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Goldwedge Gold Project

Producer in Nye 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. Geologic structures
  12. Ore body information
  13. Controls for ore emplacement
  14. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  15. Mining district
  16. Land status
  17. Ownership information
  18. Bibliographic references
  19. General comments
  20. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310423
Record type Site
Current site name Goldwedge Gold Project
Alternate or previous names Gold Wedge, part of the Manhattan/Round Mountain Caldera program of Royal Standard Minerals

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -117.01584, 38.53249 (WGS84)
Elevation 2260
Relative position The project area is located about 40 miles north-northeast of Tonopah in the Manhattan Mining District.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nye(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Manhattan(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Ione Valley(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

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest(National Forest)

National Forest FS(Type of land area)

FS(Federal land areas administered by FS)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Nevada Nye

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 008N 044E 18 19 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The project area is located within the Manhattan Mining District in the south part of the Toquima Range, about 13 miles south of the Round Mountain Gold Mine.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: gold
  • Gangue Materials: calcite, quartz, pyrite

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Calcite Gangue
Quartz Gangue
Pyrite 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 Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock unit name Zanzibar Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Siltstone
    Rock unit name Zanzibar Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Ordovician

Nearby scientific data

(1) -117.01584, 38.53249
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description The Gold Wedge Deposit occurs at the intersection of north and northwest trending faults.The north-trending Reliance fault is mineralized in the mine area.
Type of structure Regional
Structure description The upper plate of a thrust fault.

Ore body information

  • General form tabular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • The north-trending Reliance fault is mineralized in the mine area.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Underground
Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1860

Mining district

District name Manhattan District

Land status

Ownership category National Forest
Area name Tonopah USFS District
Ownership category Private

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Royal Standard
    Interest 100
    Year 2005

Comments on the workings information

  • Historic workings consist of a 500 ft vertical shaft with five levels. Echo Bay and Round Mountain operated an open pit operation adjacent to the Gold Wedge property in the 1980s-1990s. The proposed underground mine will be developed by a 2,000-foot decline to a depth of 350 feet. By the end of 2005, Royal Standard had completed construction of its gold recovery plant at the Goldwedge Project, includimg two fresh water containment ponds, mill waste rock containment /leach pad area and a 15,000 square foot building to house the primary plus secondary grinding and the gravity recovery facilities. The building contains a crushing and screening plant, a wash plant, a jig recovery plant, ball mill, and a series of gold tables to complete gold recovery. The facility also includes a furnace for smelting/refining the gold concentrate product. The gravity separation should be sufficient to recover about 85 percent of the gold, with a chemical heap leach process bringing the total recovery to the mid-90 percent range.

Comments on other economic factors

  • The Manhattan district has produced a total of approximately 1 million ounces of gold, including the adjacent East and West Pit deposits from which Echo Bay produced approximately 260,000 ounces at an average grade of 0.06 opt gold from 1990 to 1996.
    In 1997, proven and probable reserves for Gold Wedge were reported at 1.7 million tons of ore grading 0.13 opt Au, with a total resource of 5.3 million tons of ore grading 0.19 opt Au.
    In 2002, the property was reported to contain measured gold resources of 104,706 ounces at 0.494 opt, indicated resources of 47,052 ounces at 0.583 opt, and 394,626 ounces of inferred resources at 0.494 opt, all at a 0.15 opt cutoff grade. Output from the test mining program is forecast to be approximately 20,000 ounces of gold expected in 2006.
    A 2005 Technical Report estimated the current Goldwedge resource at 330,000 tons grading 0.310 opt gold based upon a geostatistical (kriged) estimate. Manual resource calculations indicated a larger measured and indicated resource with substantial inferred resources. The gold system is open along strike, down-dip and down-plunge toward the northwest. An updated resource, along with metallurgy and recovery statistics, should be available as test mining continues into 2007

Comments on development

  • The mining district was first organized in 1867; the name Manhattan was adopted in 1905 when John Humphrey found gold at the foot of April Fool Hill. By 1909 the district had developed into a number of productive high grade underground "vein" deposits containing coarse gold and numerous placer deposits. This type of production continued until 1947 and produced a total of 330,000 ounces of gold up to 1967.
    Recent exploration (1980s-1990s) was focused on building large bulk tonnage open pit reserves in the district. Houston Oil and Minerals, Freeport Exploration and Echo Bay Mines Ltd. completed major programs to delineate open pit reserves. This exploration resulted in the development of the East and West Pit Deposits (adjacent to Gold Wedge), which produced approximately 260,000 ounces at an average grade of 0.06 opt gold from 1990 to 1996. Sunshine Mining Co. considered an underground mine development in 1988 on the Gold Wedge deposit, but they backed off because of high land holding costs to Freeport and limited participating interest. Continued exploration by Crown Resources and others on MMC claims indicated thick (5+'-25') intersections of grades greater than 0.5 opt gold. The continued downturn in the gold market, tight corporate budgets and high holding costs for the properties forced companies to turn back the land positions to the claim owners. Currently, MMC controls approximately 4,000 feet of strike length extending more than 1100 ft from the Echo Bay open pit claims on the south end to the Manhattan Caldera margin on the northern end.
    All federal and state permitting to operate the Gold Wedge Mine at Manhattan was completed in 2003. Royal Standard expects the Gold Wedge mine to produce about 50,000 ounces a year once it reaches full production projected to be by the end of 2003.
    The underground mine will involve a 2,000-foot decline to a depth of 350 feet. The company expects to encounter the ore body at 88 feet. By late November 2004, Royal Standard had completed nearly 700 feet of decline and had crosscut the Gold Wedge mineralized horizon at the 6,742 levell the underground decline has been constructed to production size and standards and will be used to obtain a bulk sample in order to pursue a test mining program.
    Royal Standard plans to start a surface drilling program at Goldwedge in early January, 2006 to test the down- plunge extension of mineralization near the contact of the Manhattan caldera suggested by the current exploration model. The Gold Wedge deposit is considered to be the northern, high grade, underground extension of Echo Bay's West Pit deposit. The acquisition of a patent claim between Echo Bay's open pit and Royal Standard's Gold Wedge deposit has significantly increased the exploration potential and potential mineability of the Gold Wedge Deposit.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The Gold Wedge Deposit occurs at the intersection of north and northwest trending faults. In the deposit area, the north trending Reliance fault is mineralized in the Ordovician Zanzibar limestone and siltstone. The Zanzibar limestone is a very favorable host rock preserved in the upper plate of a thrust fault. The adjacent reclaimed Manhattan Gold Mine of Echo Bay/Round Mountain Gold Corp. is hosted by the Cambrian Gold Hill siltstone, which underlies the Zanzibar limestone. The Gold Wedge deposit is considered to be the northern, high grade, underground extension of Echo Bay Ltd.?s West Pit deposit.

Based upon the results of 70 drill holes, primarily within the central zone, the gold mineralization occurs over a strike length of about 1,100 feet and more than 500 feet of vertical extent. The adjoining Echo Bay West Pit mine equivalent gold mineralized section is believed to occur below the geologic section that hosts the current Goldwedge resources. The down plunge extent of the deposit toward the north is untested, added resources could easily double the strike length of this deposit toward the north and northwest. Royal Standard has intersected high grade gold mineralization and the presence of a potentially viable near surface deposit immediately west (<500 feet) of the known Gold Wedge deposit.

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

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.