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Ken Snyder Mine

Past Producer in Elko 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 10310524
MAS/MILS ID 0320070203
Record type Site
Current site name Ken Snyder Mine
Alternate or previous names Midas deposit, Rex-Grande, Midas Joint Venture

Comments on the site identification

  • The Ken Snyder mine is a new discovery in the heart of the old Gold Circle or Midas District, and developed upon more recently discovered segments of the same veins as the historic mines of the district.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -116.80095, 41.24379 (WGS84)
Elevation 1860
Relative position The mine is located 45 miles north of the town of Battle Mountain.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Elko(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Midas(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Tuscarora(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

McDermitt(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Rock(hydrologic unit)

Humboldt(hydrologic accounting unit)

Black Rock Desert-Humboldt(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada Elko

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 039N 046E Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The mine is located east of the town of Midas, 50 miles northeast of Golconda, and 35 miles west of Tuscarora, in the heart of the old Gold Circle or Midas district.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: pyrite, stromeyerite, native gold, tetrahedrite, proustite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite
  • Gangue Materials: silicified breccia, calcite, adularia, quartz

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Pyrite Ore
Stromeyerite Ore
Gold Ore
Tetrahedrite Ore
Proustite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Adularia Ore
Quartz Ore
Calcite Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) A zone of hydrothermally bleached country rock covers a 3 square mile area surrounding the deposit. Host rocks are silicified.

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
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock type qualifier flows
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Middle Miocene
    Chronological age 12.2
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Pyroclastic Rock > Tuff
    Rock type qualifier rhyolite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Middle Miocene
    Chronological age 12.2
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock type qualifier tuff
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Middle Miocene
    Chronological age 12.2
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Porphyry
    Rock type qualifier quartz
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Middle Miocene
    Chronological age 12.2
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock type qualifier shaley
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Paleozoic

Nearby scientific data

(1) -116.80095, 41.24379
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description Volcanic centers of several ages occur in the region of the deposit.
Type of structure Local
Structure description NW-trending faults

Ore body information

  • General form Tabular to irregular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Ore is generally controlled by faults in volcanic rocks, trending N30 to 60 W, dipping 65 NE to vertical; ore is also generally restricted to the bleached zone.

Comments on the geologic information

  • Although post mineral slickensiding is evident, the occurrence of some ore in gouge indicates that faulting and mineralization were perhaps contemporaneous.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Large
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1907
Year of first production 1908
Year of last production 2006

Mining district

District name Gold Circle (Midas) District

Land status

Ownership category Private
Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Elko BLM Administrative District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Newmont Mining Company
    Year 2003

Comments on other economic factors

  • From 1908 to 1965, the mines of the Gold Circle district produced 4.025 tonnes of gold and 51.5 tonnes of silver from 365 kilotonnes of ore (with negligible amounts of copper, lead, and zinc).

    In 1995, the Ken Snyder mine deposit was estimated to contain a remaining resource of 11800 kilotonnes of ore containing 65 tonnes of gold and 1092 tonnes of silver (Long and others, 1998).
    In 1998, mineable reserves were 2.726 Mt grading 1.115 opt Au and 12.82 opt Ag containing 3.04 M oz Au and 35 M oz Ag or 3,738,500 M oz Au equivalent.
    In 1998, the modern Ken Snyder Mine produced 4,357 oz Au and 55,329 oz Ag.

    In their 2005 annual report, Newmont Mining Corp. announced that remaining reserves at the Midas Mine aggregate 1,500,000 tons of ore grading 0.580 ounces of gold per ton and 7.33 ounces of silver per ton proven+probable.

Comments on development

  • The current mine was initially operated by the Midas Joint Venture, later taken over by Newmont Mining Company (2003).

Comments on the environmental information

  • Creede, Comstock and Sado epithermal vein.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Deposit is a sheeted quartz-adularia vein system. Most of the veins follow NW-trending shear zones in older rhyolite and the fractured contact between rhyolite and andesite.High grade ore occurs in veins; low grade breccia zones iron-stained veins in rhyolite; country rock leached.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-JUN-2003 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.

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:

  • Newmont Mining Company — renamed to Newmont Corporation (2019)
    Renamed from Newmont Mining Corporation to Newmont Corporation in early 2020 (after the 2019 merger with Goldcorp).

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.

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.