1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Liberty Pit

Producer in White Pine county in Nevada, United States with commodities Copper, Molybdenum, Silver, Gold, Zinc, Lead, Platinum, Palladium
Map
XML
JSON
KML
B
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Public Land Survey System information
  6. Commodities
  7. Materials information
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Host and associated rocks
  10. Nearby scientific data
  11. Geologic structures
  12. Ore body information
  13. Controls for ore emplacement
  14. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  15. Mining district
  16. Land status
  17. Ownership information
  18. Workings at the site
  19. Links to other databases
  20. Bibliographic references
  21. General comments
  22. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10037320
MRDS ID M031297
Record type Site
Current site name Liberty Pit
Related records 10223025

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -114.99865, 39.25772 (WGS84)
Elevation 2134
Relative position ABOUT 5 MI WEST OF ELY

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

White Pine(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Ruth(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Ely(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Ely(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Spring-Steptoe Valleys(hydrologic unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(hydrologic accounting unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada White Pine

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 016N 062E 09,16 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • LOCATION GIVEN IS WITHIN LIBERTY PIT

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Copper Primary
Molybdenum Tertiary
Silver Tertiary
Gold Tertiary
Zinc Critical Tertiary
Lead Tertiary
Platinum Critical Tertiary
Palladium Critical Tertiary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Chalcocite Ore
Chrysocolla Ore
Copper Ore
Cuprite Ore
Fluorite Ore
Malachite Ore
Molybdenite Ore
Actinolite Gangue
Apatite Gangue
Biotite Gangue
Chlorite Gangue
Diopside Gangue
Epidote Gangue
Garnet Gangue
Magnetite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 58
USGS model code 18a
Deposit model name Porphyry Cu, skarn-related
Mark3 model number 9

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Permian
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Permian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock unit name Ely Limestone
    Rock description Ely Limestone

Nearby scientific data

(1) -114.99865, 39.25772
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description Sedimentary Strata Have Been Tilted, Folded, And Complexly Faulted
Type of structure Local
Structure description Many Faults

Ore body information

  • General form DISSEMINATED

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Fault

Comments on the geologic information

  • DEPOSIT IN EAST-TRENDING ZONE 6 MI LONG, UP TO 3,000 FT WIDE. ORE CONFINED TO ALTERED PORPHYRY AND ADJACENT SEDIMENTARY ROCKS: IN DISSEMINATED GRAINS IN THE PORPHYRY, IN BLEBS IN QUARTZ VEINLETS, IN GRAINS ALONG MINUTE FRACTURES, AND IN VEINLETS OF PURE SULFIDES

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Large
Significant No
Year of first production 1907

Mining district

District name Robinson District

Land status

Ownership category Private

Ownership information

  • Type Operator
    Owner Kennecott Copper Corp.
    First year 1969

Comments on the production information

  • ONE VERY RICH POCKET FOUND IN 1966. SMALL BYPRODUCT PGE PRODUCTION FROM SMELTER RETURNS

Workings at the site

  • Type of workings Surface
    Overall length 1609.3M
    Overall width 804.65M

Comments on the workings information

  • 1,000 FT DEEP

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    SMITH, R.M., 1976, GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF WHITE PINE COUNTY, NEVADA: NEVADA BUREAU OF MINES AND GEOLOGY BULLETIN 85, PART II, P. 64-75

  • Production

    SMITH, 1976

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit DEPOSIT IS OXIDIZED 100-400 FT
Deposit SEE ALSO: MRDS M046657.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-NOV-1979 Giorgi, Albert John (Roberts, Ralph) U.S. Geological Survey
Updater 01-JUN-1991 Peterson, Jocelyn A. U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Operator history (post-MRDS)

MRDS records operators as of each record's last update (≤ 2019). Some of the operators listed here have since changed hands or dissolved:

  • Kennecott Copper Corp. — acquired by Subsidiary of Rio Tinto (1989)
    Acquired by RTZ (now Rio Tinto) in 1989. Continues to operate the Bingham Canyon mine and other assets under the Kennecott name.

Curated by qvyshift.com from publicly-reported M&A activity (SEC filings, press releases, USGS Mineral Yearbooks). Not authoritative — verify against primary sources before relying on it. The MSHA panel above is the current authoritative source for actively-permitted mines.

External references

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Nevada resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.