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Daisy Gold Mine

Producer in Nye county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Fluorine-Fluorite, Uranium, Mercury, Clay, Arsenic, Copper, Molybdenum, Thallium
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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 10310491
MRDS ID W006927
Record type Site
Current site name Daisy Gold Mine
Alternate or previous names Crowell Mine, Daisy Fluorspar Mine, Beatty Fluorspar Mine, Lige Harris-Enif Area, Yellow Spar, Bullmoose North Pit, Bullmoose South Pit, Daisy, Gold Ace, Good Hope Pit, Mother Lode, Reward, Secret Pass Zone, South Zone, Sunday Night Zone (Joshua), West Zone
Related records 10069409, 10173955

Comments on the site identification

  • The Daisy Gold Mine was developed on the site of the earlier Daisy Fluorspar mine for which two MRDS records already exist, W006927 and M241867. The Daisy Mine encompasses the following ore zones for which other records exist: Secret Pass RE00048, West Zone RE00046, South Zone RE00047. The current record includes all pertinent material from those earlier records as well as new material pertinent to the Daisy/Reward gold deposit.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -116.69728, 36.87664 (WGS84)
Elevation 1340
Relative position The Daisy Mine is located about 8 km east of Beatty on the north flank of Bare Mountain.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nye(county)

Nevada(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Beatty Mountain(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Beatty(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Death Valley(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Amargosa(hydrologic unit)

Northern Mojave(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northern Mojave-Mono Lake(hydrologic subregion)

California(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 Nye

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 012S 047E 23 NW/4 23 Nevada

Comments on the location information

  • The Daisy Mine is located at the north end of Bare Mountain in Fluorspar Canyon. The Reward orebody is adjacent to the Daisy orebodies.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary
Fluorine-Fluorite Critical Primary
Uranium Tertiary
Mercury Tertiary
Clay Tertiary
Arsenic Critical Tertiary
Copper Tertiary
Molybdenum Tertiary
Thallium Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Commodity Info: Fluorite is purple to very light gray and finely granular. Clay is in the form of montmorillonite, sericite, and kaolinite.
  • Ore Materials: free gold, fluorite, unknown uranium mineral, cinnabar, clay
  • Gangue Materials: silica, clay gouge, calcite, dolomite, quartz, iron oxide. Fluorite is purple to very light gray and finely granular. Clay is in the form of montmorillonite, sericite, and kaolinite.

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Fluorite Ore
Cinnabar Ore
Clay Ore
Calcite Ore
Dolomite Ore
Quartz Ore
Montmorillonite Ore
Sericite Ore
Kaolinite Ore
Silica Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) The highest gold values in the West Zone are associated with intense silicification and fluorite occurrence. Gold mineralization in the Halfpint member is accompanied by anomalous concentrations of arsenic, antimony, mercury, and thallium. Alteration in the Carrara Formation occurs as subtle decalcification, accompanied by anomalously high arsenic and silver, copper, molybdenum and thallium values correlating with gold. In the Secret Pass Zone, disseminated gold mineralization occurs in strongly propylitized, argillized, and silicified Miocene rhyolitic ash-flow tuffs.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 173
USGS model code 26a.1
Deposit model name Sediment-hosted Au
Mark3 model number 17
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 Halfpint member of the Nopah Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Cambrian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
    Rock type qualifier silty
    Rock unit name Carrara Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Middle Cambrian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Early Cambrian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Siltstone
    Rock type qualifier limey
    Rock unit name Carrara Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Middle Cambrian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Early Cambrian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Dolomite
    Rock unit name Bonanza King Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Cambrian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Middle Cambrian
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Pyroclastic Rock > Tuff > Welded Tuff
    Rock type qualifier rhyolitic
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Miocene
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
    Rock type qualifier welded tuff
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Miocene
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Pyroclastic Rock > Tuff
    Rock type qualifier rhyolitic pumiceous
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Rhyolite
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Mafic Volcanic Rock > Basalt
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) > Felsic Volcanic Rock > Latite

Nearby scientific data

(1) -116.69728, 36.87664
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure description Significant local structures are the Bullfrog Hills Caldera, Fluorspar Canyon detachment fault, northeast-trending, steep dipping, right lateral tear faults and gently northwest dipping thrust faults. The principal structural ore control for all three gold mineralized zones is normal faulting. The highest grade ore zones are associated with intersections of high-angle and low-angle faults. A low-angle fault forms the footwall of the gold mineralization in the favorble host rocks at the West Zone. In the South Zone, disseminated gold mineralization occurs in favorable host rocks in the footwall of a low-angle fault.
Type of structure Regional
Structure description A low-angle structure called the Fluorspar Canyon Detachment separates mineralized volcanic rocks in the hanging wall from unmineralized Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the footwall of the fault and is thought to be part of a large-scale fault bounding the base of a regional allochthonous terrane.

Ore body information

  • General form Gold is disseminated in tabular to irregular bodies. Fluorite occurs as lenticular irregular masses, irregular veins, small masses, disseminated grains, pipe-like.

Controls for ore emplacement

  • A NE - trending set of faults (shear zone) which dip vertically to steeply east, control the lateral extent of the ore shoots. A NW-trending low - angle set of faults dipping NE forms the upper and lower boundary of many ore shoots. Coalescence of south-dipping, upper plate listric normal faults with the Fluorspar Canyon detachment fault may be important for the ground preparation at the Secret Pass gold orebody.

Comments on the geologic information

  • The dolomite hosting the original fluorite deposit is white, medium-crystalline and medium-dark-gray finely crystalline.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Producer
Commodity type Both
Deposit size Medium
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1918
Discoverer Continental Fluorspar Co. (fluorite); Cordex (gold)
Year of first production 1919
Year of last production 2001
Production years gold, 1997- 2001\nfluorspar, 1916-1988

Mining district

District name Bare Mountain District
District name Fluorine District

Land status

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

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Glamis Gold, Ltd.
    Year 2004
  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Canyon Reources Inc.
    Year 2006

Comments on the workings information

  • The original Daisy fluorite mine workings were a complex maze with 14 levels and sublevels in an area 270 m. long and 100 m. wide. Subsequent development of the gold deposit by several open pits obliterated many of the old underground workings.

Comments on other economic factors

  • At the time of the 1994 discovery of the Daisy deposit, the gold resource was listed as 1,080,800 ounces. Proven and probable reserves at Daisy in 1998 were 4,162,000 tons of ore grading 0.0333 ounces of gold per ton for a total of 138,000 ounces of gold.
    Production from the Daisy deposit 1997-2001 was 104,251 ounces of gold.
    In 2006, Canyon Resources Inc. announced that based on recent drill results at the Reward Project (pert of Daisy), resources aggregate 2,640,000 tons grading 0.032 ounces of gold per ton measured+indicated. (earlier resource was 689,000 tons grading 0.062 ounces of gold per ton)

Comments on development

  • The original Daisy Fluorspar Mine owner and operator was J. Irving Crowell, Jr.
    The USBM in 1945 drilled 12 diamond-drill holes totaling 3,661 feet in order to define the limits of the fluorite deposit.
    Exploration of the Daisy Mine area for gold began in the 1970s by Cordex Exploration Company after discovery of the Stirling (Sterling) Mine farther to the south. Cordex discovered gold mineralization in the Nopah shale-limestone sequence in the vicinity of the old Daisy Fluorspar Mine. Meanwhile, based on a 1981 report by Ahern and Corn, U.S. Borax located claims in the Fluorspar Canyon area and drilled the volcanic-hosted mineralization at the Secret Pass Zone. Both of these independent exploration programs led to the led to the delineation of mineable gold resources by 1994.
    Rayrock Mines Inc. began production in 1997 at the Daisy Gold Mine and by its second year of operation produced and sold 32,504 ounces of gold. Glamis Gold, Ltd. acquired the Daisy mine via its merger with Rayrock Resources in February 1999 and mined it that year until mining was completed in December 1999. Gold production continued over the next two years with concurrent rinsing and reclamation activity during which time an additional sulfide resource was delineated at the Daisy Mine. The Reward Project was subsequently developed at the Daisy Property with gold production planned for late 1999. The Reward Project was anticipated to extend Daisy's mine life to 2002.

    In 2004, the Daisy Mine was listed by Nevada Dept. of Environmental Protection as in active reclamation status, and in 2006 was still listed by the BLM as a closed mine in reclamation status.
    In January 2005, Canyon Reources Inc. acquired the Reward gold property near Beatty through mineral leases with several private owners

    In 2006, Canyon Resources Inc. announced that based on recent drill results at the Reward Project, resources aggregate
    2,640,000 tons @ 0.032 opt Au measured+indicated. (was 689,000 tons @ 0.062 opt Au)

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Greybeck, J. D., and Wallace, A. B., 1991, Gold mineralization at Fluorspar Canyon near Beatty, Nye County, Nevada, in Raines, G. L., et al, eds., Geology and Ore Deposits of the Great Basin, the Geological Society of Nevada, Reno, p. 935-946.

  • Deposit

    Ahern, R. and Corn, R. M., 1981, Mineralization Related to the Volcanic Center at Beatty, Nevada: Arizona Geological Society Digest XIV, p. 283-286.

  • Deposit

    Mapa, M.R., 1990, Geology and mineralization of the Mother Lode Mine, Nye County, Nevada, in Schafer, R., et al, eds., The Geology and Ore Deposits of the Great Basin, Field Trip Guidebook #9, the Geological Society of Nevada, Reno.

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1991, The Nevada Mineral Industry 1990, NBMG Special Publication MI-1990, p. 24.

  • Deposit

    NBMG, 1994, MI-1993.

  • Deposit

    Cornwall, H. R. and Kleinhampl, F. J., 1964, Geology of Bullfrog Quadrangle and Ore Deposits related to Bullfrog Hills Caldera, Nye County, Nevada and Inyo County, California: USGS Prof. Paper 454-J.

  • Deposit

    Cornwall, H. R. and Kleinhampl, F. J., 1961, Geology of Bare Mountain Quadrangle, Nevada: USGS Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-157

  • Deposit

    Geehan, R. W., 1946, Exploration of the Crowell Fluorspar Mine, Nye County, Nevada: U.S. Bur. Mines Rept Inv. 3954, 9 p.

  • Deposit

    Garside, L.J., 1973, Radioactive Mineral Occurrences in Nevada: NBMG, Bull. 81, p. 92.

  • Deposit

    Papke, K.G., 1979, Fluorspar in Nevada: NBMG Bull. 93, p.40-43.

  • Deposit

    Cornwall, H.R., 1972, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Southern Nye Co.: NBMG Bull, 77, p. 35.

  • Deposit

    Kral, V.E., 1951, Mineral Resources of Nye Co.: NBMG Bull. 50, p. 61-62.

  • Deposit

    Thurston, W.R., et. al., 1949, Daisy Fluorspar Deposit: USGS Strat. Min. Inv. Prelim. Rept. 3-209.

  • Deposit

    Quade/Smith, 1982, Field Examination, NBMG, 4/21/82

  • Deposit

    Papke, K.G., 1983, Directory of Nev. Mine Operations Active in 1982; NBMG Report

  • Deposit

    Avon, 1974, Daisy Mine Report, NBMG File 228, Item 1

  • Deposit

    Union Pacific RR. Co., 1952, Fluorspar Resources of CA., NV, OR, ID., CO.

  • Deposit

    USGS, 1949, Strategic Minerals Investigations Preliminary Rept 3-209

  • Deposit

    Smith, A.M., 1931, Inspection Trip Notes, NBMG, File 228, Item 8

  • Deposit

    Lincoln, F.C., 1923, Mining Dist and Mineral Resources of Nev; Nev. Newsletter Pub. Co., Reno, NV.

  • 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

    Glamis Gold Ltd., company press release, 2/28/2000.

  • Deposit

    Yahoo Mining/Metals News, 11/8/1999.

  • Deposit

    Glamis Gold website, 1998.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Two Carlin-type mineralized zones occur: the West Zone is hosted by limestone of the Halfpint member of the Nopah Formation, and the South Zone is hosted by silty limestones of the Carrara Formation. The highest gold values in the West Zone are associated with intense silicification and fluorite occurrence. Gold mineralization in the Halfpint member is accompanied by anomalous concentrations of arsenic, antimony, mercury, and thallium. Alteration in the Carrara Formation occurs as subtle decalcification, accompanied by anomalously high arsenic and silver, copper, molybdenum and thallium values correlating with gold. In the Secret Pass Zone, disseminated gold mineralization occurs in strongly propylitized, argillized, and silicified Miocene rhyolitic ash-flow tuffs.
The principal structural ore control for all three gold mineralized zones is normal faulting. The highest grade ore zones are associated with intersections of high-angle and low-angle faults. A low-angle fault forms the footwall of the gold mineralization in the favorble host rocks at the West Zone. In the South Zone, disseminated gold mineralization occurs in favorable host rocks in the footwall of a low-angle fault. At the Secret Pass Zone, a low-angle fault separates mineralized volcanic rocks in the hanging wall from unmineralized Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the footwall of the fault. This low-angle structure at the Secret Pass Zone is called the Fluorspar Canyon Detachment, partof a large-scale fault bounding the base of a regional allochthonous terrane.
The Reward property contains a north-south shear zone and associated veins. Gold mineralization has been encountered over a strike length of more than 2,400 feet and to a depth of 400 feet along the Reward structure. The width of mineralization within the structural zone ranges from a few feet to up to 200 feet.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-AUG-2006 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

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