Bodie Mine (Bodie project), Bodie, Bodie Mining District, Bodie Hills, Mono County, California, USAi

Regional Level Types
Bodie Mine (Bodie project)	Mine
Bodie	- not defined -
Bodie Mining District	Mining District
Bodie Hills	Group of Hills
Mono County	County
California	State
USA	Country

A former Au-Ag-Hg mine located in secs. 9 & 16, T4N, R27E, MDM, 1.2 km (3,800 feet) E of Bodie, on Standard Hill, on California State Park/ U.S. Bureau of Land Management administered land (Bodie State Historic Park). This property produced until 1941. Owned and operated by Geomineral Corp. (1970-1988) then by the Homestake Mining Co. (1988); Galactic Resources Ltd. Vancouver, Canada (1988-1997); and, the State of California (administered by California State Parks in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (1997-present). Homestake Mining sold all of its holdings in the Bodie Hills area (including the Bodie Project) to Galactic Resources Ltd., Vancouver, Canada, in 1988. All of Galactic's holdings were subsequently purchased by California State Parks in 1997. No future commercial mining operations are permitted in the Bodie Project area. The property was comprised of 5 formerly patented claims: Bodie, Bodie No. 2, West Cliff, Crystal Bluff, and Little George claims. MRDS database stated accuracy for this location is 100 meters.

Mineralization is a Comstock-like Au-Ag deposit (Mineral occurrence model information: Model code 150; USGS model code 25c; Deposit model name: Epithermal vein, Comstock; Mark3 model number 16). The mineralization is Tortonian in age, hosted in volcanic rock (aphanitic) of the Silver Hill Volcanic series (Miocene). The ore body is irregular, tablar. Controls for ore emplacement included normal faults and associated fractures, possibly related to doming, at the center of extrusive volcanic activity (small dacite plugs). Alteration is local (propylitic, argillic, potassic, silicic). Local rocks include Tertiary volcanic flow rocks, unit 17 (Cascade Range).

Workings Type: the Bodie Project is a proposed open-pit mine in an area of historic primarily underground workings (Bodie Mine); more recent, relatively minor open-pit mining has occurred in the area. Description of Mine Workings: the Bodie Mine (aka Bodie Project) includes the area of historic, primarily underground mining in the Bodie Bluff and Standard Hill areas. More than 90 percent of the ore from the lode deposits in the Bodie Mining District came from historic mines in the Standard Hill area. Plate 4, showing mine workings in the Bodie Bluff - Standard Hill Area (Chesterman and others, 1968) reveals tens of thousands of feet of underground shafts, drifts, winzes, crosscuts, raises, and stopes.

Historic production: (McCluskey, written communication, Report to Sierra Mines, Inc., 1947, cited in Chesterman and others, 1986, pg. 31; metric tons and grade were calculated by this MRDS reporter): Reported historic production from the Bonanza zone (area of Bodie Project) is more than 633,000 ounces of Au (19.7 metric tons, 1.67 ounces Au/ton) and as many as 800,000 ounces Ag (24.9 metric tons, 2.11 ounces Ag/ton) from approximately 380,000 tons of ore. No production resulted from the Bodie Project.

Chesterman and others (1986) reported an estimated 25,000,000 tons ore with an average value in 1947 of $1.86 per ton remaining in the Bonanza zone.

Gold/silver ratio: Total reserve estimates for the Bodie Project (Homestake Mining, 1988, pg. 5) give average ore grades of 0.069 oz Au/ton and 0.42 oz Ag/ton (cutoff grade 0.020 oz Au/ton), and 0.108 oz Au/ton and 0.54 oz Ag/ton (cutoff grade 0.040 oz Au/ton), which yield Au/Ag ratios of 1:6 and 1:5, respectively. Old records from the main productive zone near the Bodie Graben indicate the ore averaged 1.75 oz Au/ton and 3.1 oz Ag/ton (Homestake Mining, 1988, pg. 3), an Au/Ag ratio of 1:1.8. Veins in the Standard Hill area (area of Bodie Graben) in 1883 yielded an average of 1.65 oz Au/ton and 3.14 oz Ag/ton (Chesterman and others, 1986, pg. 30), an Au/Ag ratio of 1:1.9 The Bonanza zone yielded more than 633,000 oz Au and as many as 800,000 oz Ag (from S. B. McCluskey, written communication, cited in Chesterman and others, 1986, pg. 33), an Au/Ag ratio of 1:1.3. The ratio of gold to silver by weight in the northern part of the district was about 1:12 (Chesterman and others, 1986, pg. vii). Presumably, this includes the Bodie Bluff and Standard Hill areas. Records of production from the Bodie District prior to 1877 are essentially non-existent, and data after that date are sketchy. Past production is estimated at about 1.25 million tons yielding 1.5 million ounces of gold and more than 15 million ounces of silver (Homestake Mining, 1988, pgs. 1-2), an Au:Ag ratio of 1:10).

Deposit size: Medium, based on post-historic-mining reserve estimates (current remaining reserves) of 52.7 and 41.6 metric tons gold (Homestake Mining, 1988): 1. Based on a cutoff grade of 0.020 ounces Au/ton, the Bodie Mine deposit contains a total of 24,568,000 tons probable + possible + inferred reserves with average grade 0.069 ounces Au/ton = 1,695,192 ounces Au (52.7 metric tons Au). 2. Based on a cutoff grade of 0.040 ounces Au/ton, the Bodie Mine deposit contains a total of 12,394,000 tons probable + possible + inferred reserves with average grade 0.108 ounces Au/ton = 1,338,552 ounces Au (41.6 metric tons Au). Medium (needs to be checked), based on historic gold production + remaining gold reserves (72.4 metric tons) (McCluskey, written communication, Report to Sierra Mines, Inc., 1947, cited in Chesterman and others, 1986, pg. 31; Homestake Mining, 1988. pg. 5): Historic production 633,000 ounces Au (19.7 metric tons) Reserves (0.020 ounces Au/ton cutoff grade) 1,695,192 ounces Au (52.7 metric tons) Total 2,328,192 ounces Au (72.4 metric tons) Estimated total silver mined + remaining reserves in the Bodie Project area: Historic production 800,000 ounces Ag (24.9 metric tons) Reserves 10,316,040 ounces Ag (320.8 metric tons) Total 11,116,040 ounces Ag (345.7 metric tons).

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10310698

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References