Patented mining claims with a century of intermittent gold-silver production.

Regional Setting

The Charleston Mining District covers the mountainous portion of northern Elko County between Jarbidge and Charleston. Placer gold was discovered on Seventy-Six Creek in 1876. The Prunty, Slattery, and Black Warrior lode deposits on the south and east flanks of the Copper Mountains were discovered and worked in the early 1900s.

Local Geology

The oldest units in the project area are Late Proterozoic to Cambrian quartzite, siltstone, conglomerate, limestone, dolomite, and phyllite, overlain by Paleozoic sediments of the Golconda Terrane and intruded by Jurassic intrusives accompanied by late-stage quartz veining. A 2011 ground magnetic survey interpreted an intrusive at the Prunty Mine plunging southeast, and identified an associated structural trend that controls much of the district's mineralization.

Mineralization

Historical reports describe the Prunty vein as emplaced in a contact zone between an intrusive dike and slates. Primary sulfides include stibnite, arsenopyrite, pyrite, tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, and chalcocite hosted in quartz and calcite, indicating higher-temperature mineralizing fluids than typical for Nevada gold deposits.

Vein widths in observed workings range on the order of 20 to 50 centimeters, with locally wider mineralized zones. Detailed vein and structural information is available to qualified parties under confidentiality.