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Nashville Mine

Past Producer in El Dorado county in California, 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. Bibliographic references
  19. General comments
  20. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310654
Record type Site
Current site name Nashville Mine
Alternate or previous names Havilah Mine, Hendy Mine, Tennesse-Nashville Mine

Comments on the site identification

  • The Nashville Mine is located in the famous Mother Lode Gold Belt of the Sierra Nevada foothills. It lies in southwestern El Dorado County about 2 miles north of Amador County, and just east of Highway 49. Having first been worked in 1851, and intermittently worked until its closure in 1936, it is said to be the earliest quartz lode mine to be worked in El Dorado County. However, surprisingly little specific information on the mine is available. Clark (1970) reported the Nashville Mine produced about $2 million.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -120.84116, 38.57676 (WGS84)
Elevation 275
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position One quarter mile east of Nashville, California

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

El Dorado(county)

California(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Fiddletown(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Placerville(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Sacramento(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Cosumnes(hydrologic unit)

San Joaquin(hydrologic accounting unit)

San Joaquin(hydrologic subregion)

California(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States California El Dorado

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 008N 010E 2 E/2 California

Comments on the location information

  • Location selected for latitude and longitude is the Nashville Mine adit symbol on the USGS 7.5 minute Fiddletown quadrangle

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: Free-milling quartz ore yielding about 1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton and carrying 2% auriferous sulfides
  • Gangue Materials: Slate, calcite, chlorite

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Slate Gangue
Calcite Gangue
Chlorite Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) None described

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Metasedimentary Rock > Slate
    Rock unit name Mariposa Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Jurassic

Nearby scientific data

(1) -120.84116, 38.57676
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description Melones Fault Zone
Type of structure Regional
Structure description Melones Fault zone

Ore body information

  • General form Tabular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Erratic ore shoots within fissure-filling mesothermal gold-bearing quartz veins

Comments on the geologic information

  • REGIONAL GEOLOGY

    The Nashville Mine area is within the Sierra Nevada foothills, where bedrock consists of north-trending tectonostratigraphic belts of metamorphosed sedimentary, volcanic, and intrusive rocks that range in age from late Paleozoic to Mesozoic. The structural belts, which extend about 235 miles along the western side of the Sierra, are flanked to the east by the Sierra Nevada Batholith and to the west by sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous and Jurassic Great Valley sequence. The structural belts are internally bounded by the Melones and Bear Mountains fault zones and are characterized by extensive faulting, shearing, and folding (Earhart, 1988).

    In the El Dorado County area, gold deposits occur in the West Belt, the Mother Lode Belt, and the East Belt. The Mother Lode Belt is responsible for most of the gold produced in the county. There has also been substantial gold produced from the West Belt and East Belt (Clark and Carlson, 1956).

    The West Belt consists of widely scattered gold deposits located west of the Mother Lode vein system. Gold occurs in irregular quartz veins in schist and granitic rocks, altered mafic rocks, and as gray ore in greenstone. The West Belt has been further divided by some authors into an eastern component composed of an ophiolitic melange and a western component composed of Jurassic rocks of the Copper Hill volcanics (Duffield and Sharp, 1975; Saleeby, 1982; Clark, 1964). The Copper Hill volcanics consist of mafic to felsic flows and pyroclastic rocks that are metamorphosed to greenschist and amphibolite facies. The Bear Mountains fault zone separates the melange from the Copper Hill volcanics.

    The Mother Lode Belt consists of the Upper Jurassic Logtown Ridge and Upper Jurassic Mariposa formations. The Logtown Ridge Formation consists of about 6,500 feet of volcanic and volcanic-sedimentary rocks of island arc affinity. These rocks are mostly basaltic and include flows, breccias, and a variety of layered pyroclastic rocks. The overlying Mariposa Formation contains a distal turbidite, hemipelagic sequence of black slate, schist, amphibolite, fine grained tuffaceous rocks, and subvolcanic intrusive rocks. The thickness of the Mariposa Formation is difficult to ascertain due to structural complexities, but is estimated to be about 2,600 feet thick at the Cosumnes River (Earhart, 1988). The Nashville Mine is located within black slates of the Mariposa Formation.

    Mother Lode mineralization is characterized by steeply dipping gold-bearing quartz veins that traverse western El Dorado County. The belt trends north through Nashville, northeast through Placerville, and northwest to Garden Valley. At Garden Valley, the Mother Lode Belt splits. The west branch extends northwest through Greenwood, and the east branch extends north through Georgetown to the Georgia Slide area (Busch, 2001). The Mother Lode veins are generally enclosed in Mariposa Formation slate with associated greenstone. The vein system ranges from a few hundred feet to a mile or more in width. Within the zone are numerous discontinuous or linked veins, which may be parallel, convergent, or en echelon. The veins commonly pinch and swell. Few can be traced more than a few thousand feet. Mother Lode type veins fill voids created within faults and fracture zones and consist of quartz, gold and associated sulfides, ankerite, calcite, chlorite, and sericite (Clark and Carlson, 1956).
  • The Melones Fault zone separates the Mother Lode Belt from the East Belt. The East Belt lies in the south central part of El Dorado County approximately 15 miles east of the Mother Lode belt. The East Belt traverses the county from the southern county line, north through Omo Ranch and Grizzly Flat, and apparently terminates near the Hazel Creek Mine east of Jenkinson Reservoir (Busch, 2001). The Eastern Belt is dominantly argillite, phyllite and phyllonite, and chert of Paleozoic age. The phyllite and phyllonite are dark to silvery gray. The chert is mostly thin bedded with phyllite partings. Other rocks in the Eastern Belt include a Jurassic granodiorite pluton near the Cosumnes River and small bodies of Jurassic serpentinite, gabbro, diorite, and limestone. The Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Eastern Belt have been assigned to the Shoo Fly Complex by most investigators.

    Lode deposits of the East Belt consist of many individual gold-bearing quartz veins enclosed in metamorphic rocks of the Shoo Fly complex, or in granitic rocks. Most of the veins trend northward and dip steeply. An east-west set of intersecting faults may be a controlling factor in controlling deposition of ore. Ore deposits of the East Belt are smaller and narrower than those of the Mother Lode, but commonly are more chemically complex, and richer in grade. Gold is usually associated with appreciable amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, galena, sphalerite, and arsenopyrite (Clark and Carlson, 1956)


    LOCAL GEOLOGY

    Nashville District deposits occur in several long north-striking massive quartz veins in black slate of the Mariposa Formation (Clark, 1970). Some veins are up to 25 feet thick. The veins contain large, but low to moderate grade ore bodies (1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton). Little specific information is available about the geology of the Nashville Mine. The gold quartz vein was reported to strike N 10? E, dip 60? E, and average about 20 feet thick. The ore is free milling with 2% pyrite (Tucker and Waring, 1916).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1851

Mining district

District name Nashville District

Land status

Ownership category Private
Area name El Dorado County Planning Dept.

Comments on the workings information

  • The Nashville Mine was developed by a 1,200-foot, 60? inclined shaft with levels at 100 foot intervals. The 1,200 foot level was driven 1,500 feet north onto the Montezuma claim to connect with the neighboring Montezuma Mine. A system of modified shrinkage stoping was used.

Comments on other economic factors

  • The Nashville Mine produced generally low-moderate grade ore carrying 1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton in free-milling gold and auriferous pyrite. Clark (1970) reported the Nashville Mine produced about $2 million.

Comments on development

  • The Nashville Mine, comprising three claims (Havilah, East Havilah, and Northeast Nashville claims) was first worked in 1851 and was credited with an output of $150,000 from its shallow workings. Early ore was worked in arrastras (Logan, 1934). The mine is claimed to be the first quartz mine worked in El Dorado County. The first "systematic" work was done in 1868, with the first three years work reportedly having paid for all development work, a $100,000 plant, and paid $50,000 in dividends (Logan, 1934). Litigation closed the mine in 1871, after which a Joshua Hendy took over the mine in 1880. By 1882, he had deepened the shaft to a depth of 642 feet. Ore from the lower 100 feet of the shaft was reportedly averaging $8.50 per ton.

    The mine lay idle until 1894 when a 20-stamp mill was erected. Between 1895 and 1896, G.E. Williams and Hendy produced $20,000 from ore mined between the 500 and 600 foot levels. No further work was done until 1903. Between 1903 and 1906, the shaft was deepened to the 1,200 foot level with drifts 500 feet south and 1,285 feet north from the shaft crosscut on that level. The only reported production for this 3 year period is for 1904 (by which time the shaft was 1,000 feet deep), and during which 4,000 tons of ore yielded $15,325. If there was production in 1905 and 1906, the separate figures ar not available as the mine was being jointly operated with the Montezuma Mine. No further work was done until 1934, with the exception of milling part of the mine dump. The Montezuma-Apex Mining Company operated the mine from 1934-1936 and the ore was treated at the neighboring Montezuma Mill (Clark and Carlson, 1956). The mine has been idle since 1936.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Busch, L.L., 2001, Mineral land classification of El Dorado County, California: California Geological Survey Open-File Report 2000-03.

  • Deposit

    Clark, L.D., 1964, Stratigraphy and structure of part of the western Sierra Nevada metamophic belt, California:

  • Deposit

    U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 410, 70 p.

  • Deposit

    Clark, W. B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Divisions of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 97-98.

  • Deposit

    Clark, W.B. and Carlson, D.W., 1956, Mines and mineral resources of El Dorado County: California Division of Mines, California Journal of Mines and Geology, v. 52, p. 421.

  • Deposit

    Crawford, J.J., 1894, Gold-El Dorado County: California State Mining Bureau, 12th Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 119.

  • Deposit

    Crawford, J.J., 1895, Gold-El Dorado County: California State Mining Bureau, 13th Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 151-152.

  • Deposit

    Duffield, W.A., and Sharp, R.V., 1975, geology of the Sierra Foothills melange and adjacent areas, Amador County, California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 827, 30 p.

  • Deposit

    Earhart, R.L., 1988, Geologic setting of gold occurrences in the Big Canyon area, El Dorado County, California: U.S. Geological Survey professional Paper 1576, 13 p.

  • Deposit

    Lindgren, W. and Turner, H.W., 1894, Placerville folio, California: U.S. Geological Survey, Geological Atlas of the U.S., folio 3.

  • Deposit

    Logan, C.A., 1934, Mother Lode gold belt of California: California Division of Mines Bulletin 108, p. 27, 54..

  • Deposit

    Logan, C.A., 1938, Mineral resources of El Dorado County: California Division of Mines, 34th Report of the State Mineralogist, p. 226.

  • Deposit

    Saleeby, J., 1982, Polygenetic ophiolite belt of the California Sierra Nevada: Geochronological and tectonostratigraphic development: Journal of Geophysical research, v. 87, n0. 8, p. 1803-1824.

  • Deposit

    Tucker, W.B., and Waring, C.A., 1916, Mines and mineral resources of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yuba counties: California State Mining Bureau, 15th Report of the State Mineralogist, p 292-293

  • Deposit

    Additional information on Nashville Mine is contained in File Nos. 331-2129 and 322-5972 (CGS Mineral Resources Files, Sacramento)

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The Nashville Mine produced from a typical Mother Lode type low-sulfide gold-quartz vein reported to average about 20 feet thick. Ore consisted of free-milling gold and auriferous pyrite occurring in discontinuous ore shoots within a fracture filling quartz vein enclosed in hard black slates of the Upper Jurassic Mariposa Formation. Quartz ore from the Nashville mine was generally low - moderate grade carrying 1/7 to 1/4 ounce of gold per ton in free milling gold and auriferous pyrite (2%).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 08-OCT-2005 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.

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