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

Golden Butte Gold Mine

Past Producer in White Pine county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver
Map
XML
JSON
KML
E
Warning: This record lacks important information: bibliographic references, which we consider necessary for a comprehensive report.
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. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  13. Mining district
  14. Land status
  15. Ownership information
  16. General comments
  17. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310429
MRDS ID M233684
Record type Site
Current site name Golden Butte Gold Mine
Alternate or previous names Butte North (northern orebody)
Related records 10045844

Comments on the site identification

  • MRDS records M233684 and M233685 describe field observations from NBMG geologists who examined this prospected area in the early 1980s before it was developed into a mine.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -115.0481, 39.88882 (WGS84)
Relative position The deposit is located about 45 miles NNW 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

Ninemile Well(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Newark Lake(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Ely(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Long-Ruby 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 White Pine

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 024N 061E 02 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • This deposit is on the west flank of the Cherry Creek Range at the edge of Butte Valley, but as it has no organized mining district of its own, prospects in this area have in the past sometimes been included in the Cherry Creek District, whose mines lie mostly on the east side of the Cherry Creek Range. Limousine Butte to the south of Golden Butte is sometimes described included in descriptions of the property, but has its own record in the database.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: free gold

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 173
USGS model code 26a.1
Deposit model name Sediment-hosted Au
Mark3 model number 17

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Guilmette Limestone
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Devonian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Middle Devonian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Joana Limestone
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Pilot Sale
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Mississippian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Late Devonian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Chainman Shale
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Mississippian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Early Mississippian
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Butte Valley Intrusive

Nearby scientific data

(1) -115.0481, 39.88882
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description Black Metals Fault zone and other steeply-dipping fault zones.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Year of first production 1987
Year of last production 1991
Production years 1987-1991

Mining district

District name Cherry Creek District
District name Butte Valley

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Ely BLM administrative district

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Alta Gold Co.
    Year 1999

Comments on the workings information

  • open pit

Comments on other economic factors

  • In 2003, the existing gold mineral inventory was reported at 620,000 ounces of gold.
    1989 reserves before mining began were reported at 4.23 million tons of ore grading 0.031 opt Au.
    Total recorded production from the mine between 1989 and 1991 was 43,519 ounces of Au, and 16,911 ounces of Ag , all from the south (Golden Butte) deposit.
    During the 1980's the Alta Gold-Echo Bay joint venture reportedly mined approximately 130,000 ounces of gold from surface jasperiods via heap leach at the Golden Butte Mine. Another report states that 91,000 ounces of gold were produced from the Golden Butte Mine by Alta Gold from 1987-1989.

Comments on development

  • The Golden Butte prospect was examined by NBMG geologists in the early 1980s before it was developed into a mine. At that time there were drill roads, drill holes, and N-S-trending trenches on the property in fine grained dense red-brown jasperoid. Drill cuttings contained barite-bearing argillized calcite breccia fragments and also some antimony oxides in nearby rock.
    During the 1980's the Alta Gold-Echo Bay joint venture mined approximately 130,000 ounces of gold from surface jasperiods using heap leach methods at the Golden Butte Mine. The project and adjacent Limousine Butte property are currently being drill tested with a program designed to augment the existing (620,000 ounce) gold mineral inventory. The first two holes returned high-grade gold results (news release December 9, 2003) and the drill program has subsequently been expanded by 3,000 feet to 8,200 feet and from 8 to 14 holes to do additional testing of the deposit.

Reference information

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The property consists of a hydrothermal gold system that exhibits alteration features related to sediment/structure- hosted gold deposits found elsewhere in Nevada. On a district scale, disseminated, structurally-controlled and skarn-hosted gold deposits are related to a large mineralized porphyry complex located beneath the valley floor.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-JUN-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.

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.