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Midway Gold Deposit

Producer in Nye county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver
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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. Alteration
  9. Mineral occurrence model information
  10. Host and associated rocks
  11. Nearby scientific data
  12. Geologic structures
  13. Ore body information
  14. Controls for ore emplacement
  15. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  16. Mining district
  17. Land status
  18. Ownership information
  19. Bibliographic references
  20. General comments
  21. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310416
MRDS ID M231771
Record type Site
Current site name Midway Gold Deposit
Alternate or previous names Midway Mine, Discovery zone, SP 121 and 63-77 zones, Thunder Mountain property (adjacent)

Comments on the site identification

  • This record supersedes MRDS record #M231771 from which all material has been incorporated into the current record.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -117.08313, 38.24494 (WGS84)
Elevation 1800
Relative position The Midway Property is located in Nye County, Nevada 335 kilometres northwest of Las Vegas and 380 kilometres southeast of Reno about 25 km (14.5 miles) northeast of Tonopah.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nye(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Thunder Mountain(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Tonopah(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Tonopah(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Ralston-Stone Cabin 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 Nye

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 005N 044E 31 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The property covers an approximate 9.4 square kilometres area over the northeastern flank of the San Antonio Mountains. The property is accessed from Tonopah by following Nevada State Highway 6 east for eight kilometres, north on paved State Highway 376 for 20 kilometres to the Belmont County Road junction. The main areas of interest are located 50 to 150 metres east, north and northwest of this junction.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: gold
  • Gangue Materials: calcite, quartz, chalcedony

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Calcite Gangue
Quartz Gangue
Chalcedony Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Rhyolite host rock is altered, silicified.
    Northwest-trending, sub-vertical rhyolite porphyry dikes that intrude the Palmetto Formation and overlying Rye Patch Formation at Midway are pervasively propylitized with local sericitic and phyllic hydrothermal alteration . Small amounts of pyrite and chalcopyrite occur in the dike rock.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 104
USGS model code 25a
Deposit model name Hot-spring Au-Ag
Mark3 model number 45
Model code 153
USGS model code 25c + 25d
Deposit model name Epithermal vein, quartz adularia
Mark3 model number 25

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock unit name Tombstone Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Pyroclastic Rock > Tuff
    Rock type qualifier rhyolitic
    Rock unit name Tombstone Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Mixed Clastic/Volcanic Rock
    Rock type qualifier volcaniclastic sediments
    Rock unit name Tombstone Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Argillite
    Rock unit name Palmetto Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Intermediate Volcanic Rock > Trachyandesite
    Rock type qualifier flows
    Rock unit name Red Mountain
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Ordovician

Nearby scientific data

(1) -117.08313, 38.24494
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description Minor east-northeast trending faults with minimal displacements are mapped in the area.
Type of structure Regional
Structure description Midway lies east of the Walker Lane, a prominent zone of parallel and sub-parallel right lateral strike slip faults,a major structure that separates the Sierra Nevada batholith from the Basin and Range Province; regional extensional Basin and Range type faulting

Ore body information

  • General form disseminated

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Regional extensional faulting provided the conduits for the hydrothermal fluids, but mineralization is pervasive.

Comments on the geologic information

  • Regional Geology: the Midway Property is underlain by northwest striking, easterly-dipping chert and argillite of the Ordovician age Palmetto Formation and interbedded siltstone and limestone of the Cambrian- Ordovician age Emigrant Formation the Midway Hills to the west, north and south of the property are composed of Miocene age Red Mountain trachyandesite flows (Jonson, 1988). The eastern portion of the property is covered in Quaternary fan and pediment alluvial deposits with mixed playa-dune deposits locally
    The Midway property is covered by alluvium, underneath which lie the favourable tuffaceous rhyolites of the Tombstone formation and older sedimentary rocks of the Palmetto formation. Subvertical dikes emplaced during the Upper Cretaceous intrude the Palmetto units. Hills to the east, north and south represent trachyandesite flows left over from the Miocene. The average thickness is 3-4 meters, though beds can thicken to as much as 300 metres.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1986
Discoverer Tom Patton & Paul Schmidt

Mining district

District name Rye Patch

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Tonopah BLM District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner
    Owner Midway Gold Corp
  • Type Operator
    Owner Newmont Gold

Comments on the workings information

  • The property is developed both by old underground workings and recent surface exploration, drilling.

Comments on other economic factors

  • In 1997, preliminary estimates of reserves were 270,000 ounces of gold.

    No recent formal resource estimates have been completed though significant mineralization is being defined by drilling.

Comments on development

  • Early production from the Midway (Rye Patch) District is unknown, but evidence of past exploration activity is shown by numerous pits and a shaft. Houston Oil and Minerals held the property from the 1970's through to 1984. In 1986 the present claim owners, Thomas Patton and Paul Schmidt, staked claims to cover the Midway prospect area and mineralization located to the north and east. Several companies reviewed and sampled the property and obtained locally anomalous concentrations of gold: in 1988 Coeur d'Alene Mines optioned the Midway Property and conducted preliminary geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys on it. Followed by a three hole reverse circulation drill program to test mineralization in the prospect areas. Results of this initial test were inconclusive and Coeur d'Alene dropped their option. Rio Algom optioned the property in 1989 and conducted a 42-hole reverse circulation drill program on the SP Prospect area. Results of this drill program were also inconclusive and Rio Algom dropped the option. In 1992, Kennecott Exploration optioned the Midway property and conducted extensive exploration of the known prospect areas and elsewhere on the property. Detailed geophysical programs including airborne, gravity and CSAMT surveys were completed. A large, 132-hole drill program, including four core drill holes was undertaken in 1996. This resulted in a preliminary resource estimation on the project area of 270,000 ounces of gold. Tombstone Exploration entered into a joint venture with Kennecott and in 1997 completed a 14-hole drill program on the Midway Property. Kennecott dropped their option in the fall of 1997 and the property was returned to the vendors. Between May and September 2002, Midway Gold Corp. completed more than $1.5 million of exploration drill testing the main areas of interest on the property.
    The property has increased in size to include 1,649 unpatented mineral claims for a total of 13,250 hectares. As operator of the project, Newmont has conducted extensive geophysical surveys including EM, magnetics and radiometric airborne surveys, ground radiometrics, gravity and CSAMT, detailed geological mapping in the Northwest and Thunder Mountain areas and rock and stream sediment geochemistry. Two major drill campaigns were completed since the July 23, 2002 report was issued. These campaigns consisted of 43 core holes totaling 22,364 ft and 77 reverse circulation holes totaling 37,690 ft.
    The Thunder Mountain gold property is located adjacent to and southeast of the Midway property. In 2002, Castleworth
    Ventures Ltd. acquired a 50% interest in the Thunder Mountain property from Pacific Intermountain Gold Corp. The 228-claim property has been mapped and sampled by Pacific Intermountain Gold to define targets for drill testing. Permitting for
    drill testing is in progress, and drilling was anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2003.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The deposit covers a mineralized strike length of almost 5 miles. Prior work on the property identified four zones of low sulfidation, quartz adularia, epithermal gold mineralization, the Discovery, SP, 121, and 63-77 zones. Mineralization is found in quartz-calcite vein stockworks within altered Tertiary rhyolite and underlying Ordovician sedimentary rocks. In high-grade intervals, the gold occurs as dendritic intergrowths with quartz-calcite crystals, and as bands within quartz-chalcedony veins and lining vugs within the siliceous rhyolite host rock. These veins typically contain higher-grade gold mineralization, such as 23 gpt gold over 17.5 feet in MW222. High-grade gold intercepts commonly occur within a strong quartz vein stockwork system developed in the main Discovery Zone.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-MAY-2004 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.

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