Pamlico Mine, Hawthorne Mining District (Pamlico Mining District), Mineral County, Nevada, USAi

Regional Level Types
Pamlico Mine	Mine
Hawthorne Mining District (Pamlico Mining District)	Mining District
Mineral County	County
Nevada	State
USA	Country

The Pamlico Project is a high-grade epithermal gold system hosted in Jurassic to Tertiary age volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Located in pro-mining Mineral County, Nevada, Pamlico is situated in the western Great Basin within the NW trending Walker Lane structural zone along the intersecting EW trending Pancake Range Lineament. A modern 600 foot decline was recently completed to develop a high-grade, drill delineated gold mineralization zone for test mining and recovery of gold. Two previously unidentified, coarse gold bearing structures were discovered in the decline and remain to be defined and explored.

The project covers the historic Pamlico Mines on Pamlico Ridge, together with the Central, Sunset, Good Hope, Gold Bar and various unnamed mines and prospects. Discovered about 1884, reports indicate that by 1886 the district was shipping ore to custom mills, most likely at the Aurora and Comstock (Virginia) Districts. A 20 stamp mill was constructed in 1888 / 1889 and operated through 1931. Drilling by the previous operators and owners intersected very high-grade mineralization as indicated by hole 99-3 that intercepted 4.6 meters grading 239.7 grams per metric tonne gold (g/t Au) and included 0.8 meters assaying 702.5 g/t Au in the Merritt Zone (Table 3). Check assays of representative intervals by an independent laboratory were reviewed and it corroborated reported grades.

The project is underexplored in terms of modern exploration with no property wide geology, geochemistry or geophysics done and with only 103 shallow holes drilled on the entire property when acquired in July 2016 by Newrange. Some 300 separate, historic mine workings mostly developed during the late 1800’s explore up to 100 individual veins. Pamlico’s history mimics the early history at currently producing high-grade gold mines in Nevada including the Ken Snyder (Midas) and nearby Fire Creek mines, both operated by Klondex Mines Ltd.

Based on the extent and the high-grade of the gold mineralization in historic surface and underground samples, the high-grade nature of historic gold production and available drill results, the Pamlico Project represents a unique opportunity to explore and develop a district scale, near surface, potentially high-grade gold deposit in multiple target areas across the property with small scale gold recovery potential from the current permits in place for test mining from the Merritt Decline.
Structure: The Luning-Fencemaker Thrust Belt lies directly east of the Sierra Nevada batholith and comprises a 500- kilometer long, 100 kilometer wide belt of intensely folded and thrusted Triassic and Jurassic marine sedimentary rocks. Individual thrust systems of note include the Luning, Fencemaker, Pamlico, Boyer, and Wild Horse thrusts (Speed and others, 1988). Thrusts of the LFTB generally carried deep-water, fine-grained turbiditic facies eastward and juxtaposed them against shallow-marine facies of the same age. The Pamlico Anticline trends NW, derived on basis of relation between latite tuff and agglomerate unit with overlying rhyolitic tuff; this contact forms main localizing structure for Pamlico veins.

Alteration: Wall rocks adjacent to veins show chloritization, argillation, seritication

Commodity: Ore Materials: free gold, argentiferous galena, copper sulfides Gangue Materials: quartz, limonite, pyrite

Deposit: Workings have been developed along four main veins. Vein A strikes N65W and dips 27-55 SW; vein B strikes N55-70W and dips 25-70NE; vein P strikes N30-80W and dips 25-60NE; and a trough-shaped P-branch vein plunges 30SE with both flanks dipping 30 degrees towards the axis of the trough. Some ore forms irregular replacement bodies consisting of siliceous, ferruginous, locally jasperoidal, gossan material occupying a fracture zone. Vein filling is predominantly quartz, most commonly massive with substantial amounts of limonite and rare grains of pyrite. Small amounts of secondary copper minerals rarely coat fractures in veins. Gold reportedly formed wires and nuggets in the veins and was associated with pyritic portions of veins. Gold values in veins are erratic; reportedly some veins were followed for 300 ft. without finding any ore. Most veins now exposed underground are barren.

Deposit type: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein

Development: The Pamlico Mine was located in the Pamlico Mining District, situated in the western Garfield Hills, ten miles southeast of Hawthorne, Nevada. The district yielded nearly a million dollars worth of gold between 1885 and 1900. Estimated production for the Pamlico mine from 1886 to 1889 was 324 tons of ore at a gross value of $167,542. The Pamlico Mining Company operated from Hawthorne, Nevada with John Forbes as president. H.M. Yerington, treasurer and S. A. Knopp, mine superintendent. In 1994, Pamlico Gold was testing eight separate areas by 15,000 feet of reverse circulation drilling in 20 to 30 holes at the Pamlico property. Geochemical and geophysical work outlined extensive zones of quartz veining and induced polarization responses and anomalous gold-silver values were found in rock samples. Pamlico Gold could earn a 51% interest in the property from Cactus West Exploration by spending $1.3 on exploration, development, and option payments In 1995, Cactus West Explorations and Pamlico Gold joint venture reported they were evaluating the results of 50 holes drilled on the Pamlico property. Thirteen of the reverse-circulation holes were in the vicinity of an earlier drill hole which showed 120 feet grading 0.65 opt gold. Drilling indicated the presence of a gold bearing zone or structural system 200 feet by 400 feet or larger, open to the northeast and east. Gold is associated with abundant iron and manganese oxides but with very little quartz veining. In 1999, Vengold Inc. controlled the Pamlico property and was exploring it for gold. The company completed mapping and sampling of the underground workings as well as drilling In 2003 American Bonanza Gold Mining Corp. encountered favorable gold mineralization in its drilling program on the Pamlico property. The drilling program, totaling 1,608 feet in eight holes, was designed to confirm and expand mineralization encountered in previous drilling and in underground workings. Encouraging results of 1.62 opt Au over 3 feet and 2.79 opt Au over 1 foot were obtained. Four distinct mineralized structures were targeted and all four were encountered by the drilling.

Geology: The district is bounded on the north by a large intrusive body of quartz monzonite.

Ore(s): Gold occurs as lenses along veins intimately associated with gouge and breccia. Most veins occur along NW- trending faults.

Other Databases

Link to USGS MRDS:	10310558
Link to USGS MRDS:	10037453

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References