Silver City Lode Deposits

Past Producer in Lyon county in Nevada, United States with commodities Silver, Gold, Iron, Manganese
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. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  14. Mining district
  15. Land status
  16. Bibliographic references
  17. General comments
  18. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310404
Record type Site
Current site name Silver City Lode Deposits
Alternate or previous names Dayton, Haywood-Santiago (Oliver Hills), Alhambra Lode

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -119.64745, 39.27095 (WGS84)
Elevation 1620
Relative position The mines are located just north of Silver City.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Storey(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Virginia City(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Carson City(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Reno(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Middle Carson(hydrologic unit)

Carson(hydrologic accounting unit)

Central Lahontan(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada Lyon

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 016N 021E 08 Nevada

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Silver Primary
Gold Primary
Iron Tertiary
Manganese Critical Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: free gold, free silver, electrum, pyrite, argentite
  • Gangue Materials: calcite, ankerite, Mn-oxide, quartz

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Gold Ore
Electrum Ore
Pyrite Ore
Argentite Ore
Calcite Gangue
Ankerite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 150
USGS model code 25c
Deposit model name Epithermal vein, Comstock
Mark3 model number 16

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Intermediate Volcanic Rock > Andesite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description Silver City Fault

Ore body information

  • General form tabular

Comments on the geologic information

  • Late pyrite (post-mineral) occurs abundantly in gouge and wallrocks

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Large
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1859
Year of first production 1873

Mining district

District name Silver City District

Land status

Ownership category Private
Area name Carson City BLM Administrative District

Comments on other economic factors

  • Between 1871 and 1940, the Silver City lode vein system produced about 6 tonnes of gold and 236 tonnes of silver from 611,000 metric tonnes of ore

Comments on development

  • Ore production was confined to shallow depths, (less than 300 ft)

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Gianella, V.P., 1936, Geology of the Silver City District and the southern portion of the Comstock Lode, Nevada; Univ. Nev. Bull. Vol. 30, No. 9

  • Deposit

    WPA State Writer's Project, 1940-41, Individual histories of the mines of the Comstock; unpublished open-file report, Nev. Bur. Mines & Geol.

  • Deposit

    Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 90-206A, 33 p.; 98-206B. one 3.5 inch diskette.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The mines are located just north of Silver City on the Silver City lode, vein.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-FEB-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.

Authoritative Nevada resources

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