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Herman Mine

Past Producer in Placer county in California, United States with commodities Gold, Lead
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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. Bibliographic references
  19. General comments
  20. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10310705
Record type Site
Current site name Herman Mine
Alternate or previous names Osborne

Comments on the site identification

  • The Herman Mine may also include the feature known as the ?Osborne Tunnel,? which is about one-quarter mile northwest of the Herman Mine as shown on the USGS 7.5-minute Westville quadrangle. Some reporters equated the Herman Mine with the Osborne Mine. There is also some confusion in the literature related to another ?Herman Mine? in Placer County. The Herman Mine reported by Irelan (1888) is a placer mine near Iowa Hill and is not the same as the mine reported in this record.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -120.6375, 39.13444 (WGS84)
Elevation 1340
Location accuracy 100(meters)
Relative position The Herman Mine is about 17 miles east-northeast of the city of Colfax.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Placer(county)

California(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Westville(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Truckee(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Chico(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

North Fork American(hydrologic unit)

Lower Sacramento(hydrologic accounting unit)

Sacramento(hydrologic subregion)

California(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Tahoe 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 California Placer

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Mount Diablo 015N 012E 21 NE California

Comments on the location information

  • Location selected for latitude and longitude is the Herman Mine adit symbol on the USGS 7.5-minute Westville quadrangle. Access is off the unpaved Deadwood Road.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Lead Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Materials: Native gold, native silver, and auriferous sulfides (pyrite, galena)

  • Gangue Materials: Quartz

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Silver Ore
Pyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) None reported

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Metasedimentary Rock > Slate
    Rock unit name Shoo Fly Complex
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Devonian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Ordovician
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Sandstone
    Rock type qualifier Meta-
    Rock unit name Shoo Fly Complex
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Devonian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Ordovician

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description Melones Fault Zone

Ore body information

  • General form Tabular

Controls for ore emplacement

  • Ore shoots in quartz veins formed along fractures in the metamorphic country rock.

Comments on the geologic information

  • REGIONAL GEOLOGY

    The northern Sierra Nevada is home to numerous lode and placer gold deposits. It includes the famous lode districts of Alleghany, Johnsville, Sierra City, Grass Valley, and Nevada City and the famous placer districts of La Porte, North Columbia, Cherokee, Michigan Bluff, Forest Hill, and Dutch Flat. The geological and historical diversity of most of these deposits and specific mine operations are covered in numerous publications produced over the years by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, U.S. Geological Survey, California Division of Mines and Geology (now California Geological Survey), and others. A regional geologic map covering the area is the 1:250,000-scale Chico Quadrangle compiled by Saucedo and Wagner (1992). Schweickert and others (1999) provided a more recent overview of the region.

  • Stratigraphy

    The northern Sierra Nevada basement complex has a history of both oceanic and continental margin tectonics recorded in sequences of oceanic, near-continental, and continental volcanism and sedimentation that have been divided into four lithotectonic belts; the Western Belt, Central Belt, Feather River Peridotite Belt, and Eastern Belt (Day and others, 1988).

    The Western Belt is composed of the Smartville Complex, a late Jurassic volcanic arc complex (Beard and Day, 1987), consisting of basaltic to intermediate pillow flows overlain by pyroclastic and volcaniclastic rock units with diabase, metagabbro, and gabbro-diorite intrusives. The Cretaceous Great Valley sequence overlies the belt to the west, and to the east it is bounded by the Big Bend-Wolf Creek Fault Zone.

    East of the Big Bend-Wolf Creek Fault Zone is the Central Belt, which is in turn bounded to the east by the Goodyears Creek Fault and its extension to the south along the west side of the Feather River Peridotite Belt. This belt is structurally and stratigraphically complex and consists of metasedimentary, metavolcanic, and plutonic rocks of Paleozoic to Mesozoic age, including a sliver of Calaveras Complex on its east side.

    The Feather River Peridotite Belt separates the Central Belt from the rocks of the Eastern Belt for almost 95 miles along the northern Sierra Nevada (Day and others, 1988). Its eastern margin coincides with the Melones Fault Zone of Clark (1960). Much of the ultramafic intrusives have been serpentinized.

    The Eastern Belt, or "Northern Sierra Terrane," is composed primarily of Devonian-to-Jurassic metavolcanic rocks, siliciclastic metasedimentary rocks of the Lower Paleozoic Shoo Fly Complex, and Mesozoic granitic rocks of the Sierra Nevada batholith. The Upper Devonian-Jurassic rocks unconformably overly the Shoo Fly Complex and are of island-arc origin (Brooks, 2000). They consist of the Devonian-Permian Taylorsville Sequence, Permian-Triassic Arlington, Goodhue, and Reeves Formations, and the Jurassic Sailor Canyon Formation. The Herman Mine is within the Shoo Fly Complex.

    Regionally, the northern Sierra Nevada experienced a long period of Cretaceous to early Tertiary erosion, after which it underwent extensive Oligocene to Pliocene volcanism. The oldest Tertiary units are basal Eocene auriferous gravels, preserved in basement paleochannels, and associated bench gravels deposited by the predecessors of the modern Yuba and American Rivers. In contrast to the earlier volcanism, Tertiary volcanism was continental and deposited on top of the eroded metamorphic rocks, channel deposits, and Mesozoic intrusives. An important widespread unit of intercalated rhyolite tuffs and intervolcanic channel gravels is the Oligocene-Miocene Valley Springs Formation. The youngest volcanic unit, the Miocene-Pliocene Mehrten Formation, consists largely of andesitic flows and breccias overlying the Valley Springs Formation.

    Pliocene-Pleistocene westward uplift of the Sierra Nevada caused existing drainages to carve deep river gorges. During this process, the modern rivers became charged with placer gold deposits from both newly eroded basement rocks and from the reconcentration of the Eocene placers. The discovery of these modern Quaternary placers in the American River is what sparked the California Gold Rush.

  • Structure

    Most Upper Jurassic and older basement rocks of the northern Sierra Nevada were metamorphosed and deformed during the Jurassic-Cretaceous Nevadan Orogeny. Deformation features in the lithotectonic blocks of the northern Sierra Nevada are best developed in the Eastern, Central, and Feather River Peridotite Belts, where they have been collectively described as the "Foothills Fault System" (Clark, 1960). Compressive deformation produced northwesterly trending faults, folds, and regional greenschist facies metamorphism (Harwood, 1988). Many of the intrusive granitic plutons of the Sierra Nevada were also part of this compressive episode. Most of the dominant faults dip steeply east and display reverse displacement. Regionally, the metamorphic rocks display northerly trending and steeply dipping foliation, bedding, and contacts.

    LOCAL GEOLOGY

    The Herman Mine vein was described as irregular and poorly defined (Crawford, 1896), with wallrock variously reported as ?slate?, ?quartzitic sandstone?, and ?sandy siliceous schist?. All of these lithologies are consistent with those generally recognized in the Shoo Fly Complex, within which the Herman Mine is situated. Also, Crawford (1896) reported the presence of a weathered or altered dike in the wallrock.

    Waring (1915) reported as many as three veins of ribbon quartz , which can be followed on the ground surface for 1,500 feet. The vein strikes slightly east of north and has reported dips ranging from 25-80SE. Widths range from 3 to 12 feet, with an average of 8 feet in the stoped areas.

    The deposit contains both native gold and silver as well as auriferous sulfides (pyrite and galena). Percentages of sulfides are not known, but Lindgren (1900) reported a ?large quantity? of sulfides in the quartz.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1894

Mining district

District name Westville District

Land status

Ownership category Private
Area name Placer County Planning Department

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings in this mine consist of standard shafts, crosscuts, drifts, and winzes. Ore was mined by stoping methods. At least four levels and possibly six were developed as of the early 1900?s, with drifts running for several hundred feet on the upper three levels. In 1914, the 600-foot level reportedly had 1,500 feet of development.

Comments on other economic factors

  • Information on production from this mine is sparse. Logan (1936) reported the mine yielded at least $200,000 (pre-1935 values).

Comments on development

  • The mine may have been discovered about 1894 (Lindgren, 1900). In the 1890?s, it operated with a 10-stamp mill and 32 employees (Crawford, 1896). In the early 1900?s, it expanded to 30 stamps with up to 45 employees. In 1916, ?good ore? was reported in the lower workings.

    According to Logan (1936), the Herman Mine was an annual producer from 1895 to 1902, and irregularly from 1903 to 1915. The mine was shut down in 1916, and may not have operated again until the 1930?s if at all. Logan (1936) reported little work at the mine in 1935.

    This deposit may have been worked through both the ?Herman Mine? and ?Osborne Tunnel? as shown on the USGS 7.5-minute Westville quadrangle.

    Amalgamation processes were used at this mine. Tailings were not impounded (discharged to a local canyon).

Comments on the environmental information

  • This isolated deposit is on the southeast flank of Deadwood Ridge in a rugged canyon setting.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Beard, J. S. and Day, H. W., 1987, The Smartville intrusive complex, Sierra Nevada, California: The core of a rifted volcanic arc: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 99, no. 6, p. 779-791.

  • Deposit

    Brooks, E. R., 2000, Geology of a late Paleozoic island arc in the Northern Sierra terrane, in Brooks, E. R. and Dida, L.T., editors, Field guide to the geology and tectonics of the northern Sierra Nevada: California Division of Mines and Geology Special Publication 122, p. 53-110.

  • Deposit

    Clark, L. D., 1960, Foothills fault system, western Sierra Nevada, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 71, p. 483-496.

  • Deposit

    Clark, W.B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 130.

  • Deposit

    Crawford, J.J., 1894, Gold - Placer County: Twelfth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 211.

  • Deposit

    Crawford, J.J., 1896, Placer County: Thirteenth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 280.

  • Deposit

    Day, H. W. and others, 1988, Metamorphism and tectonics of the northern Sierra Nevada, in Ernst, W. G., editor, Metamorphism and crustal evolution of the western United States (Rubey Volume VII): Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, p. 738-759.

  • Deposit

    Harwood, D.S., 1988, Tectonism and metamorphism in the northern Sierra Terrane, northern California, in Ernst, W. G., editor, Metamorphism and crustal evolution of the western United States (Rubey Volume VII): Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, p. 764-788.

  • Deposit

    Irelan, W., Jr., 1888, Placer County: Eighth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 472.

  • Deposit

    Lindgren, W., 1900, Colfax folio, California: U.S. Geological Survey Atlas of the U.S., Folio 66, 10 p.

  • Deposit

    Logan, C.A., 1936, Gold mines of Placer County: 32nd Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California Journal of Mines and Geology, p. 26-27.

  • Deposit

    Saucedo, G.J. and Wagner, D.L., 1992, Geologic map of the Chico Quadrangle, California: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology Regional Geologic Map Series, Map No. 7A, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Schweickert, R.A., Hanson, R.E., and Girty, G.H., 1999, Accretionary tectonics of the Western Sierra Nevada Metamorphic Belt, in Wagner, D.L. and Graham, S.A., editors, Geologic field trips in northern California: California Division of Mines and Geology Special Publication 119, p. 33-79.

  • Deposit

    Waring, C.A., 1915, Placer County: 15th Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 341-342.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit The deposit at the Herman Mine is typical of sulfide-bearing gold-quartz veins found in the Sierra Nevada metamorphic belt. The wallrock is described as slate, sandstone, or schist. There are up to three veins of ribbon quartz , which can be followed on the ground surface for 1,500 feet. The vein complex strikes slightly east of north and has reported dips ranging from 25-80SE. Reported widths range from 3 to 12 feet, with an average of 8 feet in the stoped areas. A weathered or altered dike is present in the wallrock.

Ore consists of native gold and silver, and auriferous sulfides. The percent composition of sulfides is not known.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-NOV-2007 Higgins, Chris T. California Geological Survey CGS (Formerly CDMG)
Editor 20-FEB-2008 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 California resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.