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Re: gitreal post# 5177

Wednesday, 11/29/2017 9:31:09 AM

Wednesday, November 29, 2017 9:31:09 AM

Post# of 6096
The truth is there aren't a lot of 'hobbyist' placer mines in Nevada for a couple reasons. First, lack of water. Places where placer mining was significant (Alaska, California, the Yukon) have ample running water. Well, most of the state is a desert. Unless you want to acquire water rights and put in a pump, this is a tough place to run a water-intensive placer mine.

Second, the geology of the gold deposits and the geography work against you. The majority of the gold in Nevada is contained within Carlin-type deposits where the gold is micron size. No placers with them. Most of the epithermal deposits are along the southern border where basin and range faulting has chopped them up. Unlike California where you have massive river systems flowing off the Sierra Nevada, the streams are too short to develop placer deposits of any size.

Most of the placers districts in Nevada are pretty small with very limited production. The two biggest are Olinghouse just outside of Reno and Osceola. Olinghouse was mined in the 80's and 90's and Pacific Gold went through the motions at the Black Rock deposit a few years ago (it still has some potential although the underlying owners are notoriously hard to work with).

IMHO, Osceola has the most potential of any placer district in Nevada. If somebody were to systematically explore it, people might be surprised how big the resource actually is