Interested in finding the Mother Lode - or are you just looking for a great place to find minerals? If you are a prospector, rock hound, or geologist, you'll want to watch this page! I will peridically place my picks for some interesting precious metal and gemstones on this page. These PICKS will be my choice for various gold, gemstone & diamond deposits I found, or based on geology, are likely to occur.
My successes are well documented but typically, few people listen at first. For example, when I was at the Wyoming Geological Survey, the other geologists argued over which donut was best for their physique, and I headed to the field and made several hundred mineral discoveries. My discoveries resulted in some claim-staking rushes. Today, the WGS still does not do its job and donuts remain their top priority.
So on this page, I’ve decided to list my ‘PICKS’ for major discoveries (and some minor ones). If you want to be there first, you will need to be the first to read my PICKS.
PICK no. 1 - RATTLESNAKE HILLS GREENSTONE BELT
I discovered the Rattlesnake Hills gold district in 1981 - an entire gold district that had been overlooked by all geologists. Now, it finally appears, after all of these years, that the Rattlesnake Hills will turn into a major gold district.
Access Google Earth or Virtual Earth and search for 'Rattlesnake Hills, Wy'. This will take you to a distinct, dark green (northwesterly-trending) belt of rocks seen on the aerial photos. This is where several gold discoveries were made. More than a million ounces have been identified in this area since 1981 and it is likely >5 million ounces will be found here in the future. This area has recently been staked by various companies - are their any open grounds for staking? Next, access the BLM GeoCommunicator. After selecting this site; at the upper right corner, there is a 'white' box identified as 'Select Map'. Select 'mining claims' and then search the Rattlesnake Hills for any open ground to stake. This government site is not easy to use at first. Just play around with it, and soon you will be able to use it with ease.
Pick No. 2 - BEAR LODGE MOUNTAINS
Access this area from Google Earth or Virtual Earth by 'Bear Lodge Mountains, Aladdin, WY'. The Bear Lodge has some disseminated gold and rare earths in addition to copper. Trachyte porphyries in the Bear Lodge carry accessory chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena.
The Bear Lodge complex has been described as a porphyry-type intrusive with one of the largest, low-grade disseminated and vein-type rare earth and thorium deposits in the US. Disseminated gold mineralization is also associated with feldspathic breccia. One mineralized zone forms an elongate intrusive breccia (2,000x120 ft) that was drilled yielding low grade gold values. Resource estimates for the breccia are 8.2 million tons averaging 0.686 ppm gold.
Twelve miles southeast of the Bear Lodge Mountains, another Tertiary alkalic intrusive at Mineral Hill, shows similar mineralization. Anomalous gold is reported in feldspathic breccia, quartz veins, and in jasperoid at Mineral Hill. Breccias were reported to contain 6 ppm Au and 115 ppm Ag, and jasperoids 5 ppm Au and 7 ppm Ag. The possibility for similar mineralization at Black Buttes, 6 miles to the southwest, is indicated by the presence of epithermal replacement galena, wulfenite, fluorite, and hemimorphite in altered Pahasapa Limestone along a contact with Tertiary alkalic igneous rock.
The Bear Lodge Mountains have very high potential for discovery of significant gold deposits similar to those at Cripple Creek, CO, Rattlesnake Hills, WY, and Richmond Hill, SD. It is likely, with continued exploration for blind gold deposits, one or more million+ ounce gold deposits will be found.
The U.S. Geological Survey rated the Bear Lodge mountains as having high potential for discovery of small- to medium-size vein and replacement-type deposits containing gold, silver, manganese, rare earths, lead, and thorium, and high potential for large disseminated-type deposits containing rare earths, thorium, manganese, and barium with by-product fluorite, uranium, gold, silver, and phosphate. Personally, I would take this one step further and rate this area as having high potential for discovery of major disseminated and replacement gold deposits.
The Bear Lodge district also has considerable potential for massive sulfides. One hole drilled in hornblende schist (44°32'24", 104°26'24") cut 40 feet of massive sulfides (sphalerite and minor chalcopyrite). The core of the intrusive complex was fenitized: potassium, iron, sulfur, fluorine and carbon dioxide were introduced and silica was mobilized. The silica was re-precipitated as quartz veins and pods in adjacent granites and as chalcedony in surrounding fenites and alkalic intrusives. The mobilization of silica should provide an excellent guide to mineralization where replacement deposits are likely quartz- and fluorite-rich and associated with altered igneous rock, breccia pipes and as replacements in limy sedimentary rocks. This also provides an excellent environment for opal! The altered rocks show enrichments in REE, Th, Au, Cu, Zn and Pb.
Some gold enrichment was identified in feldspathic breccias in the southeastern Bear Lodge Mountains and in trachytes associated with manganese enrichment. Gold is also found enriched in fissures in trachyte and along trachyte-Deadwood Formation contacts.
The intrusive core consists of trachyte with a large breccia pipe in the northern half of the complex. Such breccia pipe formation is favorable for formation of significant gold deposits.
Mineral deposits in the Bear Lodge Mountains consist of vein-, stockworks-, disseminated-, carbonatite-, breccia pipe- and replacement-type deposits within a 6 mi2 area. Replacement deposits occur as inliers of Deadwood Formation quartzite and Pahasapa Limestone within and on the periphery of the trachyte stock. These contain fluorite and chalcedony and found as irregular and discontinuous veins, fractures, brecciated zones and as disseminated streaks and blebs. The estimated resource for rare earths is 84 million tons at an average grade of 1.5% REO (rare earth oxides).
Much past exploration occurred in the central part of the intrusive complex in sections 17, 18, 19, and 20, T 52N, R63W (a good place to explore and look to file claims). Veins are described as limonite-stained, quartz-pyrite-fluorite veins. One company intersected a 5-foot wide fluorite vein 200 feet from their portal that assayed 0.34 to 0.58 opt Au. A series of NW-trending, NE-dipping, limonite-stained, quartz-pyrite-fluorite veins were identified. Many of the veins are <4 inches wide and yield gold values. Hall (1911, 1914) described wider veins from a few inches to as much as 30 feet wide that yielded gold values from a trace to 6 opt Au. The Bock mining company cut one fluorite vein in a drift that assayed 0.35 opt Au (1911).
Ogden Creek (SE & SW section 27, T52N, R63W). Some gold prospects occur in trachyte porphyry. Abundant limonite boxworks encrusting fluorite occurs in an open cut in the SWSW section 27.
Prospect; A 150-foot shaft was sunk adjacent to the Bear Lodge truck trail about 1.5 miles northeast of the intersection of the Warren Peaks road with the Bear Lodge truck trail. The dump contains malachite, iron oxide, cuprite and chrysocolla which are found as fracture fillings in altered kaolinized porphyritic syenite. The copper minerals are associated with light green and white opal in veinlets.
Smith Ridge (section 21, T52N, R63W). From 1983 to 1988, an intrusive stock was explored and a tabular intrusive breccia was intersected that is approximately 2,000 feet by 120 feet. The breccia averaged 0.021 opt Au. Reserves are estimated at 2,000,000 tons of ore containing 42,000 ounces of gold.
Stamp Mill Creek (NW and SE section 20, T52N, R63W). Gold prospects were reported near the contact of phonolite with trachyte.
Warren Peaks. About 0.5 mile NE of the central peaks, a gold-bearing ledge was discovered and traced to the NW for several hundred yards. The country rock is coarsely crystalline feldspar porphyry with a fine porcelain-like (opaline) matrix. If you are interested in collecting minerals - the Bear Lodge Mountains is a good place to search for fluorite, opal, gold, chrysocolla, chalcopyrite, malachite and other minerals.
No. 3 - SEMINOE MOUNTAINS.
The Bradley Peak mining district (also known as the Seminoe Mountains greenstone belt) is a belt of Archean metamorphic rocks cropping out along the western half of the Seminoe Mountains. The greenstone belt consists of metasedimentary and metavolcanic rock (> 2.7 Ga = billion years old) exposed in a broad, vertically plunging fold intruded and folded by syntectonic granodiorite (> 2.6 Ga). The flanks of the range are unconformably overlain by Phanerozoic sedimentary rock that forms a spectacular steeply dipping precipice along much of the southern flank of the range.
The metamorphic rocks are subdivided into three mappable units. The lower portion of the belt consists of 11,000 feet of mafic metavolcanic and volcaniclastic rocks named the Sunday Morning Creek Metavolcanics. This unit includes amphibolite, metabasalt, metatuff, mica schist and minor serpentinite intruded by metagabbro sills and plugs that occur in greater frequency near the top of the unit.
The Sunday Morning Creek Metavolcanics are overlain by nearly 1,000 feet of mafic and ultramafic schists named the Bradley Peak Ultramafics. These are massive to highly foliated amphibolites, serpentinites and tremolite-talc-chlorite schists. Some are similar to nickeliferous komatiites in Western Australia. The Bradley Peak Ultramafics are overlain by 2,000 to 4,000 feet of interlayered metasedimentary and metavolcanic rock named the Seminoe Formation that include quartz-magnetite-grunerite iron formation, chlorite schist, metagreywacke, metapelite, metabasalt, metatuff and felsic schist.
Resources and occurrences of gold, copper, silver, serpentine, asbestos, jasper, jade, leopard rock, lead, and zinc have been reported and several ‘diamond-stability’ pyrope garnets and chromian diopside ('kimberlitic' indicator minerals) were discovered in a large paleoplacer along with detrital gold along the northern flank of the range.
Veins around Bradley Peak are narrow (<3 feet wide) quartz-carbonate veins with pyrite and chalcopyrite that occur in a broad zone of altered amphibolites. The amphibolites are moderately to pervasively altered to chlorite, carbonate, actinolite and epidote. Samples collected from the altered zone ranged from <0.05 ppm to 89.3 ppm (2.8 oz/ton) Au, <1.0 to 55.0 ppm (1.6 oz/ton) Ag, 0.03 to 3.75% Cu, 3.0 ppm to 0.39% Pb, and 22 ppm to 4.3% Zn.
Several samples collected of altered banded iron formation yielded anomalous copper and other metals. In a study of trace metals associated with iron formation, the author recovered samples that yielded 30 ppm to 0.045% Cu, 7.2 ppm to 220 ppm Pb, 90 ppm to 2,820 ppm Zn, <1.0 ppm to 15.33 ppm Ag, and < 0.01 ppm to 42.3 ppm Au.
The greenstone belt is an area of great intrigue as it has excellent exposures of banded iron formation, some gold anomalies associated with epigenetic alteration in the BIF (banded iron formation), excellent exposures of komatiites, visible gold in quartz veins and a large circular (about 0.25 to 0.5 mile in diameter) propylitically altered zone that encloses narrow quartz veins with visible gold along with altered wallrock containing anomalous gold. Yet the area remains unexplored.
In 1981, the author started a gold rush to this greenstone belt after finding several quartz vein samples with visible gold and receiving assays of quartz with pyrite as high as 2.87 opt Au and altered BIF with values as high as 1.3 opt Au. Essentially, nothing was done in the area other than some specimens of BIF containing visible gold were picked up by one company (Timberline Minerals) that filed claims in the area in 1981 (John Wells, personal communication, 1982). Historically, the Bradley Peak area attracted considerable interest in the late 1800s following gold discoveries, but the area became a battleground between miners and Indians such that all mining activity ceased.
For prospectors with metal detectors and gold pans, this could provide an excellent area for nuggets. Deweese Creek drains most of the quartz veins and must have some impressive gold samples in the Creek, but the creek also remains pretty much unexplored. After all of the Indian problems in the district, access to the area has been very difficult due to ranchers in the area. Thus the Bradley Peak area could be a gold prospector’s paradise.
Charlie Kortes led the author to a very large paleoplacer many years ago that also remains unexplored and surrounding the Miracle mile on the North Platte River. These conglomerates contain detrital gold along with diamond-stability garnets and chromian diopside. The source of this paloeplacer is thought to be Bradly Peak. All of pyropes recovered from this paleoplacer tested as G10s (diamond-stability) suggesting there is likely one or more very rich diamondiferous kimberlite in the Seminoe Mountains.
For more information on this area, refer to:
No. 4. GOODHOPE GOLD MINE, SOUTH PASS (Posted 11/26/2009)
Located in the Lewiston district - SW sec.34, T29N, R98W. A shallow shaft was sunk on a 2-foot wide, N45oE-trending, vertical, chloritized shear zone in metagreywacke of the Miners Delight Formation. South of the shaft, the shear was trenched for 100 feet exposing sheared quartz lenses with visible gold. A grab sample of some quartz that I collected (without any apparent visible gold) assayed 1.18 opt Au. Three 2-foot channel samples were then dug across the shear zone. These assayed 0.11, 0.35 and 0.63 opt Au. As incredible as it sounds, much of the shear remained unexplored yet it indicates that there is a well-developed ore shoot that will yield considerable specimen-grade gold samples.
To find this area, it was mapped on the following 1:24,000 & 1:48,000 quadrangles:
