Left - Dr. Paul Graff examines old 'Giant' at Fullerton, Alaska, from a gold era bygone. Right Dan Hausel stands on hill overlooking Snow Gulch, Alaska (1988).

 PDAC Award for a major International Mineral Discovery.

Press Release, 2009

MAJOR GOLD DEPOSIT DISCOVERED IN RATTLESNAKE HILLS

In 1981, W. Dan Hausel looked at the Rattlesnake Hills (RSH) west of Casper. It was a Archean greenstone belt with great auriferous source rocks and had the added attraction of being intruded and brecciated by >40 alkalic plugs and dikes. It was a no brainer for gold but for some reason, no one had ever looked. So Hausel went to the field (something that was rare for other geologists at the WGS) and found a very nice gold anomaly his first day in the field (called it the Lost Muffler), and each time he went out, he found additional anomalies in exhalites, veins, faults, stockworks, breccias and in alkalic Tertiary rocks. This resulted in at least two separate gold rushes. The first was between American Copper and Nickel, Bald Mountain Mining, Newmont and Canyon Resources (and others).  

Newmont made a classical error - they accidentally found a gold deposit with >1 million ounces without realizing it. They dropped the property. The next gold rush began with Evolving Gold examining this property where Hausel had identified gold anomalies near Sandy and Goat Mountains. Evolving Gold took Newmonts position and a second rush begain.

The last hole drilled by Evolving Gold hit a mineralized zone averaging 10.8 grams over 67 meters and 184 meters of 4 grams including the lower grade halo. The company's stock more than doubled. Another company staked claims on the edge of the discovery (Endurance Gold) and they had a run on their stock that tripled.

Hausel recognized Wyoming was an overlooked major gold province. The geology of Wyoming was similar to many gold rich terrains in Australia, Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe in that it was underlain by an old Archean craton (continental core) with some greenstone belts. In other parts of the world, ‘greenstone belt’ and ‘gold belt’ are synonymous and used interchangeably. Even so, Hausel could get little support from the Wyoming Geological Survey (WGS), so spent some of his own money and invested a lot of personal time exploring these terrains while living in a tent to sample and map these belts. It paid off, he discovered significant gold in the Rattlesnake Hills, Seminoe Mountains, and South Pass greenstone belts that resulted in several claim staking rushes. Hausel believes that all three host significant gold deposits.

Based on geology, the RSH was intruded by several Tertiary volcanics which provided an excellent environment for gold. When greenstone belts formed >2.5 billion years ago, they were deep basins filled with volcanic and sedimentary material with above normal gold concentrations. Thus these basins already had a good source for gold, all that was necessary was to mobilize the gold through tectonic or geothermal processes and focus the precious metal in rare submarine volcanic eruptions referred to as exhalites, or mobilize the gold and focus it in permeable faults, shear zones, breccias, or veins. In the geological past, theRSH had several opportunities.

In 1981, Hausel investigated this region and found significant gold and started a claim-staking rush in 1982 (Hausel and Jones, 1982). Every time Hausel conducted additional investigations in this belt, he found more gold, but still could not gain support from the WGS. Thus with a minimal budget ($300 to 500/year) he identified several dozen significant gold anomalies and mapped the 50 square mile greenstone belt (Hausel, 1995, 1996). As a result of his discoveries, this area will likely lead to development of one or more gold mines.

The initial gold discovery in the Rattlesnake Hills was made on a pyrite-rich metachert that Hausel named the Lost Muffler prospect. He later recognized a minimum of three episodes of gold mineralization, including syngenetic stratabound exhalative mineralization, epigenetic mineralization, and disseminated epithermal gold associated with Tertiary volcanic activity. He discovered gold in exhalites, quartz veins, Tertiary volcanics and adjacent breccias, banded iron formation, and stockworks. It is rare for a government employee to spend his own time and money to conduct research, but if he had not, the RSH would likely have remained undiscovered as a significant gold district. Exploration in the terrain continues to this day with dozens of mining claims filed in the district over the past few years.

References

Hausel, W.D., and Jones, Suzanne, 1982, Field notes - Lost Muffler gold prospect, Rattlesnake Hills: Geological Survey of Wyoming unpublished Mineral Report MR82-9, 5 p.

Hausel, W.D., 1989, The Geology of Wyoming's Precious Metal Lode & Placer Deposits:Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 68, 248 p.

Hausel, W.D., 1995, Preliminary report on the geology and gold mineralization of the Rattlesnake Hills supracrustal belt, Wyoming: Wyoming Geological Association Resources of Southwestern Wyoming Guidebook, p. 361-372.

Hausel, W.D., 1996, Economic Geology of the Rattlesnake Hills Supracrustal Belt, Natrona County, Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Report of Investigations 52, 28 p.

Hausel, W.D., 1997, The Geology of Wyoming's Copper, Lead, Zinc, Molybdenum and Associated Metal Deposits: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 70, 224 p.

Hausel, W.D., Miller, D.R., Sutherland, W.M., 2000, Economic diversification through mineral resources: Wyoming Geological Association Field Conference Guidebook, p. 209-225.

PRESS RELEASE - February 26, 2008 

POLYMATH AWARED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

W. Dan Hausel geoscientist, martial artist, writer, artist and pubic speaker contributed valuable insights into the geology in Wyoming. His work lead  to discoveries of several gemstone and gold deposits and to his recognition by national & international scientific and biographical organizations for his contributions.  After retiring from the Geological Survey, he opened a consulting firm in Arizona and continues to receive invitations by various research organizations for his lifelong contributions.

Dr. Nicholas Law, Director General of the International Biographical Center in Cambridge England notified Hausel that the IBC selected him for recognition as one of IBC’s 2000 OUTSTANDING SCIENTISTS OF 2008-2009. He was also nominated for Charter Membership in the Leading Intellectuals of the World and nominated for the 21^st Century  Award of Achievement. Their selection was based on Hausel’s more than 35 years of leading research in geological sciences on diamonds, colored gemstones and ancient geological terrains known as greenstone belts & more than 40 years of contributions to traditional martial arts.

Karen Chassie, Managing Editor of Marquis Who’s Who in Providence, NJ also noted that Hausel was selected for inclusion into the 2009 editions of Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. 

According to these research institutes, Hausel has been a productive scientist for more than 3 decades and contributed to more than 600 publications and 27 books as well as discovered several major gemstone and gold deposits in North America.  Hausel, a 14-Time inductee into national and international Halls of Fames for his contributions to the martial arts, is also considered one of the highest ranked martial artists in the world. In past years he taught at the University of Utah, University of New Mexico and University of Wyoming and is currently teaching traditional karate at Arizona State University. He is also the Vice President of Exploration of an international diamond mining company based in Australia which is currently developing diamond mines in Botswana and the US. In addition, Hausel is an artist and public speaker and a past keynote speaker at several institutions around the world. Some of his artwork appears in books and magazines.

WORLD-CLASS COLORED GEMSTONE DEPOSITS DISCOVERED

Following discovery of the Palmer Canyon iolite-ruby-sapphire-kyanite deposit at Palmer Canyon in 1995, W. Dan Hausel, using geological principals and geochemistry found additional colored gemstone deposits. At Palmer Canyon, Hausel recovered the largest iolite gemstone ever found in the world weighing 1,750 carats. He then predicted a similar deposit would be found in Grizzly Creek to the south in his book on gemstones published in 2000. Thus in October 2004, he was able to gain access to this latter deposit and found even larger gems. One, the Grizzly Creek Blue Giant, is a gemstone of 24,500 carats (the size of a football) but left others in the outcrop that could top a million carats or more!

This discovery led to another, the Sherman Mountains deposit in 2005. This latter deposit could potentially host more than 2 trillion carats based on sampling and trenching making it the largest colored gemstone deposit on earth. However, more research is necessary. After the discovery of this deposit, the Wyoming Geological Survey removed all funding and support for this project and confiscated field vehicles so that research could not be completed. 

MAJOR GOLD DEPOSIT IDENTIFIED AT SOUT PASS

While mapping and sampling the 250 square mile South Pass Greenstone Belt in western Wyoming in the 1980s, Hausel (1991) identified a major gold deposit at the Carissa Mines near South Pass City. This deposit likely hosts more than a million ounces. At the surface, the primary mineralized zone averages 0.15 to 0.3 ounce per ton gold and is enclosed by an enormous fractured halo that is about 1000 by 1000 feet across. This structure contiues to unknown depths. Past drilling indicated the structure continues to a depth of at least 970 feet and likely continues to much greater depths. During mapping of this structure on the surface and within the old mine, Hausel was able to identify the controls for mineralization that likely control several ore shoots in the district. Hausel believes that the South Pass greenstone belt is a giant awaiting the right company.

Above - Carissa shear zone (averages 0.15 to 0.3 opt Au over 3 to 15 feet).

Below - (Left) Mined out portion of shear zone on 400 foot level of mine (about 8 feet wide). This primary shear is hosted by a large (1000 foot) secondary shear with numerous quartz stringers (Right). When composite chip samples were collected of this material, the rock ran from 0.02 to 0.09 opt Au (similar to ore grades of several operating gold mines in Nevada) over widths of 30 to 100 feet.

Hand specimen from the Carissa mine showing considerable visible gold in vugs.

INFORMATION OF INTEREST