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Crescent Valley Placers

Past Producer in Lander county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Tungsten
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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. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Host and associated rocks
  10. Nearby scientific data
  11. Ore body information
  12. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  13. Mining district
  14. Land status
  15. Ownership information
  16. Bibliographic references
  17. General comments
  18. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310337
MRDS ID M232525
Record type Site
Current site name Crescent Valley Placers
Alternate or previous names Triplett Gulch Placers, Mill Gulch placers, Mud Springs Valley placers
Related records 10044896

Comments on the site identification

  • The current record describes an area covered by the Triplett Gulch, Mill Gulch, and Mud Springs placer deposits described in part by earlier MRDS records M232525, M232526, and M232527 from which all material has been incorporated into the current record, as well as additonal new material.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -116.69815, 40.30602 (WGS84)
Relative position The Crescent Valley placer deposits are located about 28 miles south of Beowawe.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Lander(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Tenabo(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 028N 047E 07 08 09 16 17 18 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The Crescent Valley placer deposits are located along three creeks: predominantly Triplett Gulch and Mill Gulch just south of Tenabo, and some along Mud Springs Gulch a few miles to the north. UTM is to the Mill Gulch placer area.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: free gold, electrum, scheelite

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Electrum Ore
Scheelite Ore

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 > Gravel
    Rock type qualifier alluvial
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Quaternary

Economic information

Ore body information

  • General form blanket; channels

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 1916
Discoverer A. J. Raleigh (Mill Gulch); Gus Fowler (Mud Springs Gulch )
Year of first production 1905
Year of last production 1940
Production years 1905-1940, intermittently

Mining district

District name Bullion District
District name Tenabo District

Land status

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

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Pacific Gold Corp
    Year 2004
  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Coral Gold Corp.
    Year 2004

Comments on the workings information

  • By 1938, about 30 shallow shafts 60-90 feet deep had been dug to bedrock through the placer gravels in Mud Springs Gulch .

Comments on other economic factors

  • From 1931 to 1936, the Bullion district placer deposits produced 1111 ounces of gold and 119 ounces of silver from as many as 9 different placer operations mining at the same time. The placer deposits at Mud Springs Gulch and its tributaries reportedly produced only a total of about $2,000 worth of gold from their discovery in 1907 until about 1938.
    The Triplett Gulch placer mines produced 1,627 ounces of gold and 160 ounces of silver in 1940 and an unrecorded amount by numerous lessees before that.
    Production from the 1937-1939 dredging operation in Mill Gulch is estimated at no less than 6,000 ounces of gold.
    Proven placer reserves reported in 2003 are 1.98 million cubic yards of placer gravels grading 0.034 ounces of gold per ton and 6.3 million cubic yards of placer gravels grading 0.031 ounces of gold per ton .

Comments on development

  • The lode deposits in the district were discovered in 1905, but the Tenabo (Crescent Valley) placer deposits were not discovered until 1916. Some hand work with dry washers and rockers was done by Raleigh and lessees, but no production was recorded until 1931. In 1936, the Mill Gulch Placer Mining Company bought the Mill Gulch placer claims from Raleigh, and filed placer claims over a large area in adjacent Triplett Gulch. The company installed a floating washing plant and a dragline and began 24 hour- a-day production in 1937 continuing at least until 1939 followed by a few more years of small-scale workings. Production from this operation in Mill Gulch is estimated at no less than 6,000 ounces of gold.
    In 1938 Mrs. G. W. Triplett and E.O. Swackhamer held 9 unpatented placer claims over the main workings in Triplett Gulch. There were up to 40 sublessees working the ground with small-scale dry washing equipment, and processing up to 50 cubic yards of material a day. Triplett Gulch Mines, Inc. operated a non-floating washing plant in Triplett Gulch in 1940. It processed 140,000 cubic yards of placer material yielding 1,627 ounces of gold and 160 ounces of silver.
    The placer deposits at Mud Springs Gulch and its tributaries a few miles to the north, were discovered by Gus Fowler in 1907 and were worked intermittently by hand methods through the 1930s, producing only a total of about $2,000 worth of gold. The rise in god prices since 2000 generated renewed interest in the old placers, and the area was being prospaected in 2003 by Pacific Gold Corp and Coral Gold Corp., who reported reserves for the Crecent valley placer properties.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 90-206A, 33 p.; 98-206B. one 3.5 inch diskette.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The alluvium in Mill Gulch is sand and medium boulders from 10 to 45 feet thick, with most of the gold occurring near the underlying bedrock. Gold ranges from fine to coarse-grained, with a fineness of 920. A small amount of scheelite occurs in the gravels with the gold. The Triplett Gulch placer is a half-mile south of Mill Gulch. The alluvial gravels in Triplett Gulch wer 1-12 feet thick, averaging 6 feet thick- placer deposits. The placer material in Triplett Gulch is chiefly sand and soil containing a small proportion of angular rock fragments. Depth of the alluvium ranges from 1 to 12 feet. Average value of dry washed material in 1939 was $2 cu/yd.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-FEB-2005 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.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Nevada resources

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