Copper Canyon Skarn Deposits

Past Producer in Lander county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Arsenic, Bismuth, Tellurium

Sections on this page

Identification information
Geographic coordinates
Site location context
Geographic areas
Public Land Survey System information
Commodities
Materials information
Alteration
Mineral occurrence model information
Host and associated rocks
Nearby scientific data
Geologic structures
Ore body information
Controls for ore emplacement
Economic information about the deposit and operations
Mining district
Land status
Ownership information
Bibliographic references
General comments
Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID	10310303
MRDS ID	M231290
Record type	District
Current site name	Copper Canyon Skarn Deposits
Alternate or previous names	Fortitude, Copper Canyon Mine (underground), West Orebody, East Orebody, Tomboy-Minnie deposits
Related records	60001009

Comments on the site identification

This record encompasses the historic mines involved mainly in the Copper Canyon skarn copper deposits, described in earlier MRDS records #M231290, M234137, M234145 and MRDS # M231290 from which material has been incorporated into this record and additional new material has been added.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates:	-117.14262, 40.50851 (WGS84)
Elevation	1830
Relative position	The Copper Canyon skarn copper deposits are located about 12-15 miles SW of the town of Battle Mountain.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Lander(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Antler Peak(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Winnemucca(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Winnemucca(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Dixie Valley(hydrologic unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(hydrologic accounting unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Bureau of Land Management(Bureau of Land Management NV)

Bureau of Land Management NV BLM(Type of land area)

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country	State	County
United States	Nevada	Lander

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian	Township	Range	Section	Fraction	State
Mount Diablo	031N	043E			Nevada
Mount Diablo	032N	044E			Nevada

Comments on the location information

The Copper Canyon skarn copper deposits are located on Battle Mountain in the vicinity of Copper Canyon and Galena Canyon.

Commodities

Commodity	Importance
Gold	Primary
Silver	Primary
Copper	Primary
Lead	Secondary
Zinc Critical	Secondary
Arsenic Critical	Tertiary
Bismuth Critical	Tertiary
Tellurium Critical	Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

Ore Materials: gold, electrum, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, marcasite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, galena, argentite, bismuthinite, hedleyite, hessite
Gangue Materials: garnet (andradite), pyroxene (diopside), tremolite, actinolite, chlorite, epidote, calcite, sphene, biotite, potassium feldspar

Materials information

Materials	Type of material
Gold	Ore
Electrum	Ore
Chalcopyrite	Ore
Pyrrhotite	Ore
Pyrite	Ore
Marcasite	Ore
Arsenopyrite	Ore
Sphalerite	Ore
Galena	Ore
Argentite	Ore
Bismuthinite	Ore
Hedleyite	Ore
Hessite	Ore
Andradite	Ore
Garnet	Gangue
Pyroxene	Gangue
Diopside	Gangue
Tremolite	Gangue
Actinolite	Gangue
Chlorite	Gangue
Epidote	Gangue
Calcite	Gangue
Sphene	Gangue
Biotite	Gangue
Feldspar	Gangue

Alteration

(Local) There is a general zonation of calc-silicate minerals around the intrusion that corresponds to the metal zonation in the skarn deposits. In the copper-gold-skarn zone near the contact, the skarn minerals consist of garnet plus chalcopyrite with relatively minor pyroxene, while farther away from the contact, in the gold-silver zone, skarn ore consists of pyroxene plus pyrrhotite with relatively minor garnet. There is strong silicic, potassic, propylitic, phyllic, and pyritic alteration, especially of the granite porphyry.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code	58
USGS model code	18a
Deposit model name	Porphyry Cu, skarn-related
Mark3 model number	9
Model code	64
USGS model code	18f
Deposit model name	Skarn Au
Mark3 model number	82

Host and associated rocks

Host or associated

Host

Rock type

Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Siltstone

Rock type qualifier

calcareous

Rock unit name

Battle Formation

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Middle Pennsylvanian

Host or associated

Host

Rock type

Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Conglomerate

Rock unit name

Battle Formation

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Middle Pennsylvanian

Host or associated

Host

Rock type

Metamorphic Rock > Skarn (Tactite)

Rock type qualifier

garnet

Rock unit name

Battle Formation

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Middle Pennsylvanian

Host or associated

Host

Rock type

Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone

Rock unit name

Antler Peak Formation

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Early Permian
Stratigraphic age (oldest)	Late Pennsylvanian

Host or associated

Associated

Rock type

Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granodiorite

Rock type qualifier

Granodiorite

Rock unit name

Copper Canyon

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Middle Eocene
Chronological age	38.23
Dating method	K-Ar
Type of media	biotite

Host or associated Associated

Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Quartz Monzonite

Rock type qualifier porphyry
Host or associated Associated

Rock type Plutonic Rock > Porphyry

Rock type qualifier quartz monzonite

Host or associated	Associated
Rock type	Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Quartz Monzonite
Rock type qualifier	porphyry

Host or associated	Associated
Rock type	Plutonic Rock > Porphyry
Rock type qualifier	quartz monzonite

Nearby scientific data

(1)	-117.14262, 40.50851	ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure	Local
Structure description	The Fortitude upper and lower ore zones formed in place and were separated by the north-striking, west-dipping Virgin Fault and a granite porphyry dike intruded along the fault. The Copper Canyon and Virgin Faults acted as conduits for mineralizing hydrothermal fluids emanating from a granodiorite intrusive body and for later dikes emplaced along the same structures.
Type of structure	Regional
Structure description	The Dewitt, Golconda and Antler thrust faults coour at depth. The base of the ore at the West Deposit was defined by the Golconda Thrust fault.

Ore body information

General form tabular, stratiform, stratabound

General form	tabular, stratiform, stratabound

Controls for ore emplacement

Emplacement of the Granodiorite of Copper Canyon resulted in the development of a large pyritic alteration halo and to the formation of the copper-gold skarn and replacement deposits (West and East orebodies) as well as the gold-silver skarn deposits (Fortitude and Tomboy-Minnie). There is a series of subparallel N-trending fractures and faults.

Comments on the geologic information

All dated Tertiary intrusive rocks in the Battle Mountain mining district are late Eocene to early Oligocene in age (41 to 31 Ma) and mostly monzogranitic to granodioritic in composition. Although Tertiary intrusive rocks are scattered throughout the mining district as small stocks and dikes, the main exposed Tertiary intrusive centers are in the Copper Canyon, Copper Basin, Elder Creek and Buffalo Valley gold mine areas. Associated with each of these intrusive centers are porphyry-style (Cu-Au and/or Mo-Cu) alteration assemblages, mineralized zones, and related base and precious metal deposits (Doebrich and Theodore, 1996).
The Virgin Vein on west side of the ore zone ranges from 4 to 10 feet wide, up to 40 ft. locally. Oxidized ore persists to greater depths along the Virgin Vein than along the Superior Vein, which is more often characterized by primary base-metal sulfides.
Detailed pit mapping of the Fortitude deposit showed that a prograde clinopyroxene-garnet skarn assemblage was overprinted by an actinolite-chlorite-epidote retrograde skarn assemblage accompanied by late-stage calcite.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type	Surface-Underground
Development status	Past Producer
Commodity type	Metallic
Deposit size	Medium
Significant	Yes
Discovery year	1866
Discoverer	Messrs. Tanehill, Sinclair, and Heath
Year of first production	1868
Year of last production	2006
Production years	1868-2006 off and on

Mining district

District name	Battle Mountain District

Land status

Ownership category	Private
Area name	Battle Mountain BLM Administrative District
Ownership category	BLM Administrative Area

Ownership information

Type Owner-Operator

Owner Newmont Mining Corp.

Year 2004

Type	Owner-Operator
Owner	Newmont Mining Corp.
Year	2004

Comments on the workings information

All the early mines were developed by underground workings - shafts, drifts - with miles of workings. Later open pit mining largely obliterated the early underground workings. The West Orebody was mined by an open pit now buried beneath dump material from the later larger Fortitude open pit mine. The area is now part of Newmont?s Phoenix Mine development.

Comments on other economic factors

Between 1871 and 1954, the Copper Canyon Mine produced more than 680,000 short tons of ore yielding more than 9.6 million pounds of copper, 6.3 million pounds of lead, 3.3 million pounds of zinc, 48,000 ounces of gold, and 860,000 ounces of silver.
In the 1970s, the West orebody produced about 3.6 million metric tonnes of ore averaging 0.79% copper, 0.86 grams of gold per tonne gold, and 16.1 grams of silver per tonne. Between 1980 and 1993, the Fortitude deposit alone produced 10.86 million metric tonnes of ore averaging 6 grams of gold per ton and 28 grams of silver per ton.

Comments on development

In 1863, silver was discovered in Galena Canyon and shortly thereafter in 1864, copper and silver were discovered in Copper Canyon with the first development in the district on the Virgin copper vein. The predominantly underground mines produced hand-sorted ore from 1868 through 1875 that was shipped via rail to San Francisco, and thence to smelters in Swansea, Wales. There was a decline in district mining from 1875 to 1900, but in 1909, gold was discovered in Philadelphia Canyon, prompting a rejuvenation of the district.

1916 saw the formation of the Copper Canyon Mining Company, which obtained the main property, discovered new orebodies in the footwall of the Virgin vein and became a major producer of copper from both Copper Canyon and Copper Basin during World War I. In 1936, Copper Canyon Mining Co. discovered a large tonnage of gold-copper orebodies from the surface down to the 300-ft. level. There was intermittent production until World War II when there was another production boom. While the property was under lease to International Smelting and Refining Company in 1941, a 50-ton mill and a 3-compartment vertical shaft were constructed. Copper Canyon Mining Co. later resumed work until a declining copper market forced them to switch to lead-zinc operations in the late 1940s to 1950s.
ASARCO did exploration work in the district from 1959 to 1961, when Duval acquired the properties and continued the exploration and development that culminated in the opening of both Copper Canyon and Copper Basin open pit mines in 1967, placing Battle Mountain on the map as one of the largest copper producers in Nevada and the U.S.

In 1977, Duval announced plans to phase out copper production in Copper Canyon milling operations because of a severely depressed copper market, while at the same time converting to a gold-producing facility, with the increase in gold prices. Battle Mountain Gold Company took over operations in 1985 and gold took precedence over copper as the primary commodity produced from the district mines through the 1980s and 1990s.
The East and West copper-gold skarn orebodies were mined in the 1970s and the world-class Fortitude gold-silver skarn deposit was discovered north of the West orebody in late 1980. After three years of stripping and mining of the lower grade Upper Fortitude ore zone, production from the larger and richer lower Fortitude ore zone began in late 1984, ending in 1993 when reserves were depleted. In 1992, Battle Mountain Gold Company announced that it had outlined a low-grade millable orebody of about 500,000 ounces of gold between the Fortitude and the West orebodies, called the Fortitude Extension.

In 2001, Newmont acquired Battle Mountain Gold Company, giving Newmont ownership of the Phoenix property where historic mining has left a halo of lower-grade gold and copper reserves. Gold and copper production is expected to begin at Phoenix in the first half of 2006 The skarn deposits at and near the Fortitude orebody are now part of Newmont?s Phoenix Mine deposit.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Deposit

Hill, J.M., 1915, Some Mining Districts in Northeastern California and Northwestern Nevada: USGS Bull 594
Deposit

Roberts, R.J. and Arnold, D.C., 1965; Ore Deposits of the Antler Peak Quadrangle, Humboldt and Lander Counties, Nevada: U.S.G.S. Prof. Paper 459-B
Deposit

Sayers, R. W., Tippett, M. C., and Fields, E. D., 1968, The Ore Deposits at Copper Canyon and Copper Basin, Lander County, Nevada: AIME Annual Meeting Paper, N.Y.
Deposit

Blake, D. W., Kretschmer, E. L., 1980, Gold Deposits at Copper Canyon, Lander Co., Nev., Abstract, Precious Metals Symposium, AIME, Sparks, Nevada.
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.
Deposit

Doebrich, Jeff, 1995, Geology and Mineral Deposits of the Antler Peak 7.5-minute quadrangle, Lander County, Nevada, NBMG Bull 109, 44 p.
Deposit

Theodore and Blake, 1978, Geology and geochemistry of the West orebody and associated skarns, Copper Canyon porphyry copper deposits, Lander County, Nevada, USGS Prof Paper798-C, 85 p.
Deposit

Blake, D.W., Theodore, T.G., Batchelder, J.N, and Kretschmer, E.L., 1979, Structural relations of igneous rocks and mineralization in the Battle Mountain mining district, Lander County, Nevada, in Ridge, J.D., ed., Papers on mineral deposits of western North America: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Report 33, p. 87-99.
Deposit

Doebrich, J.L., and Theodore, T.G., 1996, Geologic history of the Battle Mountain mining district, Nevada, and regional controls on the distribution of mineral systems, in Coyner, A.R and Fahey, P.L., eds., Geology and Ore Deposits of the American Cordillera: Geological Society of Nevada Symposium proceedings, Reno-Sparks, April 1995, p. 453-483, CD-ROM.
Deposit

Doebrich, J.L., Wotruba, P.R., Theodore, T.G., McGibbon, D.H., and Felder, R.P., 1995, Field guide for geology and ore deposits of the Battle Mountain mining district, Humboldt and Lander counties, Nevada, in Geology and ore deposits of the American Cordillera symposium: Geological Society of Nevada, U.S. Geological Survey and Sociedad Geologica de Chile, p. 327-376.
Deposit

Kotlyar, B.B., and Theodore, T.G., 1998, Multilevel geochemical patterns at the Fortitude gold skarn, Battle Mountain Mining District, Nevada, in Tosdal, R.M., ed., Contributions to the gold metallogeny of northern Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-338, p. 259-263.
Deposit

Theodore, T.G., 1971, Geologic map of the Copper Canyon area, Battle Mountain mining district, Lander County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 71-282, 1:4,800.
Deposit

Theodore, T.G., Silberman, M.L., and Blake, D.W., 1973, Geochemistry and potassium-argon ages of plutonic rocks in the Battle Mountain mining district, Lander County, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 798-A, 24 .
Deposit

Geological Society of Nevada, 1999, Geology and Gold Mineralization of the Buffalo Valley Area, Northwestern Battle Mountain Trend; GSN Special Publication No. 31, 1999 Fall field trip Guidebook..
Deposit

Wendt, Clancy, 2004, Technical Report on the ICBM/COPPER BASIN Property, Lander and Humboldt Counties, Nevada, Staccato Gold website: http://www.staccatogold.com/i/pdf/icbm-43-101.pdf
Deposit

Stewart, J.H., McKee, E.H., and Stager, H.K., 1977, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Lander County Nevada: NBMG Bull. 88.

General comments

Subject category	Comment text
Deposit	The East orebody and West orebody were copper-gold skarn deposits located along the north margins of the Copper Canyon granodiorite body, mined in the 1970s. The Fortitude Deposit is a world-class gold-silver skarn deposit that was discovered north of the West orebody in late 1980. The East ore body was within the lower part of the Battle Formation siliceous and calcareous conglomerate, which was altered to quartz, K-feldspar, biotite rock with sulfides distributed throughout. The West ore body was in a garnet skarn surrounded by an envelope of diopside, tremolite-actinolite, and biotite, north of and adjacent to granodiorite contact in Copper Canyon. Total sulfide content (mainly pyrite and pyrrhotite) increased to as much as 75% by volume toward granodiorite contact, with chalcopyrite important closer to the contact. Metal zoning was well developed. The average size of the West ore body was said to be 1,500 m x 600 m x 180 m. The Fortitude Deposit consists of an upper and lower ore zones that formed in place and were separated by the north-striking, west-dipping Virgin Fault and a granite porphyry dike intruded along the fault. The upper ore zone formed in calcareous siltstone and conglomerate of the Battle Formation, and is located east of and in the footwall of the Virgin Fault. The larger, higher grade lower ore zone of the Fortitude deposit formed in limestone of the Antler Peak Formation, located west of and in the hanging wall of the fault. Upper zone ore was discontinuous due to strong structural control and selective sulfide replacement of thin calc-silicate pods or lenses aligned along faults or at fault intersections. The lower zone ore was stratiform and stratabound, elongated NE up to 600 meters long, averaging 150 meters wide and 25-30 meters thick. The lower ore zone ends at a marble front to the north and is cut off to the east by an east-dipping normal fault. To the south, sulfide mineralization continued to the granodiorite contact with diminishing sub-economic grades. In 1992 a low-grade millable orebody of about 500,000 ounces of gold was found between the Fortitude and the West orebodies, called the Fortitude Extension. Although sulfide-bearing rock is continuous from the granodiorite contact on the south to the marble front on the north end of the Fortitude deposit, there is a general zonation of calc-silicate minerals around the intrusion that corresponds to the metal zonation. In the copper-gold-skarn zone near the contact, the skarn minerals consist of garnet plus chalcopyrite with relatively minor pyroxene, while farther away from the contact, in the gold-silver zone, skarn ore consists of pyroxene plus pyrrhotite with relatively minor garnet.

Subject category

Comment text

Deposit

The East orebody and West orebody were copper-gold skarn deposits located along the north margins of the Copper Canyon granodiorite body, mined in the 1970s. The Fortitude Deposit is a world-class gold-silver skarn deposit that was discovered north of the West orebody in late 1980. The East ore body was within the lower part of the Battle Formation siliceous and calcareous conglomerate, which was altered to quartz, K-feldspar, biotite rock with sulfides distributed throughout. The West ore body was in a garnet skarn surrounded by an envelope of diopside, tremolite-actinolite, and biotite, north of and adjacent to granodiorite contact in Copper Canyon. Total sulfide content (mainly pyrite and pyrrhotite) increased to as much as 75% by volume toward granodiorite contact, with chalcopyrite important closer to the contact. Metal zoning was well developed. The average size of the West ore body was said to be 1,500 m x 600 m x 180 m.

The Fortitude Deposit consists of an upper and lower ore zones that formed in place and were separated by the north-striking, west-dipping Virgin Fault and a granite porphyry dike intruded along the fault. The upper ore zone formed in calcareous siltstone and conglomerate of the Battle Formation, and is located east of and in the footwall of the Virgin Fault. The larger, higher grade lower ore zone of the Fortitude deposit formed in limestone of the Antler Peak Formation, located west of and in the hanging wall of the fault.
Upper zone ore was discontinuous due to strong structural control and selective sulfide replacement of thin calc-silicate pods or lenses aligned along faults or at fault intersections.
The lower zone ore was stratiform and stratabound, elongated NE up to 600 meters long, averaging 150 meters wide and 25-30 meters thick. The lower ore zone ends at a marble front to the north and is cut off to the east by an east-dipping normal fault.

To the south, sulfide mineralization continued to the granodiorite contact with diminishing sub-economic grades. In 1992 a low-grade millable orebody of about 500,000 ounces of gold was found between the Fortitude and the West orebodies, called the Fortitude Extension.

Although sulfide-bearing rock is continuous from the granodiorite contact on the south to the marble front on the north end of the Fortitude deposit, there is a general zonation of calc-silicate minerals around the intrusion that corresponds to the metal zonation.

In the copper-gold-skarn zone near the contact, the skarn minerals consist of garnet plus chalcopyrite with relatively minor pyroxene, while farther away from the contact, in the gold-silver zone, skarn ore consists of pyroxene plus pyrrhotite with relatively minor garnet.

Reporter information

Type	Date	Name	Affiliation	Comment
Reporter	01-DEC-1980	La Pointe, D. D.	Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
Editor	01-SEP-2007	Schruben, Paul G.	U.S. Geological Survey	Converted from S&A FileMaker format to Oracle. Edit checks on rocks, units, and ages with Geolex search, and other fields.

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:

Newmont Mining Corp. — renamed to Newmont Corporation (2019)
Renamed from Newmont Mining Corporation to Newmont Corporation in early 2020 (after the 2019 merger with Goldcorp).

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.

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.