Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology - University of Nevada, Reno

comparatively small but of high-grade, some of the early production in the
district running over LOO pounds of mercury per ton.
Three mines out of thirteen recognized mines and prospects in the
district have produced the majority of mercury in the district. They are:
the Blue Can Mine, recorded production of 1,733 flasks; the McAdoo Mine
with a recorded production of 1,671 flasks; and the Red Ore Mine with a
recorded production of 1,433 flasks. Coming in a distant fourth is the
White Peaks Mine with a recorded production of 773 flasks. The remainder
of the mines and prospects have either produced nothing or generally less
than LO flasks. Two exceptions to this statement are the Birthday Mine
with a production of 270 flasks and the Niebuhr Mine with a production of
40 flasks.
The Blue Can Mine typifies those mines associated with diabase dikes.
This mine initially consisted of nine claims and connected with the
workings of the McAdoo Mine to the north. Early in the history of the
property a 50-ton Gould rotary furnace was installed. It was this furnace
which roasted the ore that produced most of the mercury from this
property. By 1944 most of the ore had been mined and processed and there
has been no recorded production since this time.
According to Bailey and Phoenix the mine was developed by a 135-foot
shaft and connecting drifts on the 32, 47, 86, 110, and 135 foot levels.
Underground workings total more than 2,000 feet, with about half making up
the 86-foot level. A l l the stopes lay above the two lowest levels.
Bailey and Phoenix state that the ore bodies were localized in
fractured parts of a north-striking diabase dike which dips westward and
intrudes argillically altered pre-Tertiary and Tertiary sequences of
sediments, tuffs and flows. They divided the ore bodies into two groups-an
eastern group, in which the ore was localized along a 3 to 15-foot wide
diabase dike that extends from the surface to a few feet below the 86-foot
level. The cinnabar is confined to the dike and adjacent wallrocks. Then
they had a western group of deposits in which ore was localized along an
apex between a vertical dike and a heavy layer of clay or gouge which dips
at a low angle to the east. In this setting high-grade cinnabar almost
completely replaced a diabase dike.
The Red Ore Mine represents a second type of deposit found within the
district. The property consists of eight claims located in the
southwestern part of the district. Initial discovery was made in 1937 at
which time a few flasks were recovered. But it wasn't until 1956 that the
major ore bodies were developed and mined. From 1956 to 1958 over 1,000
flasks of mercury were produced from a mill located on the White Peaks
Mine. This mill consisted of a 70-ton gravity-flotation concentrator and a
retort.
Two ore bodies were developed by open-pit mining. They had a maximum
thickness of 15 feet and occurred in tuffs and an altered basalt flow
which were cut by numerous calcite veins. The cinnabar occurred as
veinlets, often in association with calcite. Orpiment locally occurred in
"white" veins, and opaline silica veins up to two inches wide were
sometimes present. Argillic alteration-is present and is most intense
along a steeply dipping, northerly trending fault which defines the west
boundary of the pit. The open pit has a depth of 70 feet and a length of
about 400 feet.
A third type of deposit is expoged at the Niebuh; Mine. This mine was
developed along a fault striking N55 E and dipping 65 SE in a brecciated
and silicified rhyolite. Cinnabar occurs as coatings and disseminations in
Bottle Creek District - 2