Wood Gulch Mine

Producer in Elko county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver
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. Workings at the site
  20. Links to other databases
  21. Bibliographic references
  22. General comments
  23. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310517
MRDS ID M242965
Record type Site
Current site name Wood Gulch Mine

Comments on the site identification

  • New record modified from old MRDS record No. M242965. The MRDS record No. M242965 should be deleted and replaced by this record.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -115.96649, 41.67934 (WGS84)
Elevation 2290
Relative position The mine is located about 60 miles NNW of Elko.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Elko(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Badger Creek(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Jarbidge Mountains(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Wells(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Owyhee(hydrologic unit)

Middle Snake-Boise(hydrologic accounting unit)

Middle Snake(hydrologic subregion)

Pacific Northwest(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest(National Forest)

National Forest FS(Type of land area)

FS(Federal land areas administered by FS)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada Elko

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 044N 053E 25, 26 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The deposit is located near the headwaters of Wood Gulch.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: gold
  • Gangue Materials: quartz, pyrite, iron oxides

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Quartz Gangue
Pyrite Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) The rocks are argillically altered on a microcopic scale. Schoonover sediments have been silicified and dacites have been argillized. The altered dacitic volcanic rocks were not as good host rocks for mineralization as the brittle, siliceous, Schoonover lithologies.

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 Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Argillite
    Rock unit name Schoonover Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Pennsylvanian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Sedimentary Breccia
    Rock unit name Schoonover Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Pennsylvanian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Mississippian
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Dacite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Intermediate Volcanic Rock > Andesite
    Rock type qualifier sills
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary

Nearby scientific data

(1) -115.96649, 41.67934

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description low-angle thrust faults
Type of structure Local
Structure description The mine area is cut by high-angle faults along N-S, NW, and NE trends. The Tomasina fault is the major structural feature in the mine area.

Ore body information

  • General form The shape of the deposit is irregular.

Controls for ore emplacement

  • the Wood Gulch deposit is localized near the intersection of the tomasina fault and a conjugate shear zone. Mineralization was apparently floored by a stratigraphic transition from broken sandstone/siltstone to an underlying barren shale/siltstone.

Comments on the geologic information

  • The dominanat host rocks are argillite and a rubble breccia. Sediments range from fine-grained to sandy silliceous clastics to calcareous in composition. sill of dacite and andesite are present as well as dacitic tuff and volcaniclastic rocks.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1986
Discoverer Homestake Mining Co.
Year of first production 1988
Year of last production 1990
Production years 1988-1990

Mining district

District name Aura District
District name Bull Run

Land status

Ownership category National Forest
Area name Elko District U S Forest Service

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Homestake Mining Co.
    First year 1987
    Last year 1991
  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Independence Mining Company Inc.
    Year 1993

Workings at the site

  • Type of workings Surface
    Area 4.856HA
    Length 396.24M
    Overall depth 140.21M
    Overall length 457.2M
    Overall width 152.4M

Comments on the workings information

  • The mine was developed as an open pit, heap leach operation. Dimensions of the open pit were about 1300 feet long by 500 feet wide and 470 feet deep.

Comments on other economic factors

  • the reported resource in 1988 was 500,000 short tons of ore grading 0.098 ounces per ton Au and 0.4 ounces per ton Ag. The mine produced 34,700 ounces of gold and 66,496 ounces of silver from 1988 to 1990.

Comments on development

  • Homestake applied for permits and began exploring area in 1983, staked claims from 1983 through 1984, drilled from 1984 through 1986, made a road into the project area, and discovered a small mineable ore body in 1986. The property consisted of 395 unpatented claims. Production began in 1988, and the first pour was in November of 1988, after which the mine closed for the winter, resuming operations in April, 1989. The proposed mine life was only two years a with possible extension from nearby Doby George area to the west. The strip ratio was planned to be 5:1 for the open pit. Processing at Homestake?s Wood Gulch Mine ceased in 1990 after the ore deposit was exhausted. Mine reclamation began shortly thereafter and was scheduled for completion in 1992. Independence Mining Company acquired the property by 1993.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Gold values are generally erratic occurring with quartz, pyrite and iron oxides in stockworks of veins and veinlets and as disseminations in silica-flooded zones. Samples were taken from areas of brecciated, silicified argillite, and rubble breccia, laced with quartz veinlets, quartz matrix to breccia, stained red with hematite. Ore-grade gold-silver mineralization was restricted to the vicinity of the Tomasina fault and associated structures. Higher grades were associated with siclicified, quartz-veined structures and breccia zones up to ten feeet thick Lower grade mineralization occurs in moderately broken and veined zons in the hanging wall and near structural intersections.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-DEC-1988 La Pointe, D.D. (Tingley, J.V.) Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
Updater 01-NOV-1989 Taylor, J. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
Updater 01-JAN-1993 Phinisey, J. D. (Marcus, S.) U.S. Geological Survey
Reporter 01-JUN-2003 La Pointe, 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.

Operator history (post-MRDS)

MRDS records operators as of each record's last update (≤ 2019). Some of the operators listed here have since changed hands or dissolved:

Curated by qvyshift.com from publicly-reported M&A activity (SEC filings, press releases, USGS Mineral Yearbooks). Not authoritative — verify against primary sources before relying on it. The MSHA panel above is the current authoritative source for actively-permitted mines.

External references

Authoritative Nevada resources

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