Pamlico Gold Property

The Pamlico Gold Property is a gold mine located in Mineral county, Nevada at an elevation of 5,512 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

Satelite View

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Site Name

Primary: Pamlico Gold Property

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Lead
Secondary: Zinc
Secondary: Silver
Tertiary: Arsenic
Tertiary: Manganese

Location

State: Nevada
County: Mineral
District: Pamlico (Ashby, Oro, Hawthorne ) 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: American Bonanza Gold Mining Corp.
Info Year: 2004

Production

Not available

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: vein, shear zone
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1886
Discovery Year: 1885
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein

Orebody

Form: irregular lenses

Structure

Type: R
Description: The Luning-Fencemaker Thrust Belt lies directly east of the Sierra Nevada batholith and comprises a 500- kilometer long, 100 kilometer wide belt of intensely folded and thrusted Triassic and Jurassic marine sedimentary rocks. Individual thrust systems of note include the Luning, Fencemaker, Pamlico, Boyer, and Wild Horse thrusts (Speed and others, 1988). Thrusts of the LFTB generally carried deep-water, fine-grained turbiditic facies eastward and juxtaposed them against shallow-marine facies of the same age.

Type: L
Description: The Pamlico Anticline trends NW, derived on basis of relation between latite tuff and agglomerate unit with overlying rhyolitic tuff; this contact forms main localizing structure for Pamlico veins.

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Wall rocks adjacent to veins show chloritization, argillation, seritication

Rocks

Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock Unit
Age Young: Cretaceous

Name: Tuff
Role: Host
Description: laminated rhyolite
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Middle Triassic

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Description: laminated tuff
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Middle Triassic

Name: Rhyolite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Middle Triassic

Name: Volcanic Breccia (Agglomerate)
Role: Host
Description: latite agglomerate
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Middle Triassic

Name: Tuff
Role: Host
Description: latite
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Middle Triassic

Name: Latite
Role: Host
Description: tuff
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Middle Triassic

Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock Unit
Age Young: Jurassic
Age Old: Cretaceous

Name: Metavolcanic Rock
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Jurassic

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Galena
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Limonite
Gangue: Pyrite

Comments

Comment (Deposit): Workings have been developed along four main veins. Vein A strikes N65W and dips 27-55 SW; vein B strikes N55-70W and dips 25-70NE; vein P strikes N30-80W and dips 25-60NE; and a trough-shaped P-branch vein plunges 30SE with both flanks dipping 30 degrees towards the axis of the trough. Some ore forms irregular replacement bodies consisting of siliceous, ferruginous, locally jasperoidal, gossan material occupying a fracture zone. Vein filling is predominantly quartz, most commonly massive with substantial amounts of limonite and rare grains of pyrite. Small amounts of secondary copper minerals rarely coat fractures in veins. Gold reportedly formed wires and nuggets in the veins and was associated with pyritic portions of veins. Gold values in veins are erratic; reportedly some veins were followed for 300 ft. without finding any ore. Most veins now exposed underground are barren.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: free gold, argentiferous galena, copper sulfides

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: quartz, limonite, pyrite

Comment (Economic Factors): The district yielded nearly a million dollars worth of gold between 1885 and 1900. Estimated production for the Pamlico mine from 1886 to 1889 was 324 tons of ore at a gross value of $167,542.

Comment (Geology): The district is bounded on the north by a large intrusive body of quartz monzonite.

Comment (Development): The Pamlico Mine was located in the Pamlico Mining District, situated in the western Garfield Hills, ten miles southeast of Hawthorne, Nevada. The district yielded nearly a million dollars worth of gold between 1885 and 1900. Estimated production for the Pamlico mine from 1886 to 1889 was 324 tons of ore at a gross value of $167,542. The Pamlico Mining Company operated from Hawthorne, Nevada with John Forbes as president. H.M. Yerington, treasurer and S. A. Knopp, mine superintendent. In 1994, Pamlico Gold was testing eight separate areas by 15,000 feet of reverse circulation drilling in 20 to 30 holes at the Pamlico property. Geochemical and geophysical work outlined extensive zones of quartz veining and induced polarization responses and anomalous gold-silver values were found in rock samples. Pamlico Gold could earn a 51% interest in the property from Cactus West Exploration by spending $1.3 on exploration, development, and option payments In 1995, Cactus West Explorations and Pamlico Gold joint venture reported they were evaluating the results of 50 holes drilled on the Pamlico property. Thirteen of the reverse-circulation holes were in the vicinity of an earlier drill hole which showed 120 feet grading 0.65 opt gold. Drilling indicated the presence of a gold bearing zone or structural system 200 feet by 400 feet or larger, open to the northeast and east. Gold is associated with abundant iron and manganese oxides but with very little quartz veining. In 1999, Vengold Inc. controlled the Pamlico property and was exploring it for gold. The company completed mapping and sampling of the underground workings as well as drilling In 2003 American Bonanza Gold Mining Corp. encountered favorable gold mineralization in its drilling program on the Pamlico property. The drilling program, totaling 1,608 feet in eight holes, was designed to confirm and expand mineralization encountered in previous drilling and in underground workings. Encouraging results of 1.62 opt Au over 3 feet and 2.79 opt Au over 1 foot were obtained. Four distinct mineralized structures were targeted and all four were encountered by the drilling.

Comment (Identification): The current record is for American Bonanza Gold Corp.?s Pamlico gold property which encompasses all the historic Pamlico workings in the central part of the district. Material has been incorporated into the current record from several of the historic mine property records, together with new information.

Comment (Location): UTM is to a centralized location within a cluster of shafts, adits and prospects which comprise the central historic Pamlico Mines area.

Comment (Workings): The historic Pamlico mines were developed by numerous inclined shafts and adits with several miles of workings. There are many shafts and adits satellitic to the main Pamlico mine area. Open pit.

References

Reference (Deposit): BLM Files, Carson City District

Reference (Deposit): McArthur, Gerald F., October 9, 2002, SUMMARY GEOLOGICAL REPORT FOR THE GOLD BAR PROPERTIES, EUREKA COUNTY AND THE PAMLICO PROPERTY, MINERAL COUNTY NEVADA, U.S.A. SEC Disclosure form.

Reference (Deposit): American Bonanza Gold Mining Corp., 2/24/03

Reference (Deposit): The records of the historic Pamlico Mining Company are archived in the Special Collections of the University of Nevada, Reno library. They are contained in one Hollinger archival document case and cover the time period from 1888 through 1904. The material consists mainly of correspondence and financial statements and accounts. Most of the material is original and handwritten.

Reference (Deposit): Archbold and Paul, 1970,Geology and mineral deposits of the Pamlico mining district, Mineral County, Nevada, NBMG Bull. 74.

Reference (Deposit): Tingley, Joseph V., 1990, MINERAL RESOURCE INVENTORY BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, CARSON CITY DISTRICT, NEVADA, NBMG OPEN-FILE REPORT 90-1, p170-173.

Reference (Deposit): Northern Miner, 12/26/94, 2/27/95, 4/10/95, 6/14/99

Reference (Deposit): Hill, J. M., 1915 , Some mining districts in NE Calif. and NW Nevada, USGS, Bull. 594

Reference (Deposit): Vanderburg, 1937, Reconnaissance of Mining Districts n Mineral Co., Nev., USBM, Information Circular.

Reference (Deposit): Ross, D. L., 1961 , Geology and Mineral Deposits of Mineral Co., Nev., NBMG Bull. 58

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.