Star Pointer shaft, Ruth mine, Ruth pit, Robinson Mining District, White Pine County, Nevada, USAi

Regional Level Types
Star Pointer shaft	Group of Shafts
Ruth mine	Mine
Ruth pit	Pit
Robinson Mining District	Mining District
White Pine County	County
Nevada	State
USA	Country

Structure: Numerous faults cut the rocks in the mine area. In mid-Cretaceous time, Paleozoic miogeosynclinal sedimentary rocks were deformed into an overturned E-W-trending anticline whose upper limb was thrust to the southwest. Basin-and-Range normal faulting successively down-dropped the upper portions of the system to the east.

Alteration: The main alteration is decalcification and silicification of limestone, ad rocks are also localy affected by advanced argillic alteration.

Commodity: Ore Materials: free gold. Gangue Materials: silica, limonite.

Deposit: The Star Pointer gold deposit is a distal gold deposit related to the porphyry copper system in the Robinson district, Nevada. The Cretaceous porphyry Cu-(Mo-Au) deposit was dismembered by Eocene extension. Gold at the Star Pointer gold deposit is associated with massive jasperoid. All ore is on hanging wall of the #9 Fault which trends N60E, dip 60NW. Ore is hosted by fine-grained calcareous Rib Hill sandstone that was decalcified by early fluids adjacent to steeply-dipping feeder faults. Later gold-bearing fluids caused a tabular hydrothermal breccia body bounded by a pervasively silicified zone. Similar ore formed at the JD Hill, Twin Peaks, and West Liberty deposits.

Deposit type: Distal disseminated Ag-Au

Development: Star Pointer was originally located as a copper deposit. Copper mining began in 1910 and was ongoing in 1912 when a tragic powder explosion at the Star Pointer Mine killed ten miners. Underground mining of the Minnesota Hi copper orebody continued at the Star Pointer until late 1957 or early 1958 when the underground orebody was lost. In the early 1960s, the Ruth open pit copper mine was developed at the head of Ingersoll Canyon right where the Star Pointer underground mine was located, and it again mined the Minnesota Hi orebody. The Star Pointer area explored for gold by Bear Creek in the early 1980s, and was leased by Silver King in 1985. It was put into production as the Star Pointer open pit gold mine in 1985 at rate of 1100 tpd. It was owned by a 50/50 Silver King Mines and Pacific Silver Corp joint venture in 1987. In 1988, it was operated by a Silver King and Echo Bay Joint Venture called Alta Gold. No production was reported from the property after 1987, but Alta Gold was still listed as the owner and operator of the property in 1989. Alta Gold went bankrupt in 1999. Star Pointer is now part of the Robinson Project operated by Quadra Mining Ltd. (2004).

Geology: In mid-Cretaceous time, Paleozoic miogeosynclinal sedimentary rocks were deformed into an overturned E-W-trending anticline whose upper limb was thrust to the southwest. The axis if the anticline was subsequently intruded by a composite quartz monzonite stock dated at 110 million years. Hydrothermal alteration and mineralization associated with emplacement of the pluton formed the Ruth porphyry copper-gold system. Basin-and-Range normal faulting successively down-dropped the upper portions of the system to the east.

Ore(s): Ore is controlled by the #9 Fault which trends N60E, dip 60NW and is confined by lithology to the host rock, a fine-grained calcareous sandstone.

Other Databases

Link to USGS MRDS:	10310382

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