Golden Sage Project

Producer in Humboldt county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Antimony, Arsenic, Mercury
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 10310413
Record type Site
Current site name Golden Sage Project
Alternate or previous names Main Zone, Central Zone

Comments on the site identification

  • Ten Mile District area mines/prospects described in Bowell, Hunerlach, Parshley, and Sears are:
    Ten Mile Mine, Big Cut, Jake?s Cut, Black Widow, Golden Amethyst mine area

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -118.11745, 40.99847 (WGS84)
Relative position The prospect is located about 20 miles west of Winnemucca near the base of the west side of Blue Mountain.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Humboldt(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Pronto(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Eugene Mountains(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Lovelock(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Quinn(hydrologic unit)

Black Rock Desert(hydrologic accounting unit)

Black Rock Desert-Humboldt(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada Humboldt

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 036N 034E 13 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The Ten Mile mining district is located between the Krum Hills and Blue Mountain in southeast Humboldt County, Nevada approximately 10-20miles west of Winnemucca. Main Zone and Central Zone noted.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary
Antimony Critical Tertiary
Arsenic Critical Tertiary
Mercury Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: gold, electrum, petzite, possibly sulfides
  • Gangue Materials: quartz, adularia

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Electrum Ore
Petzite Ore
Quartz Gangue
Adularia Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) pervasive alteration

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 153
USGS model code 25c + 25d
Deposit model name Epithermal vein, quartz adularia
Mark3 model number 25
Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic)

Nearby scientific data

(1) -118.11745, 40.99847

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description Mineralization is controlled by bedding plane faults and fractures that crosscut bedding,

Ore body information

  • General form tabular to irregular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Mineralization is controlled by bedding plane faults and fractures that crosscut bedding,

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1900
Discoverer Blue Desert Mining Inc.
Year of first production 1925
Production years early 1900s to the 1940s

Mining district

District name Ten Mile District

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Winnemucca BLM District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Blue Desert Mining, Inc.
    Year 1997

Comments on the workings information

  • Exploration drilling in 1997

Comments on other economic factors

  • In 1997 reported reserves of the prospect were 500,000 ounces of gold.
    Few records of early production exist but the Ten Mile district mines are believed to have produced approximately 570 kg (20,000 ounces) of gold from about 1900 through 1942. Willden (1964) reports the value of gold and silver from the area in excess of $1 million.

Comments on development

  • The Ten Mile district was reportedly active from about the early 1900s to the 1940s, with some production judging from the size of the dumps of the old underground workings.No significant production has occurred since then, although several claims are active in the area and in recent years prospectors with metal detectors have reported substantial finds of nuggets and pocket gold around the district.
    Early in 1997, Blue Desert Mining Inc. commenced a reverse circulation drilling project at the Golden Sage property where previous drilling had outlined a 500,000-oz gold resource located along the range front faults at the base of Blue Mountain. Difficult drilling conditions led to the suspension of drilling after only seven holes were completed, some of which fell short
    of their target depth. Drilling intersected pervasively altered volcanic rocks containing anomalous amounts of antimony, arsenic and mercury, indicator elements for epithermal gold deposits.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    NBMG MI-97

  • Deposit

    Amer. Mines (1998), 1997

  • Deposit

    International Mining News, 12 Mar 1997

  • Deposit

    Blue Desert Mining Inc. press release, 5/14/97

  • Deposit

    Denver Mining Record, 3/12/97

  • Deposit

    D.A. Davis and J. V. Tingley, 1999, Gold and silver resources in Nevada, NBMG Map 120

  • Deposit

    Bowell, R.J., Hunerlach, M.P., Parshley, J., and Sears, S., 2000, The Ten Mile mining district, Winnemucca, Nevada: Geology, mineralogy and supergene gold enrichment, in Cluer, J.K., Price, J.G., Struhsacker, E.M., Hardyman, R.F., and Morris, C.L., eds., Geology and ore Deposits 2000: The Great Basin and Beyond: Geological Society of Nevada Symposium Proceedings, Reno/Sparks, May 2000, p. 349-363.

  • Deposit

    Willden, R., 1964, Geology and mineral deposits of Humboldt County,

  • Deposit

    Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 59, 154 p.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Mineralization occurs in pervasively altered volcanic rocks containing anomalous amounts of antimony, arsenic and mercury, indicator elements for epithermal gold deposits. Mineralization is comprised of stockworks and veins which are typically open spaced and vuggy grading into wider silicified zones at depth. The mines in the area worked oxidized deposits with all workings stopping just above sulfide ore.
High-grade gold pockets (typically greater than 30 g/t Au (1 opt Au) were located with a metal detector and appear to be localized along a fault surface. Most of the gold is found along the footwall, where open-space-filling occurred during gold deposition; gold was concentrated in areas where solutions poold. The presence of some microbreccia and pebble-breccia fragments suggest that the fault was reactivated post-mineralization. Occasionally euhedral gold leaves are found rolled up with and within small breccia fragments, also indicating post gold movement.
Mineralization appears to follow bedding plane faults and fractures that crosscut bedding, the largest observed gold-bearing strikes N. 55-60E and dips to the 55-65 NW. A second location where gold was found in situ is at the intersection of N-S and NE-SW- trending structures that converge and can be traced to the surface.

Evidence exists of supergene enrichment in the upper zones where some exceptionally rich pockets of gold were found concentrated in favorable structural traps. Thus, crystalline native gold is believed to be bi-modal in origin.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-MAY-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.

External references

Authoritative Nevada resources

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