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RBM Deposit

Producer in White Pine county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Mercury, Arsenic, Lead, Zinc, Copper, Tellurium, Bismuth, Antimony
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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. 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 10310444
Record type Site
Current site name RBM Deposit
Alternate or previous names Bald Mountain Mine project
Related records 10310383, 10310443, 10310446

Comments on the site identification

  • The RBM Deposit is part of Placer Dome?s Bald Mountain Mine project.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -115.547, 39.92381 (WGS84)
Elevation 2530
Relative position The RBM deposit on the western edge of Bald Mountain, about 60 miles northwest of Ely and 60 miles south-southeast of Elko, Nevada.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

White Pine(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Big Bald Mountain(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Newark Lake(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Ely(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Little Smoky-Newark 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 White Pine

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 024N 057E 15 Nevada
Mount Diablo (UNSURVEYED) Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The RBM deposit is on the western edge of Bald Mountain, about midway between the 1-5 Pit area to the north and the Rat deposit to the south

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Mercury Tertiary
Arsenic Critical Tertiary
Lead Tertiary
Zinc Critical Tertiary
Copper Tertiary
Tellurium Critical Tertiary
Bismuth Critical Tertiary
Antimony Critical Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: free gold
  • Gangue Materials: pyrite, clay, limonite, jasperoid, quartz, marcasite, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, possible tellurium-bearing sulfides

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Clay Ore
Limonite Ore
Quartz Ore
Marcasite Ore
Arsenopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Pyrite Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) The porphyry dikes were sericitized, argillized and silicified. Intense argillic alteration almost totally obliterated the texture of the protolith host rock, and grades outward to phyllic alteration.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 75
USGS model code 19c
Deposit model name Distal disseminated Ag-Au
Mark3 model number 18

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock
    Rock type qualifier fine grained
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Cambrian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock
    Rock type qualifier calcareous
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Cambrian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Antelope Valley Limestone
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Middle Ordovician
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Early Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Porphyry
    Rock type qualifier quartz-feldspar porphyry stock with satellitic dikes and sills
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Miocene
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Bald Mountain Stock
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Jurassic
    Chronological age 159

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description NW-striking normal faults that dip steeply west and east, with lesser N-striking faults.
Type of structure Regional
Structure description To the west of the Bald Mountain district, geologic interpretations are dominated by recognition of Paleozoic deformation, whereas to the east, interpretations emphasize Mesozoic contraction and plutonism and Tertiary extension.

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Ore is controlled by NW-striking normal faults that dip steeply west and east, with oreshoots forming at intersections of NW- and N-striking faults. One rich orebody up to 15 meters thick was localized by favorable lithology in interbedded sandy sltsone and limestone in the lower Dunderberg.

Comments on the geologic information

  • The Top and RBM deposits both have high Cu, Zn, and Ag contents associated with gold mineralization as well as anomalous values in Bi, Hg, As, Sb, and tellurides.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Year of first production 1988

Mining district

District name Bald Mountain District

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Ely BLM district

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Barrick Gold Corp.
    Year 2006

Comments on the workings information

  • open pit

Comments on other economic factors

  • The oxide portion of the deposit was mined in 1989-1990. About 1.7 million tons of ore grading 0.065 ounces per ton was mined to a depth of 250 feet with a strip raio of 5.0:1.0.

Comments on development

  • Placer Dome began exploration in the Bald Mountain mine area in 1977 and the RBM deposit was among the earliest discoveries in the first year of exploration. The RBM deposit was placed into production late in 1988.
    In 2006, Barrick Gold Corp. acquired the RBM property through its acquisition of Placer Dome U. S., Inc.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    NBMG Mining District Files 323, Press Clippings

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1988, NBMG MI-1987.

  • Deposit

    GSN 1985 Meeting and Fall Field Trip Roadlog

  • Deposit

    Adamson, T.J., 1987, in Bulk Mineable Precious Metal Deposits of the Western U.S., 1987 GSN, Field Trip Guidebook and Technical Volume.

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1994, MI-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.

  • Deposit

    Nutt, C.J., Hofstra, A.H., Hart, K.S., and Mortensen, J.K., 2000, Structural setting and genesis of gold deposits in the Bald Mountain-Alligator Ridge area, east-central Nevada, 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, May 15-18, 2000, p. 513-537.

  • Deposit

    Hitchborn and others, 1996, Geology and Gold Deposits of the Bald Mountain Mining District, White Pine County, Nevada, in Geology and Ore Deposits of the American Cordillera Symposium Proceedings, eds. A. Coyner and P. Fahey.

  • Deposit

    The Geological Society of Nevada 1996 Spring Field trip, Geology and Gold Deposits of Eastern Nevada, GSN Special Publication No. 23.

  • Deposit

    BLM, 2004, Bald Mountain Mine Exploration Program Programmatic Environmental Assessment NV040-04-023, Case File # N78825.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The RBM deposit is located along a NW-trending structural zone and consists of two main minerlized zones: the RBM main vein , which strikes N45W, and the RBM west vein, which strikes N75W. Dips are vertical to 60E. The West vein is oxidized near surface with a massive sulfide ore zone at depth consisting of pyrite, marcasite, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and possible tellurium-bearing sulfides. Sedimentary rocks at the deposit are fine-grained limestone, impure sandstone, quartzite, and siltstone of the Antelope Valley Formation and Eureka Quartzite. The sediments were intruded by quartz feldspar porphyry which has been altered. The quartz feldspar porphyry is present in the western portion of the deposit and hosts most of the gold mineralization. Faulted contacts betwen the sedimentary rocks and the dikes acte as conduits for mineralizing fluids. The RBM deposit was originally in the upper part of the Bald Mountain system above the Top deposit, and was subsequently downdropped along the Ruby listric fault to its present position. More than 1 km of gold-bearing rock between the RBM deposit and present day exposures of the originally underlying Top deposit was removed by erosion.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-NOV-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.

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Authoritative Nevada resources

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