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The geology and ore deposits of the Antelope (Majuba Hill) mining district, Pershing County, Nevada
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Date
1971Type
ThesisDepartment
Geological Sciences and Engineering
Degree Level
Master's Degree
Degree Name
Geological Engineering
Abstract
The Antelope (Majuba Hill) mining district is credited with 1.6 million dollars of production between 1905 and 1936. The Majuba Hill mine, in the center of the district, was the major producer with nearly 3 million pounds of copper. The presence of tin mineralization in the Majuba Hill mine makes the district anomalous among mining districts in the western United States. Sedimentary rocks of the district consist of argillites and quartzites of the Triassic "Grass Valley Formation". Early Cretaceous compressional deformation, and perhaps thrusting, produced the northeasterly trending fabric of the beds and folds. Emplacement of intermediate igneous rocks as large concordant intrusions and sill swarms during the mid-Cretaceous followed the main stage of deformation. During the Tertiary, a large explosive vent developed in response to violent volatile release from a buried magma chamber. Following volatile release, the upper siliceous portions of the magma chamber ascended the explosive vent. Upon reaching the surface, the viscous rhyolite magma welled into a large fan shaped extrusive dome. Sulfide mineralization in the throat of the vent was localized in a tensional fault produced by subsidence of the magma column. Mineralization in the district, outside of the Majuba Hill plug, appears unrelated to the rhyolite intrusion and may represent an earlier hydrothermal phase from the same parent magma.
The interior of the Majuba Hill rhyolite plug is intensely altered to quartz, sericite, and tourmaline. Alteration is most intense where localized in intrusive breccias. The presence of high temperature ore and gangue minerals in a low pressure, near surface environment classifies the mineralization associated with the Majuba Hill plug as xenothermal. Mineralogically and genetically the Antelope mining district has many similarities with the tin districts of central Bolivia.
Description
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Permanent link
http://hdl.handle.net/11714/1731Subject
Antelope mining districtMajuba Hill| mine
copper
tin mineralization
sedimentary rocks
argillites
quartzites
Grass Valley Formation
Early Cretaceous compressional deformation
thrusting
emplacement of igneous rocks
large concordant intrusions
sill swarms
explosive vents
magma columns
quartz
sericite
tourmaline
high temperature ore
gangue minerals
xenothermal
Bolivia
Pershing County
Nevada
Mackay Science Project
Additional Information
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