Clear Creek County Colorado Gold Production
The Argentine district, located at the heads of Leavenworth and Stevens Creeks in southwestern Clear Creek County, is 6 to 8 miles southwest of Georgetown and Silver Plume, just east of the Continental Divide. The mineralized area is on Kelso and McClellan Mountains. Lovering and Goddard (1950, p. 135) also included in the district an area in Summit County at the head of Peru Creek on the west side of the Continental Divide, but this area has produced insufficient gold to be considered in this report.
The early wave of frenzied gold prospectors overlooked the potential wealth of silver in Colorado; consequently, silver lodes lay unnoticed until 1864 when the Belmont silver lode in the Argentine district was discovered. A rush to the area ensued, resulting in additional discoveries in the Georgetown-Silver Plume district and in the Montezuma district in Summit County to the west. The Belmont and Baker mines were developed, slowly at first, but after 1869 they showed enough promise to attract numerous prospectors to the district. The district flourished during the 1870's, but activity declined and became intermittent thereafter (Lovering, 1935, p. 66-67, 69, 73).
Production records for the Argentine district are fragmentary. According to incomplete mine production figures listed by Lovering (1935, p. 68-116), the district had a minimum gold output through 1928 of 21,990 ounces. From 1932 through 1957 the district had a recorded production of 3,373 ounces of gold, or a total minimum of 25,400 ounces, all of which was a byproduct of silver ores.
The Argentine district is underlain by schist and gneiss of the Idaho Springs Formation into which were intruded masses of Silver Plume Granite, of Precambrian age. Dikes and plugs of Tertiary quartz monzonite porphyry and rhyolite and dacite porphyry cut the Precambrian rocks. The ore bodies are in veins that trend north-northeast and contain galena, pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, silver sulfantimonides, and gold (Lovering and Goddard, 1950, p. 135-136). Quartz, carbonates, and locally occurring fluorite are the most common gangue minerals.