Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INTRODUCTION
Round Mountain is one of the largest known volcanic
rock-hosted gold deposits
Disseminated, epithermal low sulfidation deposit
-In 1999, owned by Echo Bay Inc. (50%), Case, Pomeroy
and Co., Inc. and Homestake Mining Co. (each w/ 25%).
-Mined intermittently since 1905.
-Reserves > 500 tons of metallic Au
Visit on May 5th, 1999, guided by Chris Ekstrom, mine
geologist, who provided detailed field descriptions.
Brief version of mines more relevant issues & comments on the
exploration of similar deposits in the Andean Cordillera.
ABSTRACT 2
hydrothermal alteration & mineralization spreads
from thin fractures
propyllitic, phyllic, silicification and argillization
no direct relation between alteration and grade
Occasional Au nuggets, sought w/ metal detector.
Some weigh > 1 lb.
Grade may vary up to 4 orders of magnitude in 10 cm.
The mine has re-usable heap leach pads.
ABSTRACT 3
Throughout the Andean Cordillera there is an
important potential to find deposits confined in
volcanic layers similar to those of Round
Mountain.
Several hundred Quaternary calderas have
been detected in Colombia, Ecuador and
Peru, and many of them contain precious
metal disseminations.
Location Map
(Oligocene Miocene)
TOQUIMA
CALDERA
COMPLEX
MULTIPLE
CALDERAS
AROUND
ROUND
MOUNTAIN
MINE
Great Basin
Region,
Nevada.
Normal faults
CONCENTRIC
CALDERAS
AROUND
ROUND
MOUNTAIN
DEPOSIT
REGIONAL GEOLOGY
ROUND MOUNTAIN MINE
NEVADA, U.S.A.
LITHOLOGICAL UNITS
AT ROUND MOUNTAIN MINE
ROCK
DESCRIPTION
Type 1 Densely welded fall tuff; aquiclude. 60 m
Type 9 Transitional zone to poorly welded tuff;
aquiclude. 27 m
Type 2 Porous, poorly welded tuff, with large
pumice fragments; host rock. 100-120
Type 3 Lithic-rich, dense tuff; low permeability.
Base of volcanic sequence.
Type 4 Paleozoic metasediments; impermeable.
Basement
DETAILED GEOLOGY
ROUND MOUNTAIN MINE
NEVADA, U.S.A.
LOCATION OF
GEOLOGICAL SECTIONS
ABUNDANT RADIAL
FRACTURES IN THE CALDERA
Auriferous breccia.
Several brecciation
events.
Enlargment of
silicified and mineralized
portion in previous shot.
Note clast-support,
angularity and clast
compositional variety.
1.9 cm
Au nuggets
found in
hydrothermal bxs.
Gold foil
Gold nuggest
found in
hydrothermal bxs.
Metal detectors in zones where bonanzas are expected,
to recover most free Au and keep nuggets away from the
leach piles.
Coin 2.8 cm
Nickel
ALTERATION
All the range of hydrothermal alteration from a potassic
nucleus to a propylitic halo, through high level silicic
alteration and intermediate argillization
Alteration by hydrothermal fluids that migrate along a
fracture, and away from it along permeable rocks.
Disseminated py and precious metals extend 9-15 m
away from main fractures.
See next figure
SANDWICH
MODEL
TONS (X103)
gAu/ton TOTAL (tons Au)
233,638
0.6500
151.864
127,271
0.3110
39.581
ANDEAN PROSPECTS
Colombia, Ecuador and Per have a reasonable
potential for gold deposits hosted in volcanic
strata such as those present at Round Mountain.
Several hundreds of Quaternary calderas have
been detected in the Nario deparment,
Colombia, and many of them contain precious
metal dissemination. Repetitive explosive activity
in southern Colombian volcanic systems has
exposed numerous mineralized tuffs and some
welded tuffs.
PERUVIAN ANDES
Large extensions of Eocene to Oligocene
volcanic rocks outcrop in the Peruvian Andes.
-older
-more eroded than in the Northern Andes
-may offer ideal conditions for entrapment of
precious metals in Round Mountain style.
Numerous high explosivity rhyolitic events,
intercalated w/ pyroclastic, cineritic & welded tuff
events produced monotonous sequences of
porous & non-porous rocks.