Toiyabe-Saddle Deposit

Past Producer in Lander 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. Links to other databases
  20. Bibliographic references
  21. General comments
  22. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310330
MRDS ID W700419
Record type Site
Current site name Toiyabe-Saddle Deposit
Alternate or previous names 401 Pit, Middle Pit, South Pit

Comments on the site identification

  • This record contains all material from earlier MRDS record # W700419 and includes all information from that record. MrRDS record # W700419 should be deleted from the database and replaced by this record.

Geographic coordinates

Point of reference Ore Body
Geographic coordinates: -116.7357, 40.038 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position The Toiyabe Property is located in the northern Toiyabe Range, about 78 miles southwest of Elko, Nevada, 12 mi S of Pipeline deposit.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Lander(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Wenban Spring(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Crescent Valley(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Winnemucca(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Middle Humboldt(hydrologic unit)

Humboldt(hydrologic accounting unit)

Black Rock Desert-Humboldt(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Bureau of Land Management(Bureau of Land Management NV)

Bureau of Land Management NV BLM(Type of land area)

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada Lander

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 025N 047E 18 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The Toiyabe Property is situated approximately six miles southwest of Placer Dome's Cortez Gold Mine and consists of 86 unpatented, contiguous and unsurveyed mineral claims, totaling 1,776.76 acres. ALSO LOCATED SEC. 06 T25N, R47E AND SECS. 31, 32 T26N, R47E.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: gold

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore

Alteration

  • (Local) Alteration in the mine area includes; silicification, decalcification, minor oxidization and remobilization of carbon.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 75
USGS model code 19c
Deposit model name Distal disseminated Ag-Au
Mark3 model number 18

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Siltstone
    Rock type qualifier calcareous
    Rock unit name Wenban Limestone
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Devonian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate
    Rock unit name Roberts Mountain Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Devonian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Wenlock
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock type qualifier dikes
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Oligocene
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Latite
    Rock type qualifier dikes
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Oligocene

Nearby scientific data

Ore Body (1) -116.7357, 40.038

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description northwest-trending thrust faulting
Type of structure Regional
Structure description Regional structural analysis and project-scale geologic data indicate that a north-northwest trending range-front fault zone passes through the property.

Ore body information

  • General form irregular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Gold is dominantly associated with silicification, either as quartz veins, quartz veinlets and/or replacement flooding.

Comments on the geologic information

  • The Toiyabe Range consists of upper-plate metasedimentary and volcanic rocks, exhibiting northwest-trending thrust faulting, interpreted to overlie potentially productive carbonate units such as the Wenban Limestone which hosts the Toiyabe gold deposit.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes

Mining district

District name Bullion District
District name Cortez District
District name Jett District

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area

Ownership information

  • Type Owner
    Owner Cortez Joint Venture
    Year 2004
  • Type Operator
    Owner Cortez Joint Venture
    Year 2004
  • Type Operator
    Owner N. A. Degerstrom, Inc.
  • Type Operator
    Owner Golden Oasis
  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Inland Resources Corp.
    Year 1996
    First year 1993
  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Inland Gold And Silver Corp. (Ch To Rec 1 Name,
    ID 2602020
    Year 1989
    Last year 1993

Comments on the workings information

  • 1970s-1980s workings consisted of an open pit multiple bench mine with heap leach and cyanidation plant. That mine has beenreclaimed and the current Saddle deposit is in the same area.

Comments on other economic factors

  • In 1988 the Toiyabe property was reported to contain 813,400 tons of material grading 0.066 ounces of gold per ton.
    Production 1988-91 was 52,480 ounces of gold and 25,425 ounces of silver.
    The open pit mine operation produced a total of about 90,000 ounces of gold from 1987 to 1993.

Comments on development

  • Exploration work was completed by Homestake (now Barrick), Getty Oil (now Energold Mining), Freeport Exploration (now Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc), Degerstrom Inc and Santa Fe Pacific Mining (now Newmont) during the period 1964-1991. Much of the work consisted of drilling.
    The Toiyabe mine was a small gold mining and heap leaching operation from 1987-1991 owned by Inland Gold & Silver Corporation. The Toiyabe mine has been abandoned and reclaimed; it lies on a claim block adjacent to and south of the Toiyabe Property. The mine processed approximately 2,300,000 tons of rock and produced approximately 89,000 oz of gold from three small pits.
    In 2004, the property was owned by Cortez Joint Venture: Placer Dome, Inc. (60%) (taken over by Barrick in 2006) and Kennecott Explorations (40%).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The Toiyabe mine was a small gold mining and heap leaching operation from 1987-1991 owned by Inland Gold & Silver Corporation. The Toiyabe mine has been abandoned and reclaimed; it lies on a claim block adjacent to and south of the Toiyabe Property. The mine processed approximately 2,300,000 tons of rock and produced approximately 89,000 oz of gold from three small pits. The Saddle deposit of the Toiyabe mine is a sediment-hosted, structurally controlled gold deposit primarily hosted by the Roberts Mountain formation but with the Roberts Mountain Thrust as the major control on the gold mineralization.

Gold mineralization in the Toiyabe mine area occurs in the lower plate carbonates but also occurs in the upper plate siliceous sediments above the Roberts Mountain thrust fault. Little is known about the gold occurrences within the Toiyabe Property and much of the information in this section is derived from the historical gold occurrences at the Toiyabe mine. At the Toiyabe mine, 60% of the gold is derived from the lower plate Roberts Mountain Formation while 40% of the gold comes from the upper plate package. Gold is dominantly associated with silicification, either as quartz veins, quartz veinlets and/or replacement flooding.
There is also an association with elevated arsenic, mercury, antimony and silver geochemistry which aids in the search for these deposits. Gold commonly occurs where narrow fracture systems intersect only certain sheared, permeable and reactive carbonates that result in larger, shear-breccia hosted gold systems. Additionally, significant zones of gold mineralization on the subject property are associated with lesser argillic alterations.

Gold in the Toiyabe mine is also associated with Oligocene aged rhyolitic-latitic dikes. In several areas of the mine, gold is found in quartz veins or siliceous flooding of igneous dikes,

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-AUG-1988 Paidakovich, Matthew E. U.S. Geological Survey
Reporter 25-NOV-1996 Ridenour, James U.S. Bureau of Mines
Reporter 12-DEC-1996 Lowe, Nathan T. U.S. Bureau of Mines
Reporter 01-NOV-2006 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.

Current status (per MSHA)

StatusAbandoned since 05/08/1995
MSHA mine ID2602020
Mine name (MSHA)Toiyabe Project-Saddle Gold Deposit
Current operatorGd Resources Inc
Current controller (parent)Nevada Resources & Development Corp
Mine typeSurface (Metal / non-metal)

MSHA cross-reference per the original MRDS record. Mine status and operator reflect MSHA's last published Mines export (February 2025); MSHA's public bulk feed has been unavailable since, so this may be out of date. See the Mine Data Retrieval System for current status.

Open MSHA's Mine Data Retrieval System for inspections, accidents, and violations for this mine.

Authoritative Nevada resources

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