Corcoran Canyon Project, Nye County, Nevada, USAi

Regional Level Types
Corcoran Canyon Project	Project
Nye County	County
Nevada	State
USA	Country

Structure: A northeast-trending structural zone defined by alteration, veining, gold-silver mineralization, faulting and intrusions. fractures associated with the margin of the Mount Jefferson caldera

Alteration: Host rocks have been silicified, argillized, and sericitized.

Commodity: Ore Materials: ruby silver (pyrargyrite); other sulfides, gold Gangue Materials: quartz, pyrite, alunite, clay, sericite

Deposit: Corcoran Canyon is a volcanic-hosted, low-sulfidation, silver-gold, epithermal system extending for more than 5.5 km along a northeast-trending structural zone defined by alteration, veining, gold-silver mineralization, faulting and intrusions. Mineralization occurs in quartz-vein stockworks and breccias within sericitized, argillized and silicified volcanic rocks. Arsenic, mercury, thallium and antimony are strongly elevated with Au and Ag; base-metal contents are low. Silver mineralization is associated with veins and silicified zones in a Tertiary volcanic tuff. Geochemical sampling has revealed anomalous arsenic, mercury, molybdenum, antimony and spotty gold. Fine-grained pyrite is associated with brecciation in a silicified matrix of a vein bearing N45E, dipping 50NW in a hanging wall complex. Sample 3187 was from a narrow 6-12 inch vein bearing N25E. Quartz vein had visible ruby silver and other sulfides developed by a small adit in the hanging wall.

Deposit type: Epithermal vein, Comstock

Development: The first mining of the Corcoran Canyon property for silver was said to have been done by native Americans. Bob Bottom held the ground in 1986 and various companies held it in the last 35 years. Considerable drilling and coring was ongoing in 1986, at which time Round Mountain Gold held the property. Corcoran Canyon was drilled to shallow depths between 1970 and 1988 and an "inferred resource" of about 9 million ounces of silver at a grade of about 5 ounces per ton silver and 0.025 ounces per ton gold was calculated by an independent consultant. The district contains a significant Ag-Au resource, the "Silver Reef" deposit, defined by drilling in the 1980s. An indicated and inferred resource calculated in 1988 using 50-foot cross sections is: 1.61 million metric tonnes grading 175 g/t Ag and 0.86 g/t Au (3.086 g/t Au eq.). In 2003 Senator Minerals Inc acquired an option on the 41 claim Corcoran Canyon property to explore the property for gold. In 2004, surface sampling and mapping by Bullion River identified a significant strike length of over 3 miles, which led to the staking of additional 80 claims by the company. Bullion River executed a drill program in conjunction with a three dimensional model to test strike and depth extensions. In 2004, the Corcoran Canyon property consisted of forty unpatented claims under lease and an adjacent 89 claims controlled 100% by Corcoran Canyon Mining Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bullion River Gold Corp. In 2004, Corcoran Canyon Mining Corp., backed by a loan from Bullion River, acquired an option from Golden Spike Mining to acquire a 100% undivided interest in 41 unpatented mineral claims on the Corcoran Canyon Property. They completed a 3-dimensional analysis of the existing silver-gold resource and initiated a phase 1 drilling program to test extensions of the known resource and a new target. Preliminary work indicates potential for additional mineralization down dip and to the west, northwest, and possibly northeast of the resource, and these extensions include areas concealed by alluvium and post-mineral volcanics. They expected to complete phase 1 drilling during the third quarter of 2005. If the results are positive, they plan to undertake an extensive second phase of further soil sampling, geophysical surveys, trenching or drilling to identify commercially viable reserves.

Ore(s): Ore is associated with a brecciated, silicified zone.

Other Databases

Link to USGS MRDS:	10310492

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References