Geology and mineralization of the Silver Dyke mine, Mineral County, Nevada

Abstract

The Silver Dyke Mine is in the eastern Excelsior Mountains about 16 kilometers southwest of Mina, Nevada. The oldest rocks in the area are metasediments of the Permian Mina Formation. Triassic-Jurassic metavolcanic rocks of the Gold Range Formation unconformably overlie the Mina Formation. Both these units are intruded by stocks of diorite, quartz monzonite and granite of Cretaceous age. Andesite flows and rhyolite ashflows overlie all of the above rocks. The Silver Dyke Mine is an epithermal tungsten deposit in a large, through-going quartz vein. The tungsten mineral present is a yellow fluorescing, high molybdenum scheelite. The scheelite is concentrated in brecciated zones of diorite along the footwall of the vein. The scheelite occurs as veinlets, pods and rims around diorite fragments. The age of the mineralization is 17.3 m.y..