Reconnaissance geochemical assessment of the Meadow Valley Mountains Bureau of Land Management Wilderness Study area (NV-050-156), Lincoln and Clark Counties, Nevada

Abstract

pocket Plate 2. Map showing land classifications and sample sites........ In pocket STUDIES RELATED TO WILDERNESS Bureau of Land Management Wilderness Study Area The Federal Land Policy and Managment Act (Public Law 94-579, October 21, 1976) requires the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines to conduct mineral surveys on certain areas to determine their mineral values. Results must be made available to the public and submitted to the President and to the Congress. This report presents the results of a mineral survey of the Meadow Valley Mountains Wilderness Study Area, Lincoln and Clark Counties, Nevada.

Mineral resources of the Meadow Valley Range Wilderness Study Area, Lincoln and Clark Counties, Nevada

“…Geologic and geophysical studies, geochemical sampling (Hoffman and Day, 1984), examination of prospects (Campbell, 1987), and review of ore deposits from surrounding districts (Tschanz and Pampeyan, 1970) indicate that the Meadow Valley Mountains lie at the edge of a province characterized by hydrothermal deposits in the form of bedded replacement bodies in carbonate rocks (Mississippi Valley type) containing zinc, lead, silver, and manganese and fissure veins and related silicified breccias in siliceous rocks containing gold and silver (Tschanz and Pampeyan, 1970). Examples of bedded replacement deposits are found in the Groom mining district, 62 mi to the northwest, and the Comet and Pioche districts, about 60 mi to the north, where ore bodies occur in limestone beds of the Cambrian Pioche Shale.…”

“…A suite of trace elements (antimony, lead, molybdenum, tungsten, and zinc) is present in several samples from Hackberry Canyon and vicinity, about 6 mi west of Vigo siding ( fig. 2), near where the volcanic rocks are eroded to expose underlying Permian carbonate rock (area M3 of Hoffman and Day, 1984). No mineralized rock was seen in this area.…”

“…Nineteen rock samples were collected from bedrock outcrops. Streamsediment samples were collected from 329 sites, and heavymineral concentrate samples were produced from a separate alluvial sample collected at 302 of these sites by hand panning followed by heavy-liquid immersion and electromagnetic separation (Hoffman and Day, 1984). Of the 329 sample sites, 181 were inside the study area.…”

“…Of the 329 sample sites, 181 were inside the study area. Analytical data and a description of the sampling and analytical techniques used are given in Hoffman and Day (1984).…”

Geologic map of the Meadow Valley Mountains, Lincoln and Clark counties, Nevada

“…The pikes average a few meters in thickness and the most prominent ones form a north-trending swarm about 3 km long. Stream-sediment samples from the area cut by dikes contain anomalous amounts of beryllium, tin, thorium, and yttrium (Hoffman and Day, 1984), but subsequent samples of stream sediment and dike rock from the same area were not enriched in those elements (Pampeyan and others, 1988). A dike containing flowbanded rhyolite breccia cemented by color-banded carbonate minerals cuts the Harmony };ills Tuff 1.6 km northeast of Grapevine Spring.…”