Clark County Nevada Gold Production |
Get regular updates on the WMH Facebook page
|
GOODSPRINGS DISTRICT
The Goodsprings (Yellow Pine) district comprises several hundred square miles in the southern Spring Mountain Range, in southwestern Clark County. The town of Goodsprings, in the center of the district, is 8 miles northwest of Jean and 28 miles southwest of Las Vegas.
Mormon missionaries are credited with the first discoveries in the district, and in 1856 work was begun at the Potosi mine. After several unsuccessful attempts to smelt the ore and recover lead, work was abandoned, and for the next several decades activity in the district consisted of desultory prospecting of gold-bearing iron gossans, copper-stained gossans, and lead veins. In the 1890's the district was reactivated, and considerable gold was mined from the Keystone, Bass, and Clementine properties. In 1905 the completion of the railroad between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City provided the district with adequate shipping facilities, and the following year significant quantities of oxidized zinc minerals were recognized in the ores. These two events permitted a more orderly growth and development in the following years. Platinum was discovered in the Bass mine in 1914, but production of this element never fulfilled any of the expectations its discovery generated (Hewett, 1931, p. 69-71).
Gold is chiefly a byproduct of zinc-lead-silver ore. From 1902 through 1959 a total of 58,815 ounces of gold was produced; none of it was from placers.
The predominant bedrock consists of a thick section of Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks that were folded, thrust faulted, and intruded by granitic dikes and sills (Hewett, 1931, p. 9-55). The Paleozoic rocks are predominantly limestone; the Mesozoic rocks are largely sandstone, shale, and conglomerate. Ores were deposited in breccia zones and fractures in limestone of pre-Permian age. Ore deposits are of three types: gold-copper with accessory cobalt, nickel-silver, and zinc-lead with accessory vanadium. Gold deposits are in fractures in and near the intrusive bodies, copper deposits are in Devonian or older beds and are more remote from the intrusive bodies, and zinc and lead deposits occur in Lower Mississippian beds (Hewett, 1931, p. VIII). The gold deposits consist of pyritic fracture fillings, weathered to free gold and iron and manganese oxides; quartz is not present (Hewett, 1931, p. 89-90).
Now Viewing Page 2 of 3 << Previous | Next >>
Select Page: 1 2 3
