Gooseberry Mine, Ramsey Mining District, Storey County, Nevada, USAi

Regional Level Types
Gooseberry Mine	Mine
Ramsey Mining District	Mining District
Storey County	County
Nevada	State
USA	Country

A former Cu-Au-Sb mine located 5 miles south of Clark Siding.


Structure: Regional structures affecting area rocks are the Talapoosa lineament, a major E-W- trending structural zone and the NW-trending Bear Creek structural zone. Numerous faults and shears both subparallel to and across vein.

Alteration: Alteration consists of propylitization, pyritization, and local strong argillization of dacite. Potassic and phyllic alteration also reported

Commodity: Ore Materials: free gold, electrum, chalcopyrite, argentiferous tetrahedrite, stephanite, native silver, argentite, stephanite, polybasite, sphalerite, galena Gangue Materials: quartz, calcite, dolomite, gypsum, jarosite, adularia, disseminated pyrite

Deposit: The deposit consists of a nearly vertical quartz-dolomite veins that range from a few inches up to 10 or more feet in width. The veins follow an east-west zone, which is better developed at the 900-ft level than at surface. The vein can be traced for several hundred feet at the surface. Ore minerals are disseminated in numerous thin quartz veins present in vicinity of the mine with occasional areas of considerable jarosite, gypsum, and disseminated pyrite. Fissure vein, shear zone, disseminated. OPERATION CURRENTLY UNDERGOING RECLAIMATION AS OF 12/96.

Deposit type: Epithermal vein, Comstock

Development: A prospector discovered gold and silver at the surface in 1906, and did some trenching and surface work until 1910, when "a Fuller mining man", from back East bought a half interest and soon bought the whole property. The original Gooseberry Shaft was sunk at that time to a depth of 50 ft by hand. In 1928, J.D. Martin, Sr. purchased a half interest in the Gooseberry Mine from "the Fuller man," and together they operated the mine on a small scale, concentrating on development until the early 1930s when they switched from hand operation to a gas engine and air conditioning for the main shaft. The Martin family took over the mine in mid-1930s and for 40 years sank a 70 degree inclined shaft to the 1000-ft level. Over 9000 ft of drifts were driven at 100-ft intervals with the longest at the 1000-ft level extending 2100 feet west and 1640 feet east. Despite all this development, there was no production recorded from 1906 to 1966. Most of the drift material was stockpiled in dumps at surface, with no development of stopes or vein material. In 1974 the Martin family executed a partial sale of the Gooseberry Mine to APCO Minerals Inc. who sampled and began construction of a 350 tpd mill, shaft and plant. West Coast Oil and Gas (subsidiary of Scurry-Rainbow Oil Limited) took over the mine in 1976 and operated the mine until suspending mining operations in 1981. Asamera Minerals purchased the mine in late 1982. Mill capacity was increased to 500 tpd by the end of 1984. Mine closed down to a skeleton crew in 1985, but reopened in 1987 and production continued throughout 1990. Asamera went out of business in 1992. In December, 2004, the Carson City BLM reported the recent successful clean up of hazardous waste from the 90-acre Gooseberry Mine/Mill Complex. In an on-going program of cleaning up and rehabilitating abandoned mine sites in Nevada, the BLM contracted with Phillips Services Corporation (PSC) for on-site management of mine wastes, including the identification, removal and proper disposal of more than 100 drums of containerized hazardous wastes. Former mine heap leach tailings pond materials were also isolated in a lined containment trench to prevent the materials from contaminating surface and ground water as a result of storm/rain runoff. The site is now considered safe from hazardous waste. Future mine site rehabilitation (such as building removal and grading) will be conducted as funds become available. The former owner and operator of the facility, Pallas Resources (1993-1998) filed for bankruptcy and the private property was deeded to the Storey County Treasurer in June 1998. BLM is working with the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP) and the Nevada Division of Minerals (NDOM) to close and rehabilitate the site.

Geology: Ore occurs in quartz-carbonate veins that range from a few inches up to 10 or more feet in width. Ore minerals are disseminated or form thin bands.

Ore(s): Area rocks have been cut by E-W and NW-striking high angle faults and associated fractures.

Other Databases

Link to USGS MRDS:	10310373

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References