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Osceola District Lode Deposits

Past Producer in White Pine county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Tungsten, Lead, Molybdenum, Manganese
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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 10310455
Record type Site
Current site name Osceola District Lode Deposits
Alternate or previous names Gold Exchange Group, Butterfield claim, Star claim, Crescent claim, Time Check claim, Cumberland claim, Exchange claim, Woodman claim, Golden Eagle claim, January claim, Dirty Shirt Mine, Serpent claim, Black Mule Mine, Hampton, Skyline claim groups, Summit Group, King claim, Queen claim, Goldhill claim, June claim, Gold Crown claim, Skipper Mine, Lane Tilford Group, Tilford claim, Skyline claim, Paycheck claim, Apex claim, Hungry Three claim, Three Sisters claim, Gilded Age Mine
Related records 10037305

Comments on the site identification

  • This record incorporates material from several records of the major lode deposits in the Osceola District.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -114.39974, 39.083 (WGS84)
Elevation 2320
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position The Osceola District is located about 29 miles east of Ely at the north end of the Snake Range, south of Sacramento Pass.\n

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

White Pine(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Hogum(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Ely(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Ely(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Spring-Steptoe 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 014N 67E 11 12 13 24 26 Nevada
Mount Diablo 014N 068E 07 08 09 10 18 19 29 30 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The gold-tungsten-bearing quartz belt found in 1872 cut across Pilot Knob, a spur on the NW flank of the Snake Range.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tungsten Critical Primary
Lead Secondary
Molybdenum Secondary
Manganese Critical Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: gold, scheelite, powellite
  • Gangue Materials: quartz, fluorite, iron oxides, calcite, limonite, dendritic manganese, manganite.

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Scheelite Ore
Powellite Ore
Fluorite Ore
Calcite Ore
Limonite Ore
Manganite Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Clay seams present in some ore.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 282
USGS model code 37c
Deposit model name Gneiss-hosted kyanite Au

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Metasedimentary Rock > Quartzite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Cambrian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Shale
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type
    Rock unit name Wheeler Limestone (Combined Metals Member)
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Cambrian
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Porphyry
    Rock type qualifier quartz monzonite to granodiorite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Jurassic
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Quartz Monzonite
    Rock type qualifier porphyry
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Jurassic
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granodiorite
    Rock type qualifier porphyry
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Jurassic

Nearby scientific data

(1) -114.39974, 39.083
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description The mine area rocks are cut by many vertical to steeply dipping N- to NE-trending faults with little displacement.

Ore body information

  • General form tabular to pipelike

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Ore at the Cumberland is controlled by two fracture zones, one trending E-W, and one NE-SW. The E-W one is traceable for more than a half mile on the surface aas a series of ?blowouts?. Another ore zone is in part controlled by a N75W fracture zone dipping 70N.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Large
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1872
Discoverer Matteson and Heck (lode)
Year of first production 1872
Year of last production 1940

Mining district

District name Osceola District

Land status

Ownership category Private
Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Ely BLM Administrative district

Ownership information

  • Type Owner
    Owner Osceola Gold Mining Company
    Year 1997
  • Type Operator
    Owner Osceola Gold Mining Company and Alta Gold
    Year 1997

Comments on the workings information

  • The Gold Exchange Group/Cumberland Mine claims have the most extensive underground workings of the district including 2 shafts, several stopes, and winzes. Other district mine workings include many shafts and adits with thousands of feet of drifts, crosscuts and raises on several levels. More recent work since 1980 has been mostly shallow surface cuts and drilling.
    A 20-stamp mill was present in 1922.

Comments on other economic factors

  • The camp produced nearly $5 million, primarily in gold, with some silver, lead and tungsten. Intermittent mining continues.
    Reported production in 1939 was $175,000 worth of gold. Reported production in 1940: was 5,884 ounces of gold and 55 ounces of silver. Production from 1936 to 1942 totalled about 37 Kilotonnes of ore containing 30,000 ounces of gold and 15 ounces of silver.

Comments on development

  • Lode gold was discovered in the Osceola District in 1872, and most of the vein deposits were first worked for gold, with the early ore milled in arrastras. Some exceptionally high grade " ore was taken out of the Hampton Group in 1896. A small cyanide plant was built in the early 1900s and a mill run of several hundred tons of ore was made from the Cumberland Mine before 1908. Some of the mines lapsed and were inactive until 1927-1928, when scheelite was identified in the veins. Parker owned and operated the Dirty Shirt Mine from 1929-1933 and mined and milled about 5 tons high-grade scheelite concentrate, after which Uvada Tungsten was organized to take over the property, but the lease lapsed due to low price for tungsten. The Black Mule (Pony Express) mine was first worked for gold in the late 1800's. Tungsten was discovered about 1930, after which it was operated for a short time by the Nevada-Massachusetts Co., and later in 1942-43 by the Gilded Age Mining Co. There was renewed exploratio and development of both the lode and placer properties of the district in the 1980's.
    In 1997 it was reported that Alta Gold Co. had an agreement with Osceola Gold Mining Co. to develop gold properties covering about 730 hectares in the Osceola district. Alta Gold?s initial drilling was focused in the area around the old Gilded Age (Black Mule, Pony Express) Mine.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit In general, the Osceola lode deposits consist of sheeted quartz veins cutting quartzite and altered limestone adjacent and related to a quartz monzonite to- granodiorite porphyry stock and associated dikes. Scheelite and coarse gold occur both in the quartz veins, in altered limestone adjacent to the veins, and also disseminated in beds of finely shattered quartzite. In the vicinity of the Cumberland Lode, there are at least 5 adjacent parallel fissures forming a sheeted zone, with 2 main parallel lodes several hundred feet apart. Vein material contains many vugs lined with fluorite, gold, and other minerals.
There is a large vein of tungsten carrying gold values running N-S across the western end of the Hampton Group. Veins are oriented both E-W and N-S and are intimately associated with several parallel fracture zones. Scheelite occurs as large orange-brown crystals up to several inches across, and can also occur as small specks and crystal clusters surrounding small iron-stained cavities in the quartz. Scheelite occurs in several narrow steeply dipping quartz veins in granite. A considerable amount of lead ore was found in a vein parallel to the lower Tunnel vein.
Host rock is predominantly massive bedded Cambrian quartzite striking N10E, dipping 45NW.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-DEC-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.

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.