Pinson Gold Mine

Producer in Humboldt county in Nevada, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Tungsten

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID	10310313
MRDS ID	M232744
Record type	Site
Current site name	Pinson Gold Mine
Alternate or previous names	Ogee and Pinson Mine, A Zone, B Zone, C Zone, CX, CX West, Felix Canyon, Mag, Blue Bell
Related records	10045085, 10149740

Comments on the site identification

This record is an update of earlier record #M232744 for the same deposit from which all material has been extracted and incorporated into the current record.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates:	-117.26902, 41.12989 (WGS84)
Elevation	1660
Relative position	The Pinson Mine is located 38 miles northeast of Winnemucca, Nevada.
(click for info)

Geographic areas

Country	State	County
United States	Nevada	Humboldt

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian	Township	Range	Section	Fraction	State
Mount Diablo	038N	042E	32		Nevada

Comments on the location information

The Pinson Mine is located on the south side of Granite Creek, on the eastern flank of Adam Peak in the Osgood Mountains.

Commodities

Commodity	Importance
Gold	Primary
Silver	Secondary
Tungsten	Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

Ore Materials: gold
Gangue Materials: quartz, chiastolite/andalusite, cordierite, fluorite, barite kaolinite.

Materials information

Materials	Type of material
Gold	Ore
Quartz	Gangue
Chiastolite	Gangue
Andalusite	Gangue
Cordierite	Gangue
Fluorite	Gangue
Barite	Gangue
Kaolinite	Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code	173
USGS model code	26a.1
Deposit model name	Sediment-hosted Au
Mark3 model number	17

Host and associated rocks

Host or associated

Host

Rock type

Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Argillite

Rock unit name

Comus Formation

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Middle Ordovician
Stratigraphic age (oldest)	Late Cambrian

Host or associated Host

Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Hornfels

Rock type qualifier cherty, silicified

Host or associated	Host
Rock type	Metamorphic Rock > Hornfels
Rock type qualifier	cherty, silicified

Host or associated

Host

Rock type

Metamorphic Rock > Phyllite

Rock unit name

Preble Formation

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Late Cambrian
Stratigraphic age (oldest)	Middle Cambrian

Host or associated

Associated

Rock type

Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granodiorite

Rock type qualifier

granodiorite

Rock unit name

Osgood Mountains Stock

Stratigraphic age (youngest)	Cretaceous

Nearby scientific data

(1)	-117.26902, 41.12989	ListMap

Ore body information

General form Irregular to tabular, in fault zone

General form	Irregular to tabular, in fault zone

Controls for ore emplacement

The ore-controlling fault zone at Pinson maybe a southern extension of the Getchell Fault.

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type	Surface
Development status	Producer
Commodity type	Metallic
Deposit size	Small
Significant	Yes
Discovery year	1945
Discoverer	Clovis Pinson
Year of first production	1949

Mining district

District name	Potosi District
District name	Getchell District

Land status

Ownership category	BLM Administrative Area
Area name	Winnemucca BLM Administrative District

Ownership information

Type Owner-Operator

Owner Pinson Mining Co.

Year 2004

Type	Owner-Operator
Owner	Pinson Mining Co.
Year	2004

Comments on other economic factors

Pinson reserves in 1980 were reported to be 3.245 million tons of ore grading 0.119 ounces of gold per ton. 1989 remaining reserves, including the Mag pit, were 480,000 ounces of gold. 1996 reserves for the combined mines of the Potosi district were reported as 2.6 million tons of ore grading 0.072 ounces of gold per ton. New Pinson Mine production was as follows: 1980: 56,000 ounces of gold. 1986?88: 189,864 ounces of gold. 1989: 72,489 ounces of gold.(includes Preble) 1990?91: 112,022 ounces of gold. 1992?94: 145,210 ounces of gold and 12,700 ounces of silver 1995: 44,854 ounces of gold. 1996?98: 128,935 ounces of gold and 7,990 ounces of silver 1999: 11,975 ounces of gold and 442 ounces of silver 2000: 1,116 ounces of gold and 31 ounces of silver 2001: 679 ounces of gold In 2006, the underground resource reported by Atna was 1,760,000 tons grading 0.302 ounces of gold per ton measured+indicated)

Comments on development

The original claims were staked by Clovis Pinson in 1945, and were held in the family through 1979. It was mined in 1949 by open pit methods. The new Pinson Deposit was discovered on leased claims in 1971 by John Livermore and Pete Galli of Cordex. The Pinson Mine was put in production in 1980 as an open pit mine and conventional gold mill processing approximately 300,000 tons ore per year. 1979 known reserves of medium grade ore were sufficent for five years' operations, with additional reserves of low-grade to extend mine life to 10 yr or more. In 1980 a heap leach operation was commenced to recover gold from 3,000, 000 tons of lower-grade ore. The mine was active in 1980, employing about 80 persons. The new Pinson Deposit was discovered in 1971 by John Livermore and Pete Galli. Known reserves in 1979 were 1.5 million tons plus more low grade ore. It was owned and operated in 1981 by Cordilleran Exploration (Cordex). It was listed as an active open pit mine and mill with cyanidation operation in 1983, employing a total of 130 persons. The property position was later consolidated with the Preble Mine to the south. The Preble-Pinson property is made up of 17 complete and 8 partial sections (approximately 20 square miles or 5,300 hectares) of the railroad checkerboard, covering much of the projected intersection zone where the Battle Mountain Gold Belt crosses the Getchell Gold Belt in portions of the Edna Mountain and Osgood Mountains areas. Portions of the property occur about 1 mile south of the Pinson Mine and about 1.3 miles NNE of the Preble mine. These two mines occur along the NNE trend of the Getchell Gold Belt. The southeast corner of the property is approximately 6 miles NW of the Lone Tree Mine, which occurs within the Battle Mountain Gold Belt. Preliminary work indicates that the main intersection zone is buried under basalt. Therefore some initial work closer to existing or abandoned mines will be undertaken such that the structural geometries within the Battle Mountain Gold Belt will provide convergence zones extrapolated below the basalts for future drilling. Early in 1997, Homestake Mining Co. and Barrick Gold Corp. purchased the interests in the Pinson property not already owned by them, to increase their ownership of the property to 50% each, with Homestake as the manager. Deep exploration potential was the reason for the purchase. By the end of the year, Barrick Gold Corp. announced that production was expected to wind down at Pinson by mid-year 1999 unless current exploration on the property succeeds in identifying new reserves. Reported 1997 production from the Pinson Mine was 51,600 oz of gold (DMR, 2/26/97; Homestake Mining Co. press release, 2/19/98; Humboldt Sun, 9/15/97; In 1999, At Homestake Mining Co.?s Pinson Mine, which was closed in January 1999, work is ongoing to recontour, cover, and revegetate the waste rock piles and tailings facility, and to neutralize the leach pads. Residual heap leach production continued throughout most of 1999. An exploration program with joint venture partner Barrick Gold Corp. will continue. The partners expect to spend approximately $3 million exploring for deep orebodies on the lands controlled by the Pinson joint venture (Yahoo Mining/Metals News, 1/29/99, 7/27/1999). Also in the Potosi district, Western Exploration recorded the BU Claims in T38N, R42E, (BLM mining claim records, 4/19/1999). In 2000, Homestake Mining was planning to test potential deep high-grade targets at the Pinson property while concurrent reclamation was ongoing. In 2003, Victoria Resource Corp. acquired the Preble-Pinson property as a lease of all of Newmont?s mineral interests in parts or all of approximately 24 square miles of the checkerboard property in the Edna and Osgood mountains.
In 2005, Atna Resources began exploring the underground potential of a high-grade ore zone with a drift in the bottom of the Pinson open pit. In 2006, Atna Resources Ltd.(70%) announced that recent underground drill results at the Pinson/Ogee Zone Project include 10.5-15.8 feet @ 0.616 opt Au (UGOG-006); 47.5- 51.5 feet @ 0.260 opt Au (UGOG-008); 55.5-62 feet @ 0.115 opt Au (UGOG-013); 86.8-107.5 feet @ 0.454 opt Au (UGOG-013); 213-227 feet @ 0.549 opt Au (UGOG-013); 247.5-263.5 feet @ 0.289 opt Au (UGOG-014) and 74- 135.5 feet @ 0.505 opt Au (UGOG-015).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Deposit

Willden, R., 1964, Geology and Mineral Deposits of Humboldt County, Nev; Nev. Bur. Mines Bull. 59.
Deposit

Hotz, P.E., and Willden, R., 1964, Geology and Mineral Deposits of the Osgood Mountains Quadrangle Humboldt County, Nev; U.S.G.S. Prof. Paper 431.
Deposit

Nev. Mining Assoc. Bull., Sept. 1979; "Consortium Budgets $14 Million to open Pinson Gold Mine."
Deposit

The Northern Miner Newspaper, 1980 (Nov.20), Rayrock prepares Pinson for January set-up.
Deposit

Nevada State Inspector of Mines, 1981, Directory of Nevada Mine Operations active during 1980.
Deposit

Powers, S.L., 1978, MS Thesis, UNR, Reno, NV.
Deposit

Geologic Society of Nevada, 1984 Meeting and Field Trip Road Log Pinson Mine, Florida Canyon Deposit, Rochester District, Relief Canyon Deposit, Sept. 21023, 1984. (contains numerous other unpublished references)
Deposit

Bonham, H.F., 1986, NBMG Map 91.
Deposit

Bonham, H.F., 1988, in NBMG MI-1987.
Deposit

NBMG, 1994, MI-1993
Deposit

Nevada Division of Minerals, 1994
Deposit

Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Database of significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States; Part A, Database description and analysis; part B, Digital database: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-206, 33 p., one 3.5 inch diskette.
Deposit

Foster, Joseph M
Deposit

Kretschmer, Edward L., 1990,Geology of the Mag Deposit, Pinson Mine, Humboldt County, Nevada; Geology and ore deposits of the Great Basin; program with abstracts.
Deposit

Victoria Resource Corp. press release, 1/21/2003
Deposit

NBMG MI-2003
Deposit

http://www.arizonastar.com/337/Hilltop-Slaven_Property.htm
[http://www.arizonastar.com/337/Hilltop-Slaven_Property.htm]
Deposit

www.franconevada.com, 9/11/2000.
Deposit

Atna 2006 press release.

General comments

Subject category	Comment text
Deposit	A 1984 report describes the deposit: the Pinson "A" zone is 1000 feet long by 60 feet thick containing 1,500,000 tons of ore averaging 0.18 ounces per ton gold, covered by 10-50 feet of alluvium. Further drilling indicated 1,700,000 tons averaging 0.15 ounces per ton gold, plus an additional tonnage of low-grade ore in the B zone in the vicinity of the old pit. A major NE-striking fault zone 50-70 feet wide, dipping 40-50 SE controls gold mineralization. It has been traced by drilling for 8,000 feet. The "A" orebody is localized by this shear zone where it coincides with the contact between the Preble and Comus Formations. It consists of fine disseminations in jasperoid. There are irregular zones of low-grade gold ore along bedding planes and minor fractures in argillite in the footwall of the ore-controlling fault. A conspicuous contact metamorphic aureole surrounds the granodiorite stock, extending irregularly up to 10,000 feet out from the margins of the intrusive. A number of tungsten-bearing tactite deposits rim the granodiorite, forming wherever a calcareous bed was present within the contact zone. The Pinson Mine also lies within this contact aureole, with granodiorite outcropping 1200 feet north of the mine. At Pinson gold occurs in fractures that cut calc-silicate rocks of the Comus Formation.

Subject category

Comment text

Deposit

A 1984 report describes the deposit: the Pinson "A" zone is 1000 feet long by 60 feet thick containing 1,500,000 tons of ore averaging 0.18 ounces per ton gold, covered by 10-50 feet of alluvium. Further drilling indicated 1,700,000 tons averaging 0.15 ounces per ton gold, plus an additional tonnage of low-grade ore in the B zone in the vicinity of the old pit. A major NE-striking fault zone 50-70 feet wide, dipping 40-50 SE controls gold mineralization. It has been traced by drilling for 8,000 feet. The "A" orebody is localized by this shear zone where it coincides with the contact between the Preble and Comus Formations. It consists of fine disseminations in jasperoid. There are irregular zones of low-grade gold ore along bedding planes and minor fractures in argillite in the footwall of the ore-controlling fault. A conspicuous contact metamorphic aureole surrounds the granodiorite stock, extending irregularly up to 10,000 feet out from the margins of the intrusive. A number of tungsten-bearing tactite deposits rim the granodiorite, forming wherever a calcareous bed was present within the contact zone. The Pinson Mine also lies within this contact aureole, with granodiorite outcropping 1200 feet north of the mine. At Pinson gold occurs in fractures that cut calc-silicate rocks of the Comus Formation.

Reporter information

Type	Date	Name	Affiliation	Comment
Reporter	01-FEB-2005	LaPointe, D.D.	Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
Editor	01-SEP-2007	Schruben, Paul G.	U.S. Geological Survey	Converted from S&A FileMaker format to Oracle. Edit checks on rocks, units, and ages with Geolex search, and other fields.