| Basis for focus area |
MRDS producers or past producers. |
| Identified resources |
Identified resources of antimony. Historical production of copper, gold, and silver. |
| Production |
Unknown. |
| Status |
Past mining; gold and silver production at the Colosseum mine that ended in 1992. |
| Estimated resources |
Desert Antimony (Wade) deposit contains a combined production + reserves of an estimated 100-1000 short tons of contained Sn metal (Aune, 1966). |
| Geologic maps |
Miller and others (2007), scale 1:100,000; Schmidt and McMackin (2006), scale 1:100,000; Hewett (1956), scale 1:125,000; U.S. Geological Survey (1991), scale 1:100,000; Theodore (2007b), scale 1:125,000; Jennings (1961), scale 1:250,000; Joseph (1984), scale 1:48,000. |
| Geophysical data |
About 50% Rank 1 and 50% Rank 3 aeromagnetic coverage and Rank 3 aeroradiometric coverage. |
| Favorable rocks and structures |
Aune (1966) mentions Desert Antimony (Wade) deposit occurs in quartz-stibnite-barite-calcite veins in granitic gneiss. There is a large terrane of Proterozoic granitic gneisses in area. Antimony and barite veins may be genetically related to small shallow stocks possibly associated with emplacement of Cretaceous Teutonia batholith in vicinity of Colosseum Mine, associated magmatic alteration, gold and other precious and base metal rich "breccia pipes" and felsite dikes (Theodore, 2007a). |
| Deposits |
Clark Mountains Mining District: Desert Antimony prospect (MRDS dep_id: 10287090), Colosseum mine (MRDS dep_id: 10310702), Green's mine (MRDS dep_id: 10281047), Henry (MRDS dep_id: 10286530), Pitcairn (MRDS dep_id: 10116931), Taylor mine (MRDS dep_id: 10164197). |
| Evidence from mineral occurrences |
MRDS. |
| Geochemical evidence |
Antimony recovery at the Colosseum mine smelter was as high as 8300 ppm; exotic veins contain high Sn concentrations along with W, Zn, Pb, and Cu. Ore minerals were native gold, auriferous pyrite, electrum, chalcopyrite, galena and silver ores. Gangue materials were quartz, barren pyrite, siderite, iron and manganese oxides, sericite, barite, and felsite breccia. |
| Geophysical evidence |
Unknown. |
| Evidence from other sources |
North- northwest-trending belt in the Clark Mountains of MRDS past producers and prospects for Sn, W, Zn, Pb, Au, and Cu that all may be related to similar mineralizing event. See Garside and Bonham (1987) and Sharp (1984). |
| Comments |
Polymetallic deposits could be attributed to overprinting of mineralizing events. Deposit types include granitic gneiss related (veins) and replacement style in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. |
| Cover thickness and description |
Colosseum mine was open pit, other prospects were shallow underground. |
| Authors |
David A. Ponce, Ben Parrish, Erica Key. |
| 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 |
A high-resolution airborne survey of overlapping Mountain Pass focus area exists. Require high-resolution aeromagnetic, radiometric surveys, MT, and depth-to-basement of the entire Mojave Desert; and 3D geophysical modeling. |
| Digital elevation data needs |
Lidar complete. |
