenstone. The West Belt has been further divided by some authors into an eastern component composed of an ophiolitic melange and a western component composed of Jurassic rocks of the Copper Hill volcanics (Duffield and Sharp, 1975; Saleeby, 1982; Clark, 1964). The Copper Hill volcanics consist of mafic to felsic flows and pyroclastic rocks that are metamorphosed to greenschist and amphibolite facies. The Bear Mountains fault zone separates the melange from the Copper Hill volcanics. The Mother Lode Belt consists of the Upper Jurassic Logtown Ridge and Upper Jurassic Mariposa formations. The Logtown Ridge Formation consists of about 6,500 feet of volcanic and volcanic-sedimentary rocks of island arc affinity. These rocks are mostly basaltic and include flows, breccias, and a variety of layered pyroclastic rocks. The overlying Mariposa Formation contains a distal turbidite, hemipelagic sequence of black slate, schist, amphibolite, fine grained tuffaceous rocks, and subvolcanic intrusive rocks. The thickness of the Mariposa Formation is difficult to ascertain due to structural complexities, but is estimated to be about 2,600 feet thick at the Cosumnes River (Earhart, 1988). The Nashville Mine is located within black slates of the Mariposa Formation. Mother Lode mineralization is characterized by steeply dipping gold-bearing quartz veins that traverse western El Dorado County. The belt trends north through Nashville, northeast through Placerville, and northwest to Garden Valley. At Garden Valley, the Mother Lode Belt splits. The west branch extends northwest through Greenwood, and the east branch extends north through Georgetown to the Georgia Slide area (Busch, 2001). The Mother Lode veins are generally enclosed in Mariposa Formation slate with associated greenstone. The vein system ranges from a few hundred feet to a mile or more in width. Within the zone are numerous discontinuous or linked veins, which may be parallel, convergent, or en echelon. The veins commonly pinch and swell. Few can be traced more than a few thousand feet. Mother Lode type veins fill voids created within faults and fracture zones and consist of quartz, gold and associated sulfides, ankerite, calcite, chlorite, and sericite (Clark and Carlson, 1956).

Comment (Economic Factors): The Nashville Mine produced generally low-moderate grade ore carrying 1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton in free-milling gold and auriferous pyrite. Clark (1970) reported the Nashville Mine produced about $2 million.

Comment (Geology): The Melones Fault zone separates the Mother Lode Belt from the East Belt. The East Belt lies in the south central part of El Dorado County approximately 15 miles east of the Mother Lode belt. The East Belt traverses the county from the southern county line, north through Omo Ranch and Grizzly Flat, and apparently terminates near the Hazel Creek Mine east of Jenkinson Reservoir (Busch, 2001). The Eastern Belt is dominantly argillite, phyllite and phyllonite, and chert of Paleozoic age. The phyllite and phyllonite are dark to silvery gray. The chert is mostly thin bedded with phyllite partings. Other rocks in the Eastern Belt include a Jurassic granodiorite pluton near the Cosumnes River and small bodies of Jurassic serpentinite, gabbro, diorite, and limestone. The Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Eastern Belt have been assigned to the Shoo Fly Complex by most investigators. Lode deposits of the East Belt consist of many individual gold-bearing quartz veins enclosed in metamorphic rocks of the Shoo Fly complex, or in granitic rocks. Most of the veins trend northward and dip steeply. An east-west set of intersecting faults may be a controlling factor in controlling deposition of ore. Ore deposits of the East Belt are smaller and narrower than those of the Mother Lode, but commonly are more chemically complex, and richer in grade. Gold is usually associated with appreciable amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, galena, sphalerite, and arsenopyrite (Clark and Carlson, 1956) LOCAL GEOLOGY Nashville District deposits occur in several long north-striking massive quartz veins in black slate of the Mariposa Formation (Clark, 1970). Some veins are up to 25 feet thick. The veins contain large, but low to moderate grade ore bodies (1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton). Little specific information is available about the geology of the Nashville Mine. The gold quartz vein was reported to strike N 10? E, dip 60? E, and average about 20 feet thick. The ore is free milling with 2% pyrite (Tucker and Waring, 1916).

Comment (Workings): The Nashville Mine was developed by a 1,200-foot, 60? inclined shaft with levels at 100 foot intervals. The 1,200 foot level was driven 1,500 feet north onto the Montezuma claim to connect with the neighboring Montezuma Mine. A system of modified shrinkage stoping was used.

Comment (Identification): The Nashville Mine is located in the famous Mother Lode Gold Belt of the Sierra Nevada foothills. It lies in southwestern El Dorado County about 2 miles north of Amador County, and just east of Highway 49. Having first been worked in 1851, and intermittently worked until its closure in 1936, it is said to be the earliest quartz lode mine to be worked in El Dorado County. However, surprisingly little specific information on the mine is available. Clark (1970) reported the Nashville Mine produced about $2 million.

Comment (Location): Location selected for latitude and longitude is the Nashville Mine adit symbol on the USGS 7.5 minute Fiddletown quadrangle

Comment (Deposit): The Nashville Mine produced from a typical Mother Lode type low-sulfide gold-quartz vein reported to average about 20 feet thick. Ore consisted of free-milling gold and auriferous pyrite occurring in discontinuous ore shoots within a fracture filling quartz vein enclosed in hard black slates of the Upper Jurassic Mariposa Formation. Quartz ore from the Nashville mine was generally low - moderate grade carrying 1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton in free milling gold and auriferous pyrite (2%).

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: Free-milling quartz ore yielding about 1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton and carrying 2% auriferous sulfides

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: Slate, calcite, chlorite

---

References

Reference (Deposit): Additional information on Nashville Mine is contained in File Nos. 331-2129 and 322-5972 (CGS Mineral Resources Files, Sacramento)

Reference (Deposit): Duffield, W.A., and Sharp, R.V., 1975, geology of the Sierra Foothills melange and adjacent areas, Amador County, California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 827, 30 p.

Reference (Deposit): Earhart, R.L., 1988, Geologic setting of gold occurrences in the Big Canyon area, El Dorado County, California: U.S. Geological Survey professional Paper 1576, 13 p.

Reference (Deposit): Lindgren, W. and Turner, H.W., 1894, Placerville folio, California: U.S. Geological Survey, Geological Atlas of the U.S., folio 3.

Reference (Deposit): Logan, C.A., 1934, Mother Lode gold belt of California: California Division of Mines Bulletin 108, p. 27, 54..

Reference (Deposit): Logan, C.A., 1938, Mineral resources of El Dorado County: California Division of Mines, 34th Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 226.

Reference (Deposit): Saleeby, J., 1982, Polygenetic ophiolite belt of the California Sierra Nevada: Geochronological and tectonostratigraphic development: Journal of Geophysical research, v. 87, n0. 8, p. 1803-1824.

Reference (Deposit): Crawford, J.J., 1894, Gold-El Dorado County: California State Mining Bureau, 12th Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 119.

Reference (Deposit): Crawford, J.J., 1895, Gold-El Dorado County: California State Mining Bureau, 13th Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 151-152.

Reference (Deposit): Busch, L.L., 2001, Mineral land classification of El Dorado County, California: California Geological Survey Open-File Report 2000-03.

Reference (Deposit): U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 410, 70 p.

Reference (Deposit): Clark, L.D., 1964, Stratigraphy and structure of part of the western Sierra Nevada metamophic belt, California:

Reference (Deposit): Clark, W. B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Divisions of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 97-98.

Reference (Deposit): Clark, W.B. and Carlson, D.W., 1956, Mines and mineral resources of El Dorado County: California Division of Mines, California Journal of Mines and Geology, v. 52, p. 421.

Reference (Deposit): Tucker, W.B., and Waring, C.A., 1916, Mines and mineral resources of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yuba counties: California State Mining Bureau, 15th Report of the State Mineralogist, p 292-293

---

California Gold

"Where to Find Gold in California" looks at the density of modern placer mining claims along with historical gold mining locations and mining district descriptions to determine areas of high gold discovery potential in California. Read more: Where to Find Gold in California.