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Gold Hill Deposit

Producer in Nye county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Arsenic, Antimony, Thallium, Mercury, Molybdenum, Fluorine-Fluorite, Manganese, Tungsten
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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 10310493
Record type Site
Current site name Gold Hill Deposit
Related records 10069298, 10310392

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -117.05165, 38.77255 (WGS84)
Elevation 2100
Relative position The Gold Hill property is located about 4 miles NNE of the town of Round Mountain, and about 6 miles east-southeast of the town of Carvers, 55 miles north of Tonopah, Nevada.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nye(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Carvers SE(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Ione Valley(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Tonopah(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Northern Big Smoky 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 Nye

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 010N 044E 04 05 06 Nevada
Mount Diablo 011N 044E 28 29 32 33 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The Gold Hill Deposit is centered about 4 miles north of the town of Round Mountain.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary
Arsenic Critical Tertiary
Antimony Critical Tertiary
Thallium Tertiary
Mercury Tertiary
Molybdenum Tertiary
Fluorine-Fluorite Critical Tertiary
Manganese Critical Tertiary
Tungsten Critical Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: free gold, electrum, auriferous pyrite
  • Gangue Materials: clay minerals, quartz, adularia, sericite, hematite, limonite, manganese oxide, pyrite, alunite, jarosite, illite, montmorillonite, kaolinite, fluorite, realgar, scorodite

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Electrum Ore
Pyrite Ore
Quartz Ore
Adularia Ore
Sericite Ore
Hematite Ore
Limonite Ore
Pyrite Ore
Alunite Ore
Jarosite Ore
Illite Ore
Montmorillonite Ore
Kaolinite Ore
Fluorite Ore
Realgar Ore
Scorodite Ore
Clay Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Propylitization and argillization of host rocks are intense. Adularia replacement of K-feldspars and plagioclase is associated with ore. Plagioclase and groundmass are replaced with quartz and sericite. Within propylitically altered rock, biotite is partially or wholly altered to chlorite. Groundmass is altered to chlorite +/- clay +/- carbonate+/- epidote. Plagioclase phenocrysts are altered to sericite (illite) as small points, clots, and veinlets along cleavage planes. Argillically altered rock contains no unaltered biotite or plagioclase, both phases being altered to clay (illite, montmorillonite, kaolinite) and sericite. Groundmass is entirely composed of fine-grained clays and sericite. Quartz-adularia silicification is widespread along the veins. Degree of silicification, sericite + argillic alteration increases with (higher) elevation. Fine-grained secondary quartz has replaced original plagioclase feldspars, occurs as clots in the groundmass, and as hairline veinlets that lace the rock.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 104
USGS model code 25a
Deposit model name Hot-spring Au-Ag
Mark3 model number 45

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Pyroclastic Rock > Tuff > Ash-Flow Tuff
    Rock type qualifier rhyolitic
    Rock unit name Mount Jefferson Caldera
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Oligocene
    Chronological age 26
    Dating method K-Ar
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock type qualifier ash-flow tuff
    Rock unit name Mount Jefferson Caldera
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Oligocene
    Chronological age 26
    Dating method K-Ar
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granite
    Rock unit name Shoshone granite pluton
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Cretaceous
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Metasedimentary Rock
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Permian

Nearby scientific data

(1) -117.05165, 38.77255
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description Northwest-striking faults and joints; a WNW-trending paleotopographic high, may represent the margin of buried caldera located SW of Round Mountain.
Type of structure Regional
Structure description Ore deposits are localized by a NW-trending lineament.

Ore body information

  • General form tabular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • There is a ring fracture zone associated with a buried caldera. Gold deposition is controlled by high-angle fractures, particularly the NW-trending sets. Fractures were reactivated by NW-trending strike-slip faulting.

Comments on the geologic information

  • A sequence of water-laid tuff, tuffaceous sandstone, conglomerate, and thinly laminated siltstone overlies the orebody.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Producer
Commodity type Both
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1910
Year of first production 1910
Year of last production 1960
Production years 1910-1942; 1950-1964

Mining district

District name Round Mountain District

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Tonopah BLM Administration District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner
    Owner Nevada Star Resource Corp., (lessor)
    Year 2005
  • Type Operator
    Owner optioned by Round Mountain Gold Corp., a joint venture between Kinross Gold Corporation and Barrick
    Year 2005

Comments on the workings information

  • Historic mining was conducted by underground developments. Major facilities at the currently proposed mine include two open pits of 380 acres and 105 acres in size and a heap leach pad of 280 acres.

Comments on other economic factors

  • There was a small amount of historic recorded production from 1910 to 1930. From 1930 to 1933, 94,500 tons of ore worth $700,000 was produced and from 1934 to 1942 ore valued at $217,000 was produced. Total recorded production from the historic Gold Hill property was about 28,000 ounces of gold from ore grading an estimated 0.3 ounces of gold per ton.
    From 1995 to 1998, RMGC reported a potential resource of 306,622 ounces of gold and 4,871,890 ounces of silver in the Gold Hill property. Subsequently, the reserves and resources were included as part of the overall Round Mountain Mine endowment.

Comments on development

  • The first significant production in the Round Mountain district was principally from the Gold Hill Mine in the 1930s. There was later sporadic production between 1950 and 1964. Total production at Gold Hill was about 28,000 ounces. Grades are estimated to have been about 0.3 ounces of gold per ton.

    The property was controlled through much of the 1980s by Round Mountain Gold Corporation (RGMC), which was at that time a joint venture of Echo Bay Mining, Homestake, and Case Pomeroy. They conducted extensive exploration including surface mapping, geochemistry, geophysics and a structural evaluation. Their work culminated in drilling, preliminary metallurgical test work and a resource and economic evaluation. According to a 1988 report by Mine Development Associates, a mineral inventory of 3.1 million tons (2.8 million tonnes) grading 0.05 oz Au/ton (1.7 g Au/t) at a 0.025 oz Au/ton (0.85 g Au/t) cutoff was defined. Exploration work during the 1990s included additional geological mapping, surface sampling, geophysics, 100 drill holes by RMGC (both reverse circulation and core), 10 core holes completed by Nevada Star and the preparation of a digital database of all available exploration data.

    In 1995, Nevada Star staked 55 claims and acquired an option to purchase 53 additional claims in the Round Mountain Mining District, in consideration of $1,010,000 U.S. over 10? years. In a 2000 agreement, RMGC assumed the remaining payment obligations to the vendor and paid $275,000 to Nevada Star by 2005. Thereafter, RMGC will pay annual production royalties to Nevada Star. In 2003, Round Mountain Gold Corp. started the permitting process for a proposed mine at the Gold Hill property and continued drilling to define the gold deposit. The Gold Hill property is undergoing an EIS (Environmental Impact Study) which is expected to be completed in the Fall of 2005. Plant production is scheduled to start in the early spring of 2006.
    Higher-grade ore from the Gold Hill Project will be trucked to a mill at the existing Round Mountain Gold mine.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Giancola, 1998

  • Deposit

    Harding 2004c

  • Deposit

    Kinross Gold Corp., 2004a

  • Deposit

    Kleinhampl and Ziony, 1984

  • Deposit

    Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003.

  • Deposit

    Nevada Star Resources Corp. Annual Report, 2004

  • Deposit

    Tingley, 1998

  • Deposit

    United States Bureau of Land Management, 1978k

  • Deposit

    United States Bureau of Mines, 1995

  • Deposit

    United States Geological Survey, 1971a.

  • Deposit

    Nevada Star Resource Corp. press release, 7/2/2003

  • Deposit

    Nevada Star Resource Corp. website, Dec. 2005, http://www.nevadastar.com/s/GoldHillProject.asp

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The host rock at Gold Hill includes densely welded rhyolite tuff of the Mount Jefferson Caldera. The Mount Jefferson tuff overlies the Moores Creek tuff which in turn lies over the Round Mountain tuff, the host of the Round Mountain mine. These Tertiary volcanic rocks overlie a volcanic mega-breccia that, in turn, overlies Paleozoic metasediments. The youngest rock in the area is Quaternary-Tertiary pediment gravel. These units are generally composed of cobbles of the younger maroon tuff and are always completely barren of gold mineralization.

Alteration in the area ranges from propylitic to argillic to advanced argillic to silicified. The gold mineralization is related to both quartz veining in argillized rock and silicification. The principal feature in the area is the Gold Hill vein and its sub-parallel veins. These all strike N75?W and dip variably, but steeply. In general, the veins dip southerly near the surface but dip back to the north at depth. These veins branch and coalesce and are banded quartz, but can also be composed of crushed quartz and rhyolite. Higher-grade pods generally exist where two periods of veining intersect, the entire zone is up to 500 ft wide and is 3,000 ft long, extending from beyond the range front fault on the west (where it remains open) to near the Toquima shaft on the east. The mineralization extends to the west of the range front fault where one hole hit approximately 80 ft of about 0.11 oz Au/ton.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-AUG-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

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