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Rawhide Mine

Producer in Mineral county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Tungsten, Selenium, Mercury, Arsenic, Barium-Barite, Antimony, Molybdenum, Zinc, Chlorine, Bromine, Aluminum
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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 10310397
MRDS ID W016386
Record type Site
Current site name Rawhide Mine
Alternate or previous names Denton-Rawhide Mine, Kennecott-Rawhide Mine, Rawhide Group, Rawhide Gold Mine, Nevada New Mines, Gravel, North Buckskin, Regent Hill, South Forty, Black Eagle Southwest, Hooligan Hill, Murray Hill, Balloon Hill, Crazy Hill, Grutt Hill
Related records 10072140, 10125681, 10198182

Comments on the site identification

  • This record incorporates all material from earlier record #W016386.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -118.38624, 39.01408 (WGS84)
Elevation 1555
Relative position The Rawhide Mine is located about 37 airmiles south-southeast of the town of Fallon, at the south end of the Sand Springs Range, 4 miles south of the Churchill County boundary.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Mineral(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Rawhide(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Fallon(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Reno(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Gabbs Valley(hydrologic unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(hydrologic accounting unit)

Central Nevada Desert Basins(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada Mineral

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo T13N R31.5E 04,05,08,09,16,17 Nevada
Mount Diablo T14N R32E 31 12 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The Rawhide Mine is located in Mineral County, approximately 58 miles by road southeast of the city of Fallon. The current open pit mine occupies the same general area of the historic Rawhide mining district. UTM is to the middle of the Balloon Hill-Murray Hill pit area

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary
Copper Secondary
Lead Secondary
Tungsten Critical Tertiary
Selenium Tertiary
Mercury Tertiary
Arsenic Critical Tertiary
Barium-Barite Critical Tertiary
Antimony Critical Tertiary
Molybdenum Tertiary
Zinc Critical Tertiary
Chlorine Tertiary
Bromine Tertiary
Aluminum Critical Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: native gold, electrum, native silver, embolite, cerargyrite, pyrargyrite, argentite, acanthite, argentojarosite, tetrahedrite, proustite, azurite, chalcopyrite, native copper, covellite, galena, scheelite, chrysocolla, malachite
  • Gangue Materials: quartz, chalcedony, chert, kaolin, calcite, adularia, alunite, jarosite, goethite, hematite, pyrrhotite, pyrite

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Electrum Ore
Silver Ore
Embolite Ore
Cerargyrite Ore
Pyrargyrite Ore
Argentite Ore
Acanthite Ore
Argentojarosite Ore
Tetrahedrite Ore
Proustite Ore
Azurite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Copper Ore
Covellite Ore
Galena Ore
Scheelite Ore
Chrysocolla Ore
Malachite Ore
Quartz Gangue
Chalcedony Gangue
Chert Gangue
Kaolin Gangue
Calcite Gangue
Adularia Gangue
Alunite Gangue
Jarosite Gangue
Goethite Gangue
Hematite Gangue
Pyrrhotite Gangue
Pyrite Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Rocks in the mine area have been affected by silicic, potassic, argillic, and advanced argillic alterations. Silicic alteration is characterized by an increase in quartz or other silica minerals in the host rock; the total silica content of the rock may or may not have increased. Quartz veins commonly accompany silicic alteration, but their presence is not diagnostic of silicic alteration. Rock hardness and resistance to erosion are the primary field criteria for recognizing silicic alteration. Silicic alteration preferentially affects the fine-grained matrix within fragmental host rocks such as the lithic tuff unit and the interstratified siltstone and volcanic breccia unit. More intense silicic alteration is characterized by the replacement of the fine-grained matrix of these rocks by a mosaic of coarser-grained quartz that commonly contains abundant minute rhombs of adularia. Intense silicic alteration results in rock containing only quartz, adularia, and pyrite (or limonite) in significant amounts. Silicic alteration is closely associated with gold ore in the Crazy Hill ore zone. All mineralized rock at rawhide has been potassically altered to some degree, as evidenced by the presence of adularia. The degree of potassic alteration can be adequately assessed only be microscopic identification of adularia and therefore is more difficult to recognize in the field. Three principal habits of adularia are recognized: 1) partial to complete replacement of primary feldspar phenocrysts, 2) overgrowth rims of adularia, and 3) small (typically 0.01-0.1 mm) euhedral rhombs associated with strong silicic alteration. Argillic alteration is characterized by the development of significant quantities of clay minerals (calcite) at the expense of groundmass, mafic minerals, and all phenocrysts except those of adularia and quartz, and apparently has resulted from numerous events including late supergene alteration related to the oxidation of sulfides. The dominant clay minerals formed include illite, kaolinite, and chlorite. Lesser amounts of mixed layer illite-smectites and montmorillonite are present. Argillic alteration is the dominant alteration type at Rawhide and forms a broad halo around more silicified and potassically altered rock, extending well beyond the limits of precious metal mineralization. Argillically altered rock is devoid of precious metal mineralization. The advanced argillic alteration mineral assemblage consists of kaolinite+alunite+quartz, chalcedony or opal. Advanced argillic alteration commonly occurs as irregular bleached zones up to a few inches thick along the margins of paragenetically late veins of kaolinite+alunite+chalcedony. It has only been recognized in oxidized portions of the deposit and may be related to lat

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) > Intermediate Volcanic Rock > Andesite
    Rock unit name pre-Esmeralda volcanic rocks(?)
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock type qualifier plugs, kaolinized
    Rock unit name pre-Esmeralda volcanic rocks(?)
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Quartz Latite
    Rock unit name pre-Esmeralda volcanic rocks(?)
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Mixed Clastic/Volcanic Rock
    Rock type qualifier volcaniclastic sediments
    Rock unit name pre-Esmeralda volcanic rocks(?)
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Tertiary
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type
    Rock unit name pre-Esmeralda volcanic rocks(?)
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Miocene

Nearby scientific data

(1) -118.38624, 39.01408
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description The mine is located in a large caldera system along the northeast margin of the northwest-trending Walker Lane structural zone. The Miocene Rawhide volcanic center is 6.5 by 12km (4 x 7.5 mi.) in area.
Type of structure Local
Structure description Three principal structural trends are recognized at Rawhide: 1) north-striking high angle faults, 2) northeast-striking moderate to high angle faults, and 3) an inferred northwest structural trend that is parallel to both the margin of the Rawhide volcanic center and the Walker Lane. North- and northeast -striking moderate to high angle faults are numerous but typically display only minor displacement. Most of the historic gold and silver production has come from veins that occupy these structures, but not all structures are mineralized and many display movement that postdates gold-silver deposition. Displacement on these structures appears to be primarily normal, although oblique-normal displacement is indicated locally by shallowly dipping slickensides. NE-trending structures control the emplacement of late lithic tuff dikes along the SW flanks of Murray and Balloon Hills and the southern flanks of Hooligan Hill. Two major N-S to NNE-trending high angle structures clearly bound and may offset ore grade mineralization at Murray and Crazy hills. Structures with NW trends are rarely exposed but an overall NW trend can be inferred from the alignment of ore zones, the northwesterly strike of tilted structural blocks, the orientation of the Balloon Hill rhyolite and other rhyolite dikes.

Ore body information

  • General form irregular lenses, veins, pod-type ore zones.

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Ore formation was controlled by fissures and by location adjacent to the caldera along the intersection between the Walker Lane structural zone and NE-trending Basin and Range faults.

Comments on the geologic information

  • The Rawhide District is structurally complex and contains NW, NE, and N-S trending fault sets that all show pre-, syn-, and post- ore deposition movement. Formations in area are rhyolite, dacite, and andesite. Mineralization is mainly in kaolinized rhyolite. Placer deposits overlie the rhyolite in the valleys east and west of Balloon and Murray Hills and continue for 5.5 miles down wash to Alkali Flat. The Crazy Hill deposit is hosted in tuffaceous epiclastic sedimentary, and igneous volcanic rocks that are intruded by a post mineralization rhyolite plug. Alunite is said to occur in thin veins associated with gold ores in altered volcanic rocks. Volcanic rocks consist of vent breccia, flows, plugs, and pyroclastics of Tertiary age, approx. 15.5 Ma, K-Ar ages.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Producer
Commodity type Both
Deposit size Large
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1906
Year of first production 1907
Year of last production 2004
Production years 1907-1920; 1990 - 2004

Mining district

District name Rawhide District
District name Regent District

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Carson City BLM Administrative District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Kennecott Rawhide Mining Co.
    Interest 51
    Year 2004
  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Pacific Rim Mining Corp.
    Interest 49
    Year 2004

Comments on the workings information

  • The mine is an open pit and heap-leach operation, currently (2005) in the closure and reclamation phase. Extensive older workings were mainly underground consisting of a number of shafts and tunnels. There were 17 miles of workings at Nevada New Mines alone. Four known bulk mineable ore zones are aligned on a N40W trend: Grutt Hill, Balloon Hill, Murray Hill, and Crazy Hill. These deposits will be mined from two pits. The Crazy Hill ore zone was mined from the Crazy Hill pit at the southern end of the deposit. The Murray Hill pit was a larger, NW-trending, elongate pit that developed the series of ore zones that underlay Murray, Balloon, and Grutt hills. The two pits were separated by a low septum of waste rock. Mineralization at Hooligan Hill merged with that in the Murray Hill pit.

Comments on other economic factors

  • In 1986, reserves for the Kennecott-Rawhide mine were reported as 24.1 million tons of ore grading 0.045 opt gold and 0.47 opt silver.
    In 1989, reserves for the Kennecott-Rawhide mine were reported as 29.4 million tons of ore grading 0.040 opt gold and 0.368 opt silver with a geologic resource of 59.3 million tons grading 0.0274 opt gold and 0.298 opt silver.
    In 1997 reserves were reported as 447,000 ounces of gold and 3.9 million ounces of silver.
    From 1907-1920, the mines in the district produced 50,000 ounces of gold and 750,000 ounces of silver.
    Total production from the Kennecott-Rawhide mine from 1990 through 2003 has been 1,383,663 ounces of gold and 10,868,939 ounces of silver, distributed as follows for these years:

    1990-98: 916,800 oz Au, 7,438,000 oz Ag
    1999: 115,900 oz Au, 665,000 oz Ag
    2000: 104,349 oz Au, 817,787 oz Ag
    2001: 100,747 oz Au, 727,095 oz Ag
    2002: 82,584 oz Au, 695,248 oz Ag
    2003: 63,283 oz Au, 525,809 oz Ag

Comments on development

  • The Rawhide mining district was staked on Christmas Day in 1906 and the first gold deposits were discovered on March 1, 1907. Most of the 50,000 ounces of gold and 750,000 ounces of silver that were produced in the Regent District during the period 1907-1920 came from Rawhide, from leasing operations. George Graham Rice promoted the Rawhide Queen Mining Co., the Rawhide Coalition Mining Co., and the Black Eagle Mining and Milling Co. In 1912 the Nevada New Mines Company was incorporated and took over the George Graham Rice promotions. During its peak, the town of Rawhide had a population of 10,000. The town's population dropped to 500 by 1910, with the final resident leaving in 1966. Mining in the district has been essentially inactive since minor placer operations were conducted in the 1930s. Over the past several decades numerous mining companies have investigated the potential for bulk-mineable precious metals ore at Rawhide. The most notable effort occurred from 1969 to 1971, when a Homestake-Getty joint venture drilled 58 holes that partially delineated the ore zones of later interest. In 1982 a kennecott subsidiary began work on the property. A joint venture between Plexus, Kiewit and Kennecott worked on the property from 1982-1985 drilling numerous holes and making metallurgical tests. Mine construction was initiated in August 1989 and production averaging approximately 100,000 ounces of gold and 1 million ounces of silver annually began in April 1990, beginning with the Crazy Hill deposit. This deposit was mined out by about 1991. Mining of the Murray Hill deposit was next in line and the Murray pit was still active in 2002.

    The mine is now (2004-2005) in the process of final reclamation and closure. Mining from the open pits was discontinued in October 2002 as all economically recoverable ore was depleted. Processing (crushing and stacking) of low-grade stockpile ore continued through mid- 2003. Leaching of ore and solution recirculation will continue for an estimated three years during which fresh water additions will be discontinued to reduce the total volume of solution in the spent ore heaps. The remaining solution will be treated through a carbon plant and either evaporated or land applied. An expert closure panel met in December 2002 to review a draft reclamation and closure plan that was submitted to the Bureau of Land Management and the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection in 2003. Final reclamation and closure is scheduled for 2006. Recontouring of the spent ore heaps should begin at the end of 2005, with final reclamation following initial pad drain down occurring over a period of two years. During this time, remaining portions of the waste rock storage areas, roads and unnecessary facilities will be reclaimed and/or removed.

Comments on the environmental information

  • Oxidized subduction-related continental-margin arc along western North America

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Ross, D.C., 1961, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Mineral County, Nevada; NBMG Bull. 58. pp. 83-84.

  • Deposit

    Vanderburg, 1937, Reconnaissance of Mining Districts in Mineral County, Nevada; USBM IC 6941. pp. 58-64.

  • Deposit

    Lincoln, F.C., 1923, Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada; Nevada Newsletter Publishing Co.

  • Deposit

    Mining and Scientific Press, Notes on Rawhide, Nevada; March 28, 1908

  • Deposit

    Bates, James A., Nov. 1967, unpublished report on the Rawhide Lode-Placer Deposits in Mineral County, Nevada.

  • Deposit

    Archibald, N.L., 1966, Industrial Mineral Deposits of Mineral County, Nevada: NBMG Report 14. p 30.

  • Deposit

    Bonham, H.F. 1988, NBMG MI-1987

  • Deposit

    Bonham, H.F. 1986, NBMG Map 91

  • Deposit

    Bonham, H.F., 1986 NBMG Field Examination and Sample Analysis

  • Deposit

    NBMG Mining District File #206, numerous press clippings 1986-1987.

  • Deposit

    Plexus Resource Corp. 1986, Rawhide Gold Mine Report.

  • Deposit

    Black, John E., 1988, Mineralization and Wallrock Alteration at the Rawhide Gold-Silver Deposit Mineral Co., Master's Thesis, Stanford University.

  • Deposit

    Black, John E., et al., 1991, Geology and Mineralization at the Rawhide Au-Ag Deposit, Mineral County, NV in Raines, G.L., et al., Eds., Geology and Ore Deposits of the Great Basin, The Geological Society of Nevada, Reno, p. 1123-1144.

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1991, The Nevada Mineral Industry-1990, NBMG Special Publication MI-1990, p.16 and 23.

  • Deposit

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

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1994, MI-1993

  • Deposit

    Nevada Division of Minerals, 1994

  • Deposit

    The Mining Record April 28,1993

  • Deposit

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

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Mineralization at Rawhide consists of quartz veins and lodes in kaolinized rhyolite. Ore occurs as disseminated and stockwork ore (veinlets that appear to follow incipient fissures), as well as sporadic ore bodies associated with abundant breccia, phreatomagmatic and phreatic, with strong silicification bordered by argillic zones. The environment of deposition was a shallow hot spring with abundant hydrofracturing. An oxidized zone up to a few hundred feet deep in vent areas is underlain by a sulfide zone. The chief ore minerals in the oxidized zone are cerargyrite, pyrite, native silver, native gold, and electrum. Ore minerals in the sulfide zones are argentite, proustite, pyargyrite, pyrite, gold and electrum. The gangue minerals resulting from hydrothermal replacement are adularia, jarosite, kaolin, pyrite, pyrrhotite, quartz, and calcite. Some gold and silver were recovered by dry wash placer method south and southwest of Rawhide. The main belt of mineralization occurs along Balloon, Murray, and Grutt Hills. Within this zone, bodies of good grade milling ore are 5 to 30 feet wide. Sporadic ore bodies are associated with brecciation of the rock. Particularly in the Grutt and Murray Hill areas, many of the veins trend north to NE. All except 2 of the veins dip steeply west. Bulk mineable ore occurs primarily in intensely fractured andesite along the hanging wall of the rhyolite intrusion and is characterized by abundant, closely spaced, sheeted to stockwork quartz-adularia veins. Ore also occurs in zones of primary permeability in porous lithic tuffs and volcaniclastic sediments, where it is finely disseminated and is accompanied by pervasive silicification and adularization with minor or no associated veins. Several separate pod-like ore zones occur within a NW-trending area 2440 m long and 400 m wide. Individual ore zones are irregular in geometry but typically are elongate to the NW with local NE-trending apophyses. Mineralized veins strike north to NE, an orientation transverse to the overall trend of the orebodies.
Gold occurs as electrum in both oxide and sulfide ores; the electrum is dominantly gold in oxide ore but contains significant silver in sulfide ore. In oxide ore, silver occurs primarily as embolite and lesser cerargyrite. In sulfide ore, silver occurs as the selenides, sulfides and sulfosalts listed above. Silver:gold averages 10:1 in both oxide and sulfide zones and generally increases as au grade decreases with distance from ore. Silver:gold ratios as high as 400:1 are known along the base of oxidation and in strongly argillized zones.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-JAN-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.

External references

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Nevada resources

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