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Three Hills Prospect

Producer in Esmeralda county in Nevada, 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. 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 10310347
Record type Site
Current site name Three Hills Prospect
Alternate or previous names Tonopah Project, part of Hasbrouck-Three Hills project

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -117.25898, 38.02277 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position The Tonopah project encompasses two deposits not contiguous but within a couple miles of each other. One is the Three Hills prospect and the other is in the Divide District just south of Tonopah

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Esmeralda(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Mount Butte(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Tonopah(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Tonopah(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Ralston-Stone Cabin Valleys(hydrologic unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(hydrologic accounting unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(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 Esmeralda

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 02N 042E 04, 15 Nevada

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: gold
  • Gangue Materials: quartz, adularia

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Adularia Ore
Quartz Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 150
USGS model code 25c
Deposit model name Epithermal vein, Comstock
Mark3 model number 16

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Pyroclastic Rock > Tuff
    Rock type qualifier silicic
    Rock unit name Siebert Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Miocene
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock unit name Oddie Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Miocene

Nearby scientific data

(1) -117.25898, 38.02277
ListMap

Economic information

Ore body information

  • General form tabular

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Significant Yes
Year of first production 1900

Mining district

District name Tonopah District (Esmeralda Co. portion)
District name Divide District
District name (Gold Mountain District)

Land status

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

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Eastfield Resources, Ltd.
    Year 2002

Comments on the workings information

  • surface, old underground

Comments on other economic factors

  • Reserves at the Three Hills deposit in 1997 were reported as 6.286 million tons of ore grading 0.023 ounces of gold per ton.
    In 2003, Vista reportedd that the Three Hills property has an indicated resource of 5.7 million tons at a grade of 0.023 ounces of gold per ton.
    Vista Gold in 2006 reported the following drill-indicated resources for Three Hills, based on an assessment by Mine Development Associates: 5,736,000 tons grading 0.023 ounces of gold per ton for 133,000 contained ounces.

Comments on development

  • The property was evaluated in 1991-93 at which time it was idle. A new phase of exploration on the property began in 1997.
    Eastfield owns (via direct ownership and agreement) a 100% interest in 25 patented claims. The Tonopah District, in which the property lies, was one of the preeminent silver producers in the U.S. In the first third of the 1900's 1.8 million oz. gold and 174 million oz. silver were mined at a recovered average grade of 0.21 oz/t gold and 19.7 oz/t silver.
    Exploration work by Eastfield has shown that several bonanza gold-silver targets remain unexplored, including the Ohio, Bermuda and Merton veins. The Ohio vein was mined at plus 50-foot widths up to a fault, which offsets the zone; this offset presenting a promising drill target. Drilling by Eastfield along the surface projection of the Merton vein encountered 10 feet of 0.21 oz/t gold and 8 oz/t silver within an interval of 100 feet of anomalous gold in quartz-adularia stockworks.
    the main controls on the bonanza mineralization have been traced for approximately one mile west of the historic production and this area is largely unexplored.
    In 2003, Vista Gold Corp. purchased both the Three Hills property in the Tonopah district the Hasbrouck property in the Divide district from Newmont Mining Corp.
    The Three Hills property is owned by Vista Gold Corp. (2004-2006). Vista also controls the Hasbrouck property a few miles south in the Divide District and reports on the two together as their ?Hasbrouck-Three Hills? project although the two deposits are separate and distinct and a few miles apart.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The property hosts oxidized, epithermal gold-silver mineralization. It explores a disseminated epithermal, quartz-adularia-type precious metal deposit in the vicinity of historic bonanza-type gold-silver deposits mined in the early 1900s. Exploration work by Eastfield has shown that several targets remain unexplored, including the Ohio, Bermuda and Merton veins. The Ohio vein was mined at plus 50-foot widths up to a fault, which offsets the zone; this offset presents an enticing drill target.
Drilling by Eastfield along the surface projection of the Merton vein encountered 10 feet of 0.21 oz/t gold and 8 oz/t silver within an interval of 100 feet of anomalous gold in quartz-adularia stockworks.
The main controls on the bonanza mineralization have been traced for approximately one mile west of the historic production and this area is largely unexplored.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-DEC-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.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Nevada resources

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