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

Butte Creek District

Past Producer in Butte county in California, United States with commodity Gold
Map
XML
JSON
KML
B
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. Ore body information
  12. Controls for ore emplacement
  13. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  14. Mining district
  15. Bibliographic references
  16. General comments
  17. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310595
Record type District
Current site name Butte Creek District

Comments on the site identification

  • Located in north-central Butte County, this site is chiefly a gold-dredging district that extends along Butte Creek from about three miles southeast of Chico northeast to Centerville and Helltown, a distance of almost 12 miles (Clark, 1970).

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -121.75349, 39.70699 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position The main area of mining in this district is about six miles southeast of the city of Chico.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Butte(county)

California(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Chico(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Chico(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Chico(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Lower Sacramento(hydrologic accounting unit)

Sacramento(hydrologic subregion)

California(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

ST(Federal land areas administered by ST)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States California Butte

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 021N 002E 04 California

Comments on the location information

  • Location selected for latitude and longitude is within the large tailings area in the eastern half of Section 4 as shown on the USGS 7.5-minute Chico quadrangle.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Commodity Info: Based on production in placer deposits elsewhere in this region, it is possible that platinum is present.
  • Ore Materials: Native gold
  • Gangue Materials: Metamorphic rock, igneous rock, quartz

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Quartz Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Sand and Gravel
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Sand and Gravel
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Quaternary

Nearby scientific data

(1) -121.75349, 39.70699
ListMap

Economic information

Ore body information

  • General form Irregular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Mechanical accumulation within stream-channel lag gravels, bars, and point-bar deposits.

Comments on the geologic information

  • REGIONAL GEOLOGY

    The Butte Creek District is situated at the westernmost edge of the Sierra Nevada geologic province where it adjoins the Sacramento Valley This province is characterized by extremely complex lithologies and structures that were assembled through various plate-tectonic processes.

    Paleozoic-Mesozoic metamorphic complexes intruded by various Mesozoic plutons compose the basement of the province. This basement is overlain at higher elevations by erosional remnants of Cenozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks, including gravels. Most of these various lithologies contain gold in places. In the vicinity of Chico where the province meets the Sacramento Valley, continental volcanic rocks of the Pliocene Tuscan Formation are exposed.

    Structurally, the metamorphic rocks and some of the plutonic rocks of the basement have been deformed by folding and faulting. The major fault zones typically trend northerly or northwesterly, although in places intrusion of the younger plutons has deformed some of the zones so as to assume other trends as well. In contrast, the overlying Cenozoic rocks are relatively undeformed except that the Tuscan Formation exhibits abundant fracturing, which largely trends northwesterly.

    LOCAL GEOLOGY

    The Butte Creek District is mainly associated with modern alluvial deposits of the main drainage of Butte Creek where it discharges into the Sacramento Valley after passing through the Tuscan Formation. The materials in these deposits have been derived by erosion of the various basement and older Cenozoic rocks at higher elevations as well as from the Tuscan Formation. In places, the basement rocks contain gold within quartz veins and altered rock, while the Cenozoic deposits at higher elevations contain placer gold derived by erosion of these basement rocks. Erosion of both the gold-bearing basement rocks and the older Cenozoic rocks provided the gold that was eventually deposited in the modern placer deposits along the lower segments of Butte Creek.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1849

Mining district

District name Butte Creek District

Comments on the workings information

  • Most mining in this district was accomplished through surface placering and dredging. Some hydraulic and drift mining took place in the Tertiary deposits. Dredging depths ranged from 13 to 35 feet on an uneven bedrock surface.

Comments on other economic factors

  • The last operations were reported to have yielded as much as $0.35 of gold per cubic yard ($35/oz. price). Total production from this district is uncertain, but was likely not major.

Comments on development

  • The streams were placer-mined during the gold rush, and hydraulic mining and some drift mining of the Tertiary gravels followed. Later, the main production in the district came from mining of the lower segments of the creek, mainly by dredging. In the early 1900?s, the creek was worked with primitive power shovels and washing plants. It was then dredged from around 1902 to the early 1920?s, again in the 1930?s, and from 1945 to 1949.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Clark, W. B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Divisions of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 32.

  • Deposit

    Lindgren, W., 1911, Tertiary gravels of the Sierra Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 73, p. 84-85.

  • Deposit

    O?Brien, J.C., 1949, Mines and mineral resources of Butte County, California: California Journal of Mines and Geology, v. 45, no. 3, p. 417-454.

  • Deposit

    Saucedo, G.J. and Wagner, D.L., 1992, Geologic map of the Chico Quadrangle, California: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology Regional Geologic Map Series, Map No. 7A, scale 1:250,000.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The deposits consist mainly of stream and bench gravels in and along Butte Creek. They range from a few hundred feet wide at the northeast end of the district to nearly a mile at the southwest end. The gravels are coarse, well rounded, and consist of andesite with some chert and minor quartz. There are also some auriferous Tertiary gravels in the northeast part of the district.

O?Brien (1949) reported the Butte Creek channel in Section 35, T22N, R2E to be about 250 feet wide, with the gravel about 15 feet thick above a hard tuff bedrock.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-AUG-2006 Higgins, Chris T. California Geological Survey CGS (Formerly CDMG)
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.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative California resources

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