A rock geochemical survey of the Adelaide Mining District which is in north-central Nevada, about 16 kilometers south of Golconda, Nevada, shows varied patterns of gold, silver and mercury distributions. High gold values are present (1) along the Adelaide fault system, (2) in hydrothermally altered areas scattered throughout the district, and (3) in a copper skarn near the east edge of the mining district. Gold was not detected in any of the several jasperoid samples which were analyzed at detection limits of 0.1 ppm. Silver is enriched throughout the mining district and may have been enriched in certain types of rock within unaltered Lower Cambrian to Lower Ordovician Preble Formation, given an unaltered chert nodule contained 14 ppm silver. Mercury distribution, is probably related to the hydrothermal alteration, but individual anomalies of mercury are discontinuous and do not show distinct patterns as commonly present in many other mining districts.
Geological Survey Bulletin 1770" for more information on the geochemical methods of analysis.. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the distribution of major and trace elements in the district, and with supplemental petrographic data, identify elemental patterns of various additions to and subtractions from the metallogenic environments: epithermal, skarn, and the probable hot spring environment that produced the manganese. See Cookro and Theodore (1989) for further information on the Adelaide Mining district.
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