Clark County Nevada Gold Production |
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SEARCHLIGHT DISTRICT
Located in southeastern Clark County, 40 miles south of Boulder City and 22 miles east of Nipton, Calif., the Searchlight district is one of the more recently developed in the State; the first production was recorded in 1898. The deposits have yielded gold and subordinate silver, copper, and lead.
Most of the production has come from the Duplex and the Quartette mines. The Quartette had a total yield worth well over $2,800,000 and the Duplex mine produced ore worth in excess of $650,000, mainly in gold (Callaghan, 1939, p. 161, 165).
The period of greatest activity in the district was 1902-16. After that time, activity steadily declined. Gold production from 1902 through 1959 was 246,997 ounces from the lode mines and only 26 ounces from placer workings.
The oldest rock of the district is gneiss of possible Precambrian age (Callaghan, 1939, p. 140-141). It is intruded by a large quartz monzonite body of Tertiary age and by andesite porphyry which may be an early facies of the quartz monzonite. The quartz monzonite is the most extensive rock in the district. A younger series of lava flows and volcanic (?) breccias lies on the eroded surface of the quartz monzonite and older rocks.
The veins are in fractured zones in the older rocks around the margin of the quartz monzonite. Most of the production has come from oxidized and weathered vein material which extends to depths of 800 feet, or more, in which galena is the only unweathered sulfide present. Unweathered vein material consists of a breccia of country rock cemented with vuggy quartz. Sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite occur in equal amounts in the quartz. The oxidized vein material contains gold, traces of copper and chalcopyrite, galena, chalcocite, quartz, chalcedony, cuprite, hematite, cerussite, malachite, calcite, brochantite, limonite, leadhillite, chrysocolla, wulfenite, vanadinite, mottramite, hemimorphite (Callaghan, 1939, p. 152-153).
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