Humboldt County Nevada Gold Production |
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DUTCH FLAT DISTRICT
The Dutch Flat placer district, 18 miles northeast of Winnemucca and 18 miles north of Golconda, was discovered in 1893 and produced about $75,000 in gold the first year (Vanderburg, 1936a, p. 94). To¬tal gold production through 1959 was about 10,000 ounces.
The deposits are stream and slope-wash gravels in an area 11/2 miles long and 300 to 2,000 feet wide (Willden and Hotz, 1955, p. 666). In addition to gold, significant quantities of scheelite and cinnabar occur in the placers. The ore minerals come from low-grade lode deposits in a granodiorite stock and in folded early Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. The lode deposits are of two types: gold-quartz veins that contain some sulfides and a little scheelite, and disseminated cinnabar in a shear zone that cuts metamorphosed shale and feldspathic quartzite (Willden and Hotz, 1955, p. 665).
GOLD RUN DISTRICT
Located in southeast Humboldt County, 12 miles south of Golconda, the Gold Run (Adelaide) district was organized in 1866. Gold has been a byproduct of ores mined for copper and silver. Placer gold was mined sporadically along Gold Run Creek, and total production from this source was about 2,000 ounces. Production of byproduct gold from 1907 through 1959 was 23,747 ounces.
At the Adelaide mine, the principal mine of the district (Vanderburg, 1938b, p. 24), the ore occurs as replacements of limestone beds and consists of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, and galena in a gangue of calcite, garnet, vesuvianite. Some specimens contained a little scheelite.
NATIONAL DISTRICT
The National district is in northeastern Humboldt County on the west slope of the Santa Rosa Range, 18 miles southeast of McDermitt.
Although the Santa Rosa Range had been prospected with minor success since the 1860's, it was not until 1907 that the rich deposits at National were discovered. The unusually high grade ore body at the National soon made it the leading mine in the district. Some of the ore was valued at $30 per pound. As may be expected, this attracted many individuals of questionable character, and the history of the camp is marked by numerous incidents of violence and disorder and a trial that attracted wide attention (Lindgren, 1915, p. 19, 20, 52-54). The rich ore shoots were mined out within a few years, and after about 1917 the properties were worked intermittently by lessees.
Production of the district from 1909 through 1959 was 177,000 ounces, all from lode deposits.
The northern part of the Santa Rosa Range is composed predominantly of basaltic lava flows of probable Miocene age (Lindgren, 1915, p. 21-22). At National mine, basaltic tuffs and lacustrine beds are overlain by latite, basaltic flows, and a rhyolite flow. Necks and dikes of this rhyolite cut all the older rocks. Locally basalt flows cover the rhyolite. The rocks dip 8° to 15° NE.
The ore deposits are in fissure veins that have a northward trend and steep east or west dips. The veins cut the youngest rocks in the district and are therefore believed to be Miocene or post-Miocene in age (Lindgren, 1915, p. 32). Most of the veins are rich in silver; ruby silver is the chief ore mineral. The National ore shoot is an exception. Here the ore mineral is coarse electrum irregularly distributed near the footwall of the quartz vein (Lindgren, 1915, p. 31, 32). Stibnite is the characteristic mineral of all the veins. Other sulfides present are pyrite, calcopyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, and galena in a gangue of banded and vuggy quartz.
