MINERALIZATION IN THE GOLD HILL MINING DISTRICT, TOOELE COUNTY, UTAH by H. M. EI-Shatoury and J. A. Whelan UTAH GEOLOGICAL AND MINERALOGIC~4L SURVEY affiliated with THE COLLEGE OF MINES AND MINERAL INDUSTRIES University of Utah~ Salt Lake City~ Utah Bulletin 83 Price $2.25 March 1970 CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT. • • . • . • . • . • • . • . • . • • • . • • . • . • .. 5 INTRODUCTION 5 GENERAL GEOLOGY. .. 7 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 7 Contact Metasomatic Deposits. 11 Veins. • . 11 Quartz-Carbonate-Adularia Veins 11 Quartz Veins . 15 Calcite Veins. 15 Replacement Deposits . 15 Replacement Deposits in the Ochre Mountain Limestone 15 Replacement Deposits in the Quartz Monzonite 17 HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION. 17 Alteration of Quartz Monzonite. • 17 Alteration of Limestones. 22 Alteration of the Manning Canyon Formation 23 Alteration of the Quartzite. 23 Alteration of Volcanic Rocks. 23 Alteration of Dike Rocks. 23 Alteration of Quartz-Carbonate Veins . 23 OXIDATION OF ORES. 23 Oxidation of the Copper-Lead-Arsenic-Zinc Replacement Deposits 24 Oxidation of Tungsten and Molybdenum Deposits. 24 Oxidation of the Lead-Zinc Deposits 25 MINERALOGY. 25 CONTROLS OF MINERAL LOCALIZATION 25 ZONAL ARRANGEMENT OF ORE DEPOSITS. 25 GENESIS OF ORE DEPOSITS. 29 DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTIES. 29 The Alvarado Mine. 29 The Cane Spring Mine 30 The Bonnemort Mine 32 The Rube Gold Mine . 32 The Frankie Mine 32 The Yellow Hammer Mine 33 The Rube Lead Mine . 34 FUTURE OF THE DISTRICT AND RECOMMENDATIONS. .. 34 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. .. 36 REFERENCES. • . .. 36 2 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Frontis piece Figure I. Index map showing location and accessibility to the Gold Hill mining district, Utah . 4 2. Geologic map of Rodenhouse Wash area, showing occurrence of berylliferous quartz-carbonate-adularia veins and sample locations. 8 3. Stratigraphic units occurring in the vicinity of Gold Hill, Utah . 10 4. Geologic map of the surface, vicinity of the Rustler molybdenite deposit, Gold Hill, Tooele County, Utah . 12 5. Surface geology of the Gold Hill open pit mine showing occurrence of arsenate minerals . 16 6. Geologic features of the Yellow Hammer open pit, Gold Hill, Tooele County, Utah . 18 7. Plan of the workings of the adit level of the Frankie mine, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah. 26 8. Plan of the workings of the shaft level of the Frankie mine, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah. 27 9. Zonal arrangement of mineral deposits in the Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah . 28 10. Plan of the Alvarado mine workings, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah . After 30 II. Plan and vertical section of the Cane Spring mine, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah . After 32 12. Plan of the workings of the Rube Lead mine, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah . 35 Plate I. Plan of the workings of 65 -foot level of the Rube Gold mine, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah. Back Pocket 2. Plan of the workings of the ISO-foot level of the Rube Gold mine, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah. Back Pocket 3. Plan of the workings of the 300-foot level of the Rube Gold mine, Gold Hill mining district, Tooele County, Utah. Back Pocket Table I. Analysis of quartz-carbonate-adularia vein from Rodenhouse Wash (Lester Butcher, analyst) . .. 14 2. Computed mineral percentage in a quartz-carbonate-adularia vein (based on the analysis of table 1). 14 3. Distribution of mineral constituents in the various stages of altera- tion of the quartz monzonite. 21 4. Gold, silver and copper content of samples from the Alvarado mine 31 5. Gold, silver and copper content of samples from the Cane Spring mine 31 6. X-ray fluorescence analysis of samples from the Rube Gold mine 33 7. X-ray fluorescence analysis of samples from the Frankie mine. 34 3 ~~--__________~ To r 4Or-------_~-- ~., /o' WENOOVER ...... ___ KNOLLS Sa It Lake Ci ty \..1 (I GREA T ...... SALT \ ... ., ...... "' I .............. LAKE "~I~'" ;:': ..... \ DESERT « I \ . ~ ~, "GO~D HILL ~ I~\ V, ,.\ z I \ ~.' I i ..... -~ \ : \ ...... r \,' ....::: TOOELE ". ____~ .JS IBAPAH 'l I CO. , \ \ ", ~~LLA.O _______ ,0'-;;;; GOINSOHIAuTNE I ';'JI. FISH'" To "";-;0 & ~:;; -1 I ~NL..:- ,:...." iii' '.~ SPRINGS -- .----,.. '-'\Q~~o~ I RES.,J ) , ...... )'>-j ~y;~ Faust P I r , t ~ \r' : : L."-L __ J l \( .IVA·S {" \. , ,,/ '\ CO. 'I. ....... o 5 10 20 30 AREA OF INDEX I " " " , Scale in Miles Improved road ---­ Unimproved road---- UTAH Figure 1. Index map showing location and accessibility to the Gold Hill mining district, Utah. 4 MINERALIZATION IN THE GOLD HILL MINING DISTR:CT, TOOELE COUNTY, UTAH by H. M. EI-Shatoury.J../ and J. A. Whelan..L! ABSTRACT area is composed of a highly dissected group of hills of relatively low relief. The elevation of Gold Hill The Gold Hill area, in Tooele County, northwest Utah, village is 5,321 feet. The Gold Hill area is bounded is one of the oldest mining sites in the state. Principal on the east by the Great Salt Lake Desert at an altitude minerals removed since 1857 are lead, copper, silver, of about 4,300 feet, on the north by Dutch Mountain gold, arsenic, zinc and tungsten. with a highest elevation of 7,735 feet, on the west by Clifton Flat, at an approximate elevation of 6,600 feet, This area lies in the ea st central part of the Great and on the south by Montezuma Peak with an elevation Basin section of the Basin and Range Province. The of 7,369 feet. The group 0 f relatively low hills at sediments, severely thrusted, comprise a relatively Clifton merges westward into Ochre Mountain whose complete stratigraphic sequence from Lower Cambrian highest elevation is 7,541 feet. The area is character­ through Lower Triassic. They have been intruded by a ized by an interior drainage system typical of the ea st­ quartz monzonite stock and porphyry dikes, and in­ ern Utah-western Nevada part of the Great Basin. clude acidic lava sand pyrocla stics of Tertiary age. The area has a semiarid climate. Summers are usually Eval uation of the potential for the district shows that, hot and winters are mild, generally permitting fieldwork based on current information, most of these minerals throughout the year. are present in quantities too small for large scale com­ mercial exploitation. This area contains impressive Lead-zinc-silver ores may be milled a t the United quantities of beryllium; the writers postulate that the States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company mill at beryllium is in feldspar. The low grade of the mineral­ Midvale or directly smelted at the International Smelter ization makes it uneconomical at this time to mine it. at Tooele. Copper ores may be marketed at Great Fall s, Montana, at Tacoma, Wa s hington, and at Dougla s , Arizona. INTRODUCTION About 1857, when travel to California through the Over­ This stu d y, a doctoral dissertation by Hamed EI­ land Canyon was heavy, samples rich in galena at­ Shatoury, Department 0 f Mineralogy, University of tracted the attention of travelers who stayed to prospect Utah, reevaluates the potential of the Gold Hill mining for minerals. From Overland Canyon, prospecting grad­ district for the production of gold, copper i tungsten, ually extended to the north. Finding and developing arsenic, lead, zinc and beryllium. It was supported the many rich surface deposits resulted in the estab­ by the Utah Geological and Mineralogical Survey. The lishment of the town of Clifton and the Clifton mining maps in the paperby Nolan (1935) onthe districtwere district. The ore removed at that time was hauled by used in this study. The writers concentrated on the rail to the smelter at Stockton. examination of properties not described by Nolan and on a'lteration patterns, using newer instrumental meth­ In 1872, a lead smelter was constructed at Clifton and ods. The beryllium-b ear i n g quartz-adularia-car­ 1,500 tons of high-grade lead-silver ore were reduced bonate veins, first described by Griffitts (1965), were (Gold Hill Standard, 1917). In 1874, the smelter wa s studied in detail. moved to Gold Hill where an additional 500 tons of ore from the Western Utah Copper Company were treated The village of Gold Hill (figure 1) is located in Tooele and four carloads of lead-silver bullion were produced. County, northwestern Utah. It is 55 miles southeast In 1892, the Cane Spring Consolidated Gold Mining of Wendover over 27 miles of paved road and 28 miles Company built an amalgamating mill for the treatment of graveled road; it can also be reached from the east of ores from the Alvarado and Cane Spring mines. Ac­ over 94 miles of dirt road from Utah Highway 36 near cording to the Gold Hill Standard in 1917, the mill was Faust, via Callao. in operation for 23 months during the years 1892-1895. The average grade of the ore treated in the mill is re­ The Gold Hill area lies in the east central part of the ported to have averaged $ 2 0 . a 0 to $ 30. 00 per ton in gold Great Basin section of the Basin and Range Province, ($ 2 0.67/ oz, pre-1935 price). The total net receipts at the north end of the Deep Creek Mountains. The from bullion and concentrate from the Cane Spring mine were $ 11 7 , 907 . 23 . 1. Atomic Energy Establishment, United Arab Republic, Cairo, Egypt. Significant geologic information on the Gold Hill min'"­ 2. Professor of mineralogy, Univ. of Utah; research ing district was published as early as 1892 when Kemp geologist, Utah Geo1. and Mineralog. Survey. described a hornblende-granite and an andalusite horn- 5 fels from the area. Kemp and Billingsley (1918) pub­ eral from Gold Hill. The mineral veszelyite wa s added lished a geologic report accompanied by a generalized later in an unpublished report by Buranek.