| Deposit ID | 10310616 |
|---|---|
| Record type | District |
| Current site name | French Corral District |
| Geographic coordinates: | -121.15224, 39.30388 (WGS84) |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 490 |
| Relative position | Nine miles northwest of Nevada City |
Political divisions (FIPS codes)
Nevada(county)
California(state)
United States(country)
North America(continent)
Land(continent)
USGS map quadrangles
French Corral(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)
Yuba City(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)
Chico(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)
Hydrologic units (watersheds)
Upper Yuba(hydrologic unit)
Lower Sacramento(hydrologic accounting unit)
Sacramento(hydrologic subregion)
California(hydrologic region)
| Country | State | County |
|---|---|---|
| United States | California | Nevada |
| Meridian | Township | Range | Section | Fraction | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Diablo | 017N | 007E | 13,14,23-26 | California |
| Commodity | Importance |
|---|---|
| Gold | Primary |
| Silver | Secondary |
| Platinum Critical | Secondary |
| Diamond | Tertiary |
| Materials | Type of material |
|---|---|
| Gold | Ore |
| Quartz | Gangue |
| Garnet | Gangue |
| Magnetite | Gangue |
| Ilmenite | Gangue |
| Zircon | Gangue |
| Pyrite | Gangue |
| Amphibole | Gangue |
| Epidote | Gangue |
| Chlorite | Gangue |
| Siderite | Gangue |
| Model code | 119 |
|---|---|
| USGS model code | 39a |
| Deposit model name | Placer Au-PGE |
| Mark3 model number | 54 |
| Host or associated | Host | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rock type | Unconsolidated Deposit > Sand and Gravel | ||
| |||
| (1) | -121.15224, 39.30388 |
|---|
| Type of structure | Local |
|---|---|
| Structure description | Big Bend-Wolf Creek Fault Zone |
| Type of structure | Regional |
| Structure description | Big Bend-Wolf Creek Fault Zone |
| General form | Irregular |
|---|
| Operation type | Surface |
|---|---|
| Development status | Past Producer |
| Commodity type | Both |
| Significant | Yes |
| Discovery year | 1850 |
| District name | French Corral |
|---|
| Ownership category | Private |
|---|---|
| Area name | Nevada County Planning Department |
| Type | Owner |
|---|---|
| Owner | Various private owners |
Clark, W.B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 50.
Lindgren, W., 1895, Smartsville Folio, California: U.S. Geological Survey Atlas of the U.S., Folio 18, 6 p.
Lindgren, W., 1911, Tertiary gravels of the Sierra Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 73, p. 123-125.
MacBoyle, E., 1919, Nevada County, French Corral mining district: California State Mining Bureau Report 16, p. 7-11.
Saucedo, G. J. and Wagner, D. L., 1992, Geologic map of the Chico Quadrangle: California Division of Mines and Geology Regional Map Series Map No. 7A, scale 1:250,000.
Yeend, W.E., 1974, Gold-bearing gravel of the ancestral Yuba River, Sierra Nevada, California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 772, 44 p.
Additional information on the French Corral District is contained in File Nos. 331-9402 and 330-6679 (CGS Mineral Resources Files, Sacramanto).
| Subject category | Comment text |
|---|---|
| Deposit | The French Corral deposits comprise a sinuous band of auriferous gravels preserved in the valley of French Corral Creek. The deposits extend approximately 2.5 miles along the creek from the community of French Corral to Birchville on the north. The deposits are generally narrow and thin by comparison with many other Tertiary gravel mining districts, being generally no wider than 1,500 feet and between 150 and 250 feet thick. The gravels were deposited by a southwesterly flowing main branch of the ancestral Yuba River. This branch flowed southwestward from the North San Juan District (2-3 miles north), through the French Corral District and continued its southwesterly course to the Smartsville District 10 miles to the southwest. While the deposits display both a lower coarse gravel unit and a finer upper unit, most of the gravels belong to the lower unit due to extensive erosion and thinning of the upper gravel unit. The basal gravels, or blue lead of the early miners, are the richest. They are generally more cemented than the upper gravels, immature, and composed of darker clasts stripped from the upstream bedrock lithologies including bluish slate, gabbroic rocks, and serpentinite. Accessory minerals include zircon, garnet, magnetite, pyrite, and diamonds. Extremely large boulders were also encountered in the bedrock channel. |
| Type | Date | Name | Affiliation | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reporter | 10-SEP-2004 | Downey, Cameron (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. |
Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.
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