Blue Sphinx Property

The Blue Sphinx Property is a gold and silver mine located in Mineral county, Nevada at an elevation of 5,807 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: Blue Sphinx Property
Secondary: Bovard - Rand Property
Secondary: Blue Sphinx Mine
Secondary: Bovard Mine
Secondary: Golden Pen Mine

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Primary: Silver
Secondary: Copper
Secondary: Lead
Secondary: Zinc
Tertiary: Aluminum
Tertiary: Iron
Tertiary: Manganese
Tertiary: Molybdenum

Location

State: Nevada
County: Mineral
District: Copper Mountain 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.

Holdings

Not available

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Owner Name: 3 separate landowners

Owner Name: Gold Summit (lessees)
Info Year: 2006

Production

Not available

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: vein/shear zone; epithermal
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1910
Discovery Year: 1907
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Epithermal vein, Comstock

Orebody

Form: shoots, stringers, irregular replacement bodies

Structure

Type: R
Description: The area is structurally complex, with dominantly NW- to WNW- trending high angle faults, down to the north. In the western part of the district, faults appear antithetic, having their upthrown sides to the south

Type: L
Description: A NW-trending fault offsets ash-flow tuff sequence.

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Advanced argillic type of alteration is prevalent with veins of alunite and quartz. Limonite, and kaolinite replacing wall rock minerals predominates in the vicinity of the Golden Pen and Lone Star claims. At the Nevada Rand area, alteration is sericitic or phyllic in nature. Intermediate lavas from both areas show propylitic alteration. Bleached andesite and development of jarosite due to oxidation of numerous small crystals of disseminated pyrite. Alunitization of host rock is present.

Rocks

Name: Quartz Monzonite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Granodiorite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Diorite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Limestone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Triassic

Name: Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic)
Role: Host
Description: mafic lava
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Miocene
Age Old: Pleistocene

Name: Andesite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Miocene

Name: Ash-Flow Tuff
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Oligocene
Age Old: Miocene

Name: Tuff
Role: Host
Description: sericitized rhyolitic
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Pliocene

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: tuff
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Pliocene

Name: Felsic Volcanic Rock
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Tertiary

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Wulfenite
Ore: Cerussite
Ore: Electrum
Ore: Silver
Ore: Gold
Ore: Alunite
Ore: Argentite
Ore: Jarosite
Ore: Galena
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Ore: Malachite
Ore: Chrysocolla
Ore: Cerargyrite
Gangue: Alunite
Gangue: Alunite
Gangue: Kaolin
Gangue: Sericite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Adularia

Comments

Comment (Development): Earlier reverse circulation drilling intersected spotty gold mineralization around the edges of the historic workings, but several core holes drilled beneath the Bovard shaft in the late 1970s intersected 10-40 meters of 1.0-2.0 g/t gold, including several 1-2 meter intercepts exceeding 3.0 g/t gold. RC holes in the immediate vicinity produced very spotty one meter intervals of 1.0 g/t or less. Underground mapping and sampling of the Gold Pen workings in 2005 by Gold Summit identified a reversal of dip from east to west in the lowest levels of the mine. This change in dip, combined with elevated gold values and increasing thickness of quartz veining represents a structurally permissive target that was not tested by previous explorers, who generally tested around the edges of the high grade shoots in the existing underground workings. Gold Summit's drill program at Gold Pen will focus on testing below the workings where the vein thickens and the structure changes and even reverses dip, followed by step out drilling at depth along strike. Gold Summit's has ten permitted drill sites in the Gold Pen and Bovard areas; timing of drilling will depend on overall priorities for funds and staff in 2006.

Comment (Development): The Rand or Bovard-Rand district was first discovered by prospectors from Rawhide back in 1907. The Nevada Rand and the Gold Pen Mines were located in 1908 and the silver-gold ore from the mines was treated over at the Rawhide Mill. In 1919 the Gold Pen Mining Company built a 20-ton amalgamating mill which started production in 1920. The Nevada Rand Mining Company was incorporated in 1916 and owned several of the properties in the area. The property consisted of 7 claims, a 450ft shaft, and 2500ft of workings equipped with a hoist and assay office. The district mines also produced copper, as at the Copper Mountain Mine put out more than $125,000, the Gold Pen Mine is said to have produced $200,000, and the Nevada Rand $50,000. In 1996, Romarco Minerals acquired an option for the Rand gold property from Lac Minerals whereby Romarco could earn a 60% interest in the 4,000- acre property from Barrick Gold by spending $500,000 over the next three years. Toward that end, Romarco drilled 14 RC holes, totaling more than 9,000 feet, on five targets on the property in 1996. In 2003, Gold Summit acquired a land position at Blue Sphinx by optioning claim blocks from three existing land owners in the District. The Gold Pen mine area is subject to a lease-option agreement with Hot Springs Gold Corp. (Shane Ebert). The Blue Sphinx (Bovard) mine is held under a lease-option agreement from Nevada Eagle Resources, LLC (Gerald Baughman). Century Gold LLC owns a block of 75 unpatented mining claims that encompasses the other two claim blocks. In October 2003 Gold Summit entered into a purchase/option agreement with Century Gold that allows Gold Summit to acquire a 100% interest in these claims for a consideration of 200,000 Gold Summit common shares issued over a period of three years. A third block of 75 unpatented lode claims was acquired at Gold Summit's Blue Sphinx prospect adjoining the Blue Sphinx and Golden Pen claims already held by Gold Summit. The Golden Pen Mine area was explored in recent years with widely spaced reverse-circulation drill holes and surface bulldozer cuts in an attempt to develop a surface heap leach operation. Gold Summit compiled historical information and planned to carry out detailed mapping prior to drill testing the vein system to depth. In 2006, Gold Summit reported that their work to date on the Bovard District Blue Sphinx property combines new geologic mapping with a compilation of previous work, including past drilling programs. This new work has outlined a mile-long target zone along the Nevada Rand-Blue Sphinx fault, stretching from just south of the Blue Sphinx shaft to just north of the Golden Pen mine. There are other structures within the claim block that have associated hydrothermal alteration with weaker surface geochemistry that may develop into drill targets with additional work. Alteration assemblages mapped to date suggest that gold mineralization in the known workings is high in the hydrothermal system. Drilling to date has been almost entirely restricted to the upper 100 meters of the vein system, and directly around the Golden Pen and Bovard mine workings. In the past, mining focused on extremely high grade plunging shoots encountered while drifting along the strike of the veins and in fact put thousands of tons of lower grade (three to fifteen grams per ton gold) quartz vein material on the waste dumps. This material was transported off the claims and leached in the 1980s.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: free gold, cerargyrite, chrysocolla, malachite, chalcopyrite, galena, jarosite, argentite, alunite, native gold, native silver, electrum, cerussite, wulfenite

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, sericite, kaolin(?); alunite, alunite. manganese oxides, adularia

Comment (Deposit): The Bovard District produced about $360,000 in gold and silver from 1908 to 1930, principally from the Gold Pen and Bovard (Blue Sphinx) mines. The silver to gold ratio of these ores was approximately 16:1. These early mining operations focused on following, from surface discoveries, steeply plunging shoots of extremely high grade or "bonanza" ore, reportedly with grades as high as $8,000 per ton at a gold price of $20. Additional shoots were discovered while drifting along the strike of the veins, but thousands of tons of "low grade" quartz vein material, ranging from one to fifteen (average of three) grams per ton gold, were put on the waste dumps. Five thousand tons of this material were transported off the claims in 1980, from which about 500 ounces of gold were leached. The Rand-Bovard, orBlue Sphinx, is a volcanic-hosted, epithermal target in the Walker Lane trend From descriptions of the historic mine deposits, the deposit is strongly oxidized and highly siliceous. Rich ore occurs in lenses in veins of a quartz gangue stained with iron and manganese oxides, in ashear zone 20 to 40 feet wide. The main quartz vein varies from 3 to 10 feet thick, but alunite is found in sheets 3 inches to 1 foot wide separating the vein from the wall rock. The vein was emplaced along a NW-trending fault.

Comment (Economic Factors): The Bovard District produced about $360,000 in gold and silver from 1908 to 1930, principally from the Gold Pen and Bovard (Blue Sphinx) mines. The silver to gold ratio of these ores was approximately 16:1. These early mining operations focused on following, from surface discoveries, steeply plunging shoots of extremely high grade or "bonanza" ore, reportedly with grades as high as $8,000 per ton at a gold price of $20. Additional shoots were discovered while drifting along the strike of the veins, but thousands of tons of "low grade" quartz vein material, ranging from one to fifteen (average of three) grams per ton gold, were put on the waste dumps. Five thousand tons of this material were transported off the claims in 1980, from which about 500 ounces of gold were leached.

Comment (Geology): Quartz veins containing gold, silver, and some copper cut rhyolite ash flow tuffs in the eastern part of district, and cut similar rocks and intermediate volcanic rocks in the west. Thin alunite veins replace gouge in sericitized rhyolitic tuff. Quartz veins 3-8 feet wide, milky and vuggy as well as brecciated. Separated from walls of post Esmeralda Formation volcanic rocks by alunite sheets 3-12 inches thick.

Comment (Identification): The current record is for Gold Summit?s Blue Sphinx Property which encompasses several of the historic Bovard-Rand District workings in the central part of the district. Material has been incorporated into the current record from several of the historic mine property records, (M035744, M035743, M233183, and D002139) together with new information.

Comment (Location): The Blue Sphinx property is located on the eastern flank of the central part of the Gabbs Valley Range about 25 mi. NE of Hawthorne; 18 miles NNW of Luning, and 10 mi. south of Rawhide.

Comment (Workings): The property is developed by a 250 foot shaft, a tunnel, and several thousand feet of workings. The shaft has levels at 50 (tunnel), 130, 200, and 250 feet..

References

Reference (Deposit): press releases

Reference (Deposit): Black, J.W., 1920, unpublished report

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): Thoenen, J. R., 1941 , Alunite Resources of the United States: USBM R. I. 3561 , p. 19 - 20 .

Reference (Deposit): Vanderberg, W. O., 1937 , Reconnaissance of Mining Districts in Mineral County Nev.: USBM I. C. 6941 , p. 57 - 58 .

Reference (Deposit): Ross, D. C., 1961 , Geology and Mineral Deposits of Mineral County, Nevada: NBMG Bull. 58 , P. 80 .

Reference (Deposit): Schrader, F. C., 1914 , Alunite at Bovard, Nev.: USGS Bull. 540 , p. 351 - 356 .

Reference (Deposit): http://www.goldsummitcorp.com/bluesphinx1.htm
URL: http://www.goldsummitcorp.com/bluesphinx1.htm

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.