Rock Creek Valley

The Rock Creek Valley is a copper mine located in Lincoln county, Wyoming at an elevation of 7,021 feet.

About the MRDS Data:

All mine locations were obtained from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System. The locations and other information in this database have not been verified for accuracy. It should be assumed that all mines are on private property.

Mine Info

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Site Name

Primary: Rock Creek Valley
Secondary: Rock Creek
Secondary: Unidentified Occurrence
Secondary: Unknown

Commodity

Primary: Copper

Location

State: Wyoming
County: Lincoln

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.

Holdings

Type: Unknown

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Not available

Production

Not available

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Prospect
Operation Type: Underground
Mining Method: Unknown
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: N

Physiography

General Physiographic Area: Rocky Mountain System
Physiographic Province: Middle Rocky Mountains

Mineral Deposit Model

Not available

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Type: L
Structure: Rock Creek Anticline

Alterations

Not available

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Not available

Comments

Comment (General): Definitely classified as "abandoned". According to Veatch, 1907, there were a number of tunnels along the fault line.

Comment (Identification): Two entries in Osterwald (1966, p. 56) appear to be duplicates. Citations and page numbers to Veatch, 1907, p. 50a and p. 163 confirm that, especially when compared with plates XXIII and III. Note that there is no such page 50a in Veatch. Perhaps Osterwald meant the facing page inserted in the PP, "Geologic column in that part of southwestern Wyoming shown on pl. III", under the oldest unit, Weber quartzite.

Comment (Development): "The main group of openings here are horizontal tunnels in the slightly dipping beds. The same amount of labor in shafts along the probably fault line would be more likely to yield results." (Veatch, 1907, p. 163)

Comment (Location): Wilson and Heran (USGS) went looking for this "deposit" 6-aug-2010. We Were unable to locate anything matching these descriptions from Rock Creek and Watercress Canyons, but we did not climb the hill to the NE, as we were unaware at the time (due to vague location and high inaccuracy of the points in the database) that that was the most likely to have found any trace of these old reported workings.

Comment (Geology): Brecciated sandstone just below the "Permo-carboniferous" redbeds contain copper-carbonates. (Osterwald, 1966, p. 56) "These beds here form a rather flat-topped anticline with very steeply dipping flanks. The western flank appears to be somewhat faulted at the point of the change in dip from the slightly inclined beds of the crest of the anticline to the highly dipping beds of the flank. The copper carbonates have been found along and just east of this structural break." (Veatch, 1907, p. 163)

Comment (Location): In NW quarter of Sec. 4. 3 prospects with copper carbonate showings are plotted on pl. XXIII of PP-56.

References

Reference (Deposit): Veatch, 1907, Geography and geology of a portion of southwestern Wyoming with a special reference to coal and oil: USGS PP-56, p. 163, pls. XXIII, XXVI.

Reference (Deposit): Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bull. 50 [revised ed.], p. 56.

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