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Trenton Canyon Gold Mine

Producer in Lander county in Nevada, United States with commodity Gold
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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. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  13. Mining district
  14. Land status
  15. Ownership information
  16. Links to other databases
  17. Bibliographic references
  18. General comments
  19. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310473
Record type Site
Current site name Trenton Canyon Gold Mine
Alternate or previous names North Peak deposit, Valmy deposit, Trenton Canyon deposit, Chevron-Duval-Santa Fe claims

Comments on the site identification

  • The Trenton Canyon Project is composed of three distinct deposits, the North Peak, Valmy, and Trenton Canyon deposits.

Geographic coordinates

Point of reference Geographic coordinates: Elevation UTM Precision Relative position Point location
Pit -117.1765, 40.64 (WGS84) 100 Trenton Canyon South pit in Lander county. The West pit and East pit are about 500 m NNW in Humboldt county. The mine is located approximately 34 miles east of Winnemucca and 18 miles west of Battle Mountain, just south of Interstate 80, very near Humboldt County line.
(click for info)
Pit -117.2225, 40.6554 (WGS84) 100 North Peak pit
-117.1538, 40.6985 (WGS84) Valmy pit.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Lander(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

North Peak(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Winnemucca(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Winnemucca(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Dixie Valley(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 Lander
United States Nevada Humboldt

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 032N 042E 01, 11, 15 Nevada
Mount Diablo 032N 043E 07,18,19 Nevada
Mount Diablo 033N 043N 29 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The Trenton Canyon Project is located on the northwest flank of Battle Mountain and spans Trout and Cottonwood Creeks in Humboldt and Lander counties. UTM is to the Valmy Pit, from which the first ore was mined. UTM of the North Peak Pit is 4500400N, 481400E. UTM of one of the more centrally located of the Trenton Canyon Pits is 4499300N, 484400E. Actual location of the Valmy and North Peak pits and heap leach facilities is on private land, but the access and haul roads and the Trenton Canyon pits lie on both private and BLM administered lands. The pits of the North Peak and Valmy deposits are located in Humboldt County while the Trenton Canyon deposit workings are located in Lander County. The North Peak orebody is over 3 km WNW of the Trenton Canyon orebody, and the Valmy orebody is over 6 km NNE of the Trenton Canyon orebody. So this mine actually contains three separate deposits. The Valmy orebody is really part of the Marigold deposit.
  • The North Peak orebody center is 3.5 km WNW of the Trenton Canyon orebody center, and the Valmy orebody center is 6 km NNE of the Trenton Canyon orebody center. Even if one considers orebody edge-to-edge distances, this MRDS record probably contains three separate deposits. The Valmy orebody edge is separated from the Marigold 30 gold zone by only 1 km, so the Valmy is more logically part of the Marigold district. Also a bit confusing is the fact that the summit of North Peak is much closer to Valmy than it is to the North Peak mine.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: free gold

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore

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
    Rock type qualifier siliciclastic
    Rock unit name Valmy Fm
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Siltstone
    Rock unit name Havallah Unit
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Permian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Middle Pennsylvanian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock unit name Havallah Unit
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Permian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Middle Pennsylvanian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Sandstone
    Rock unit name Havallah Unit
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Permian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Middle Pennsylvanian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Chemical Sediment > Chert
    Rock unit name Havallah Unit
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Early Permian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Middle Pennsylvanian

Nearby scientific data

Pit (1) -117.1765, 40.64
ListMap
Pit (2) -117.2225, 40.6554
ListMap
(3) -117.1538, 40.6985
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description The Roberts Mountain Thrust fault and the Golconda Thrust fault both affect rocks in the region of the mine
Type of structure Local
Structure description The West Side Fault is a major N-S-trending range-front fault bounding the Battle Mountain block on the west side of the range, and is adjacent to the North Peak deposit. The Oyarbide Fault is a NE-trending fault that transects the range, with the Trenton Canyon deposit lying south of the fault and the North Peak and Valmy deposits lying north of the fault.

Comments on the geologic information

  • The two pits at the Valmy deposit are hosted entirely in the Valmy Formation, which in the pit area, is divided into an upper and a lower unit separated from each other by a low-angle thrust fault. The North Peak deposit is hosted entirely within the Havallah Unit, which is divided into three subunits in the pit area: a basal siltstone/limestone unit, a middle sandstone unit, and an upper chert/siltstone unit. The deposit is localized in a heavily fractured zone at the intersection of three high-angle Tertiary faults.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface
Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Medium
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1991

Mining district

District name Buffalo Valley

Land status

Ownership category Private
Ownership category BLM Administrative Area
Area name Winnemucca BLM District

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Newmont Gold Company

Comments on the workings information

  • The mine project is developed by several open pits

Comments on other economic factors

  • In 1996, the deposit was estimated to contain a resource of 37,149,000 short tons of mineralized material grading 0.03 ounces of gold per ton. Newmont includes the Trenton Canyon Project production with that from the Lone Tree mine, so individual production data for Trenton is not available.

Comments on development

  • A joint venture involving Bow Valley Mining and Santa Fe Pacific discovered the main Trenton Canyon deposit (North Peak ) in 1988, as a result of follow up work on a stream sediment anomaly. 1989 drilling defined the mineralization and the deposit was drilled out from 1990 to 1994, at which time Santa Fe bought out Bow Valley's interest in the deposit. The Valmy deposit was found in 1989 just north of Hecla's Trout Creek deposit, and the two were consolidated when Santa Fe bought out Hecla's interest in 1992.

    An additional 140 drill holes were completed at Trenton Canyon in 1996 to define and extend mineralized areas and to investigate two new targets. One new zone of shallow oxide mineralization was encountered in the Valmy deposit area. The second, called the Hollywood zone, is on a ridge northeast of the Trenton Canyon deposit where seven drill holes have intercepted a high-angle zone of near-surface oxide mineralization with grades between 0.03 and 0.13 opt in intercepts 40 to 105 feet thick.

    Construction began on the Trenton Canyon project in early 1996, and by the end of that year, Santa Fe had begun loading ore mined from the North Peak deposit onto the heap leach pads at a rate of 30,000 tons per day. Gold-laden carbon from the leach pads was processed at the Lone Tree Mine facility.

    Newmont Gold Company acquired the properties when it merged with Santa Fe Pacific in May 1997. The mine was expected to begin producing at a rate of 70,000 ounces per year in 1997, increasing to about 100,000 ounces per year later in its eight-year projected mine life. In 1995, reserves increased 14 percent from 517,000 ounces to 590,000 ounces, contained in more than 20 million tons of ore. The first gold was produced in early 1997.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Denver Mining Record, 4/17/96

  • Deposit

    Denver Mining Record,9/4/96

  • Deposit

    Northern Miner, 6/3/96

  • Deposit

    Northern Miner,11/4/96

  • Deposit

    Pay Dirt, 11/1/96

  • Deposit

    Santa Fe Pacific Gold 1996 SEC Form 10K

  • Deposit

    Geological Society of Nevada; 1996 fall field trip guidebook, geology and ore deposits of northwestern Nevada; Trenton Canyon Project, Long Tree Mine, Getchell Mine, Twin Creeks Mine, Florida Canyon Mine (DeLong, Richard, editor) ; GSN Special Publication No. 24.

  • Deposit

    Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 90-206A, 33 p.; 98-206B. one 3.5 inch diskette.

  • Deposit

    Doebrich, J.L., 1995, Geology and mineral deposits of the Antler Peak 7.5-minute quadrangle, Lander County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 109, 44 p.

  • Deposit

    Winnemucca BLM District, 1998, Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Trenton Canyon Project

  • Deposit

    Driesner, Doug, and Coyner, Alan, 2008, Major Mines of Nevada 2007 - Mineral Industries in Nevada?s Economy: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology; The Nevada Division of Minerals, SPECIAL PUBLICATION P-19, p. 10 and 12. http://minerals.state.nv.us/forms/mining/MajorMinesOfNevada/mm2007.pdf

  • Deposit

    Johnston, Ivan, and others, 1999 Fall Field Trip Guidebook; Geology and Gold Mineralization of the Buffalo Valley Area, Northwestern Battle Mountain Trend, Trenton Canyon Mine, North Peak Mine, Buffalo Valley Mine, Redline Gold Skarn Deposit, Copper Canyon Gold Skarn-A Review, Marigold Mine; Geological Society of Nevada Special Publication No. 31, 261 pp. October 16-17, 1999.

  • Deposit

    ROBERTS, R.J., AND D.C. ARNOLD, (1965), ORE DEPOSITS OF THE ANTLER PEAK QUAD HUMBOLDT AND LANDER COUNTIES, NEV.; U.S.G.S. PROF PAPER 459-B.

  • Deposit

    Felder, R.P., 1998, Geology, mineralization, and exploration history of the Trenton Canyon project, in Theodore, T.G., Geology of pluton-related gold mineralization at Battle Mountain, Nevada: Tucson, Arizona, University of Arizona and U.S. Geological Survey Center for Mineral Resources, Monograph 2.

  • Deposit

    Blake, D.W., Theodore, T.G., Batchelder, J.N., and Kretschmer, E.L., 1979, Structural relations of igneous rocks and mineralization in the Battle Mountain Mining District, Lander County, Nevada, in Ridge, J.D., ed., Papers on mineral deposits of western North America: International Association on the Genesis of Ore Deposits Symposium, 5th, Snowbird-Alta, Utah, 1978, Proceedings: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Report 33, p. 87?99.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit All three deposits are structurally-controlled, sediment-hosted gold deposits

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 20-SEP-1998 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.