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Monte Cristo Prospect

Past Producer in Esmeralda county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Molybdenum
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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. Ore body information
  12. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  13. Mining district
  14. Land status
  15. Ownership information
  16. Bibliographic references
  17. General comments
  18. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310311
MRDS ID M232053
Record type Site
Current site name Monte Cristo Prospect
Alternate or previous names McLean Mine (center of mining), Tom Crown Lease, Homestake Claim, Goldenberg Tunnel, Monte Cristo Tunnel, Last Hope, Mule Flats, Black Mammoth, Water Well Sinter
Related records 10044562

Comments on the site identification

  • This record contains all data from record M232053, an earlier record for the historic Monte Cristo Tunnel site.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -117.7026, 38.18299 (WGS84)
Elevation 1970
Relative position The prospected area is located 0.9 miles SSW of Gilbert.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Esmeralda(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Gilbert(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Tonopah(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Tonopah(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Fish Lake-Soda Spring Valleys(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 Esmeralda

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 003N 038E 24 Nevada

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Molybdenum Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: native gold
  • Gangue Materials: quartz, manganese oxide

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Quartz Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 80
USGS model code 21b
Deposit model name Porphyry Mo, low-F

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Chemical Sediment > Chert
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Metavolcanic Rock
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary

Nearby scientific data

(1) -117.7026, 38.18299
ListMap

Economic information

Ore body information

  • General form tabular

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Year of first production 1989
Year of last production 1990
Production years 1989-1990

Mining district

District name Gilbert District

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Tonopah BLM Administrative District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Gold Summit Corp.
    Year 2006

Comments on the workings information

  • Historic workings consist of the 1,000-foot long Tom Crown tunnel, the 500-foot long Goldenberg tunnel, and the Monte Cristo tunnel, as well as surface workings, which include the McLean pit.

Comments on other economic factors

  • In 1988, pre-production reserves of the Monte Cristo prospect area were reported as kilotonnes of ore grading 0.07 opt gold.

    2006 Gold Summit reported an inferred resource of 365,000 tons grading 0.19 ozs/tonne gold at the Maclean Pit on the Monte Cristo prospect. New target area will be drill tested either late this year or early in 2007.
    Production from the Monte Cristo project site (McLean Mine) was 300 kilotonnes of ore grading 2.4 g/t gold in the time period 1989-1990.

Comments on development

  • Gold Summit Corp. reports that the Monte Cristo Property covers a widespread area of vein mineralization with bonanza gold grades at the surface in altered Tertiary volcanic rocks within the historic Gilbert Mining District.
    The McLean pit at Monte Cristo produced 300,000 tons of ore grading 2.4 g/t gold. Drill holes beneath the existing pit shows intervals of 1.5 meters assaying 4 g/t gold or higher. Notable high grade gold intercepts include: 3.04 m of 10.53 g/t, 1.54 m of 13.72 g/t, 3.04 m of 14.4 g/t, 1.53 m of 17.59 g/t, 3.04 m of 25.38 g/t, and 3.04 m of 28.54 g/t.
    Gold Summit plans to drill a potentially mineable, high grade resource beneath the existing McLean pit with a view to be starting production in a relatively short time period with low capital costs

    In April 2006, Gold Summit Corporation (GSM) announced that it had signed an option agreement with Pacific Intermountain Gold Corporation to acquire an interest in 102 lode claims (South Gilbert) that adjoin Gold Summit?s Monte Cristo property in the Walker Lane trend in Nevada. The agreement gives GSM the option to earn a 60% interest in the property by issuing a total of 750,000 shares and completing work expenditures of $1.2 million over a five year period. GSM further has the option to acquire a 70% interest by completing a feasibility study and an additional 10%, for a total of 80%, by placing a mine into commercial production.

    The South Gilbert claims cover the southern extension of the large structure that hosts the McLean Lode, the subject of a recently filed 43-101 compliant technical report. South Gilbert contains areas of prominent quartz-alunite alteration and banded epithermal vein material containing anomalous to ore-grade gold and silver. Drilling by previous explorers show a number of drill holes also containing gold and silver mineralization. Previous exploration was directed towards discovery of large, open pit ?Round Mountain? style mineralization, ignoring the high potential for steeply dipping, bonanza veins. Drilling by Inmet in the 1990?s intersected gold mineralization in 4 holes, ranging from 1.0 to 2.3 g/t gold over 1.5 metres. Platte River drilling in 2005 intersected two 1.5 metres intervals of 2.3 and 2.4 g/t gold in 2 separate drill holes and over 20 metres of anomalous silver.

    The acquisition gives GSM control of a mineralized trend extending 9 km along strike from the McLean Lode. There are at least 8 separate drill targets along this trend besides the McLean Lode where core drilling continues. Two holes completed north of the McLean Pit both failed to intersect the lode there, indicating a larger displacement than predicted. No further drilling is planned to the north at present. Gold Summit has submitted a Plan of Operations (POO) to the BLM for Monte Cristo to allow drilling of new targets outside of the McLean Lode. These targets, recently compiled in the 43-101 report process, include zones of alteration in favourable structural settings as well as mineralized holes drilled by previous companies. The zones of alteration, 8 targets in number, occur both north and south of the McLean Lode along a NNE trend 9 km in length. Zones of alteration vary in size from 0.1 to 0.5 sq km. Targets developed from Anaconda drilling from the 1980?s include intercepts between 1 to 5 g/t Au over 0.5 to 7.5 m and 1.5 m of 1034 g/t silver.

    In June 2006, Gold Summit Corporation (?GSM?) staked an additional 65 claims to extend its existing, optioned claim block at its Gold Springs property in the Eagle Valley Mining District, Lincoln County, Nevada.
  • The southern extension of the block covers the south west strike extension of the Tempa Vein, including the Helen Mine, where surface sampling in trenches and bulldozer cuts by Energex in 1981 reported an average of 301 g/t Ag over 13m sample (along strike) of the vein. The exposed vein ranges between 1.4 and 3.65 m in true width, according to a 1984 report by a company consultant. Five shallow core holes tested the vein down to 30 m below surface and intersected intervals of vein assaying between 17 g/t and 106 g/t Ag at the same location. The same report describes 2 trenches located 100m north of the bulldozer cut that assayed 1.0 g/t Au and 240 g/t Ag over 1.5m true width and 81 g/t Au and 198 g/t Ag over 1.8 m true width. Thinning of the vein between the two locations is also noted. The assays reported by Energex have not been verified by GSM.

    To the north the claim extension covers the north east striking trace of the Tempa vein on to the flank of Lookout Mountain. In total, approximately 3.5 km strike length of the Tempa-Helen system is now controlled by Gold Summit. GSM mapping and sampling has traced the Tempa portion of the vein along 1.6 km of strike. True widths of the vein vary between 2m and 10m and precious metals assay between 2.5 and 517 g/t Ag and 0.1 and 4.2 g/t Au. Apart from a shallow wagon drilling program by Cerro Corp in 1959 to 20m vertically, the Tempa sector has not been drilled.

    Two additional vein systems lie east of the Tempa vein, within the GSM option block. Channel sampling by Energex on one, the President?s Pit location, yielded 1.5m of 0.7 g/t Au, 0.9m of 40.1 g/t Au and 0.9m of 9 g/t Au in separate samples. Widths are approximately true widths. GSM collected a total of 15 channel and chip samples from the same locality that assayed between 0.3 g/t and 53 g/t Au and 0.4 and 1225 g/t Ag.

    At least three high grade underground, gold/silver targets are now ready for drilling on the enlarged Gold Springs property.

    Meanwhile in Nevada, the company has a stable of gold properties that are prospective for high grade, underground deposits. The most advanced is the Monte Cristo property that hosts an inferred resource of 365,000 tons grading 0.19 ozs/tonne gold at the Maclean Pit. New target area will be drill tested either late this year or early in 2007. The results from three holes punched into its National property in the northern part of the state yielded up to 20 metres of clay and pyrite with very fine grained quartz with assays expected shortly.

Reference information

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Gold Summit Corp. reports that the Monte Cristo Property covers a widespread area of vein mineralization with bonanza gold grades at the surface in altered Tertiary volcanic rocks within the historic Gilbert Mining District.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-JAN-2005 LaPointe, 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.

External references

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Nevada resources

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