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Dee Gold Mine

Producer in Elko county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Antimony, Arsenic, Mercury, Thallium, Barium-Barite
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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. Ownership information
  19. Bibliographic references
  20. General comments
  21. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310338
MRDS ID M242256
Record type Site
Current site name Dee Gold Mine
Alternate or previous names Boulder Creek Mine, Main Zone, Ridge Zone, North Extension, Deep North, Dx Zone, South Extension, Storm decline
Related records 10047016, 10124478

Comments on the site identification

  • This is a new record for the current gold deposit; earlier record M242256 is for the historic Dee gold mine only. The current Dee Gold Mine encompasses the historic Dee gold mine area.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -116.4276, 41.0324 (WGS84)
Elevation 2010
Relative position The Dee Mine is located approximately 30 miles northwest of Carlin, Nevada and one mile northwest of the Bootstrap Mine.\n

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Elko(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Santa Renia Fields(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Tuscarora(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

McDermitt(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 Elko

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 37N 49E 34 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • Dee is the northwesternmost deposit of the Carlin Trend, although some authors continue the trend northward to include the Hollister (Ivanhoe) orebodies.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary
Antimony Critical Tertiary
Arsenic Critical Tertiary
Mercury Tertiary
Thallium Tertiary
Barium-Barite Critical Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: native gold
  • Gangue Materials: stibnite, pyrite, barite

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Pyrite Ore
Barite Ore
Stibnite Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Silicification and argillization of originally calcareous siltstones and limestones are the dominant alteration effects. Where mineralized, intrusive dikes of intermediate composition are sericitized and often silicified.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 173
USGS model code 26a.1
Deposit model name Sediment-hosted Au
Mark3 model number 17

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock
    Rock unit name Vinini Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate
    Rock unit name Bootstrap Limestone
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Devonian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate
    Rock unit name Carlin Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Pliocene
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Late Miocene
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Pyroclastic Rock > Tuff
    Rock type qualifier vitric
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Miocene
    Chronological age 17
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Dacite
    Rock type qualifier intrusive dikes of intermediate composition (dacitic)
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Miocene
    Chronological age 17

Nearby scientific data

(1) -116.4276, 41.0324
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description The mine area has been affected by folding, thrusting, and high angle faulting. At least three stages of folding are recognized: 1) the oldest set trending N-NE, 2) a set trending N-NW with steep, south-dipping axial planes, 3) a set trending E-W, representing south-directed compression. Two stages of thrusting are represented. Both strike-slip and dip-slip movements are recognized on the high angle structures, but dip-slip movement dominates. NE-trending Basin and Range faults cut both Paleozoic and Tertiary units and displace ore horizons downwards on the southerly and westerly blocks. A few joints trending NE have chalcedonic silica developed along the fracture surfaces.
Type of structure Regional
Structure description Greybeck (1985) proposes that Dee is located at the leading edge of the Golconda Thrust and that beds exposed in the Dee Mine pit lie on the west flank of a close to tight NNE trending antiform.

Ore body information

  • General form tabular to irregular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Northerly- and northwesterly-trending faults and their intersections host gold mineralization. These faults can host gold values exceeding 0.25 opt gold over narrow widths, suggesting that they are the main conduits for gold-bearing hydrothermal fluids. Dikes occupying the faults host small volumes of high grade ore. Economic gold mineralization rarely migrated more than a few feet from the faults.

Comments on the geologic information

  • Western facies, upper plate rocks host the ore.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Producer
Commodity type Both
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1980
Discoverer G.W. Delamare
Year of first production 1984
Year of last production 2001
Production years 1984-2001

Mining district

District name Bootstrap District

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Elko BLM District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Glamis Gold, Ltd.
    Year 2002

Comments on the workings information

  • Dee has a 900 tpd capacity cyanide leaching mill with a carbon-in-pulp circuit to recover gold. The heap leach is planned to treat approx. 0.5 million tons per year. Approximately 55% gold recovery is achieved from heap leaching over a six week period. Average ratio of waste to combined ore is 6:1. The total area disturbed by the operations does not exceed 400 acres.

Comments on other economic factors

  • From 1984-1995, the combined Dee-Ren deposits produced 16 tonnes of gold and >9.4 tonnes of silver from >10,143 kilotonnes of ore. In 1995, the combined Dee-Ren deposits were estimated to contain a remaining resource of 11,024 kilotonnes of ore containing 18.25 tonnes of gold (Long and others, 1998). Ore was shipped from the Ren deposit, 2-1/2 miles to the southeast, for processing at Dee in the mid-1990s, so production data from that time period includes Ren production.
    Cash costs of gold production were <$200/oz. in 1987, $204/oz. in 1988, $247/oz. in 1989, and $264/oz. in 1990. Mining costs were $6 per ton milled in 1987.
    Proven and probable reserves reported by Glamis Gold in 1998 for the Dee Mines were 1.778 million tons of ore grading 0.155 opt, containing 275,000 ounces of gold.
    The Dee mine had a projected mine life of nine years in 1990 and created 100 permanent new jobs with a payroll of $3.0 million per year. Total expenditure on payroll, supplies, services, taxes, and royalties exceeded $7.0 million per year.

    In 1992, the Dee Mine contained reserves of 5.2 Mt of ore grading 0.049 opt Au. In 1994, a geologic resource of 958,000 oz Au was reported. In 1997, a geologic resource of 400,000 oz Au was reported.

    Production from the Dee mine from 1987 to 1998 was 445,557 oz Au; production of silver from 1989 to 1996 was reported as 192,322 oz Ag. Last production in 2001 was listed as 2,351 oz gold and 6,028 oz silver.

Comments on development

  • The original Dee discovery was made in Boulder Creek in 1980 by Whit Delamare, working for Cordex Exploration Co. Subsequent drilling of 247 holes totalling 120,000 ft. located the Main and Ridge orebodies. A mine feasibility study was commissioned in 1982. The production decision was made in April, 1983. Production of mill grade ore began in 1984. A heap leaching operation to treat lower grade ore commenced June 1, 1985. In the 1980s, ownership of the Dee Mine was listed as Cordex Syndicate (Rayrock Yellowknife Resources 44%, International Corona Corp. 44%, Mr. John S. Livermore 12%). The operator at that time was Dee Gold Mining Co. (1983); Art Schwandt, Gen. Mgr., P.O. Box 1193, Elko, Nv 89801.
    In 1998, the Dee Mine was evaluated for further expansion underground and a two-year underground mine plan was developed. This underground plan coupled with the remaining open-pit reserves was intended to enable Dee to produce over 58,000 ounces per year for the next four years at a cash cost of $197/oz.
    In 2000, the Dee Mine was still owned and operated by Glamis Gold, Ltd. (2000). The Dee Gold Mine was still listed as an active mine employing 12 persons and producing 2,351 oz gold and 6,028 oz silver in 2001, however it was no longer listed as an active producer in 2002.
    The Storm Exploration Decline (Storm Decline), an inactive underground gold exploration mine, was a joint venture between Dee Gold Mining Company and Barrick Gold Exploration, Inc. (Barrick), with Barrick having sole managing authority over the mine.

    Barrick developed the Storm Decline from the lowest level of the Dee Gold Mining Company open pit in March 1999. The decline was developed to explore ore bodies to identify potential gold-bearing ore reserves. Conventional mining methods utilizing drilling, blasting, and trackless haulage were used to advance the decline. The mine was closed during April 2000 and access to it was controlled by locked gates.
    Barrick reported on the Storm 2004 exploration program. The End Zone drift was completed on schedule and budget with drilling now in progress: 16,500 feet of Core drilling in 49er, Deep North and End Zones completed YTD Test mining was completed at 49er Zone with 1,000 st extracted for metallurgical testing Pre-feasibility study on 49er and Deep North zones in progress

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Geological Society of Nevada, Reno, p. 841-843.

  • Deposit

    Abbott, E., Laux, D., Keith, S., 1992, Geochemistry and Ore Deposits - Influence of Magma Chemistry, In Buffa, R. And Coyner, A., eds., Geology and Ore Deposits of the Great Basin - Field Trip Guidebook Compendium, The Geological Society of Nevada, Reno, p. 568.

  • Deposit

    Bergwall, F., 1992, Geology of the Dee Gold Mine, in Buffa, R. And Coyner, A., Eds., Geology and Ore Deposits of The Great Basin - Field Trip Guidebook Compendium, The Geological Society of Nevada, Reno, p. 867.

  • Deposit

    Mining Journal/Montagu Mining Finance, Mining Database, 8/10/91.

  • Deposit

    Bagby, W.C., Pickthorn, W.J., And Goldfarb, R.J., 1985, Pathfinder Elements in Soils over the Dee Disseminated Gold Deposit, Elko County, Nevada, in Krafft, K., ed., USGS Research on Mineral Resources-1985, Program and Abstracts, USGS Circular 949, p.1.

  • Deposit

    Greybeck, J.D., 1985, Geology of the Dee Mine Area, Elko County, Nevada, Unpublished M.S. Thesis, University of Idaho.

  • Deposit

    Jones, R., 1989, Carlin Trend Gold Belt: The Geology, Mining Magazine, Vol. 161, No. 4, P. 256-261.

  • Deposit

    Thorstad, L., 1989, Carlin Trend Gold Belt: The Producers, Mining Magazine, Vol. 161, No. 4, P. 263-267.

  • Deposit

    Ellis, R., 1987, The Dee Gold Mine, Geological Society of Nevada 1987 Fall Field Trip Guidebook, Special Publication No. 6, p. B23-B26.

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1991-2002, The Nevada Mineral Industry 1990-2001, NBMG Special Publication MI-1990-MI-2002.

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1994, MI-1993

  • Deposit

    Nevada Division of Minerals,1994.

  • 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 Dee Mine consists of several orebodies: the Main Zone; Ridge Zone; North Extension; Deep North; Dx Zone; and South Extension.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-APR-1999 LaPointe, D.D. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
Updater 01-JUN-2003 LaPointe, D.D. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
Updater 01-DEC-2004 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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