| Basis for focus area |
Buffalo Canyon is in the Union district in northwest Nye County, east of Gabbs, Nevada. The Buffalo Canyon prospect is defined by an area of exposed gold-bearing quartz veins known as the Everson gold prospect (Quillen, 2017). |
| Identified resources |
Historical production of gold and silver and identified resources for gold. |
| Production |
The Berlin mine produced about 40,000 oz Au. |
| Status |
Past mining and current exploration. |
| Estimated resources |
Everson prospect (1990s): 300,000 oz Au, averaging 0.37 to 0.40 g/t Au (Quillen, 2017). |
| Geologic maps |
Silberling (1959, plate 1), scale 1:24,000; Wallace and others (1959), scale 1:48,000; Stewart and Carlson (1978), scale 1:500,000. |
| Geophysical data |
Inadequate Rank 4 aeromagnetic coverage. |
| Favorable rocks and structures |
Siliciclastic, volcaniclastic, and volcanic rocks and minor limestones of the Triassic-aged Knickerbocker Formation were intruded by a series of stocks and dikes of porphyritic to equigranular diorite, quartz diorite, and granodiorite of undetermined age, resulting in ones of biotite and pyrrhotite-bearing hornfels and magnetite skarns. |
| Deposits |
Berlin mine (MRDS dep_id: 10044420), Everson prospect. |
| Evidence from mineral occurrences |
MRDS; Quillen (2017). |
| Geochemical evidence |
Surface geochemistry, petrography and alteration mapping given in Quillen (2017). |
| Geophysical evidence |
Unknown. |
| Evidence from other sources |
Recent gold mineralization was discovered during a regional stream sediment survey. |
| Comments |
Buffalo Canyon is near the historical mining camps of Berlin and Ione in the Union mining district. At the Berlin mine, Au and Ag were extracted from high-grade mesothermal quartz veins and quartz--adularia veins. At the recently recognized Everson prospect, mesothermal quartz veins hosted within Jurassic intrusions have an Au-Ag-(Sb-Pb-As-Cu) geochemical signature (Quillen, 2017). |
| Cover thickness and description |
Alteration exposed at the surface. |
| Authors |
Laurel G. Woodruff, Albert H. Hofstra. |
| New data needs |
Updated geologic mapping, lidar, geochemistry, aeromagnetic and aeroradiometric surveys. |
| Geologic mapping and modeling needs |
Updated geologic mapping. |
| Geophysical survey and modeling needs |
High-resolution, Rank 1 aeromagnetic and aeroradiometric surveys. |
| Digital elevation data needs |
Lidar inadequate. |
