Nevada Collecting Sites
Nevada Collecting Sites
North-West Prospects, Granite Range, Peavine District, Washoe County, Nevada
Azurite, Brochantite, Chrysocolla, Hematite, Gold, Malachite, Pseudomalachite, Schorl, Sphalerite, Quartz, Tetrahedrite
Source: Scott Kleine
Reno, Nevada
skleine@scs.unr.edu
INTRODUCTION
Many varieties of minerals can be found at the abandoned mine dumps easily seen to the south-east of the Cold Springs Valley exit, north of Reno, off of US 395. This is one of those localities that literally tens-of-thousands of people drive within 1/4 mile of every day, but most, if not all, fail to realize the potential mineralogical extravagance contained within these supremely-obvious mine dumps, including very beautiful gold specimens associated with chrysocolla!
LOCATION
To locate this easiest-of-easy mineral collecting area, just drive north on US 395, out of Reno, for approximately 10 miles, until you reach the "Cold Springs Valley" exit turnoff, veering off to the east, from the freeway. Turn off onto this exit ramp and then turn right, east, onto the entailling paved road, after the stop sign. Look slightly uphill, to the south of the road. You will see an obvious, long mine dump/tailings pile within 100 feet of the road that you are on. Pull off here, at a safe place. This pile, along with all of the ones farther uphill from it, contain many colorful and exciting mineral species. The large group of mine dumps nearest to the top of the range, is the area in which I have had the most success with in finding beautiful specimens of gold, malachite, pseudomalachite and brochantite.
MINERAL SPECIES
AZURITE: This species is very rare, and not very well crystallized at this group of dumps. It is see as medium-blue, slightly crystallized masses to 2mm, associated with malachite.
BROCHANTITE: I have only found this species, rarely, on the upper mine dump group, with elongated, stocky, transparent, very lustrous, terminated, deep-green crystals to 3mm occurring on white quartz fracture surfaces and micro vugs. One thumbnail specimen that I collected in the Summer of 1993, on these upper dumps, consists of a 0.5cm lenticular mass of bright, somewhat leafy gold, on massive white quartz, closely associated with beautiful, deep-green brochantite crystals to 2mm, also on the massive white quartz. This specimen is truly a "dream-come-true" association for the mineral collector!
CHRYSOCOLLA: This mineral is widely abundant throughout all of the mine dumps and tailing piles in this area. It occures as lightish-green to deep sky-blue fracture filling and, more rarely, nodules to 3cm in diameter. ALL of the specimens of gold that I have collected from this area have *ALWAYS* been intimately associated with chrysocolla, but there are thousands-of-times more chrysocolla-bearing rock than gold-bearing specimens, though this is the key mineral to look for when searching for this elusive, precious metal, here.
GOLD: Gold occures very sporatically and rarely on these mine dumps as 0.1mm-0.8cm(!), bright-yellow, lenticular, metallic masses, sub-leaves and very rarely as wires. Over the last several years, I have collected over 50 specimens of gold at this locality, with several specimens having lenticular masses at or over 0.5cm, including one miniature with THREE 0.5cm masses! The gold here is *ALWAYS* associated with chrysocolla, either in or on it, with most of the gold also being inbedded in the typical, massive, white quartz-gaunge matrix. The best and most prolific locality for gold specimens is in the upper mine dumps, nearest to the top of the range, and near the freeway.
HEMATITE: Hematite rarely occures as 0.1-0.5cm, platy, metallic-gray masses in quartz. The only place that I have found it is at the upper dump-group.
MALACHITE: This species typically occures as attractive, small, green, satiny, radiating fans to 0.5cm, but they can exceed 4.0cm in length. The characteristic rock type for this species is large, massive white quartz boulders with stock-work fractures filled with malachite. It is sometimes associated with small, isolated brochantite vugs.
PSEUDOMALACHITE: This Cu-Phosphate rarely occures as small, deep forest-green balls to 1.5mm, some coated with quartz and some not. It is always found on chrysocolla or quartz-coated chrysocolla, in open vugs to 3cm occurring in very hard quartz boulders. No crystals have been seen, but this is an unusual occurrence of for this mineral and adds beauty to the specimens possessing it.
QUARTZ: Quartz is the dominant gaunge mineral on the mine dumps and piles. It occures as white, translucent, crystalline but massive pieces to nearly a meter in diameter. A few, very rare specimens have shown freestanding, but dull, terminated crystals to 1.5cm, in isolated vugs to 4cm.
SCHORL (TOURMALINE): Along the mined portions of the quartz-schorl breccia/fault zones, where the ore-shoots once resided in this deposit, there are liberal amounts of black, micro-needles of schorl to 2mm, inbedded in white, translucent quartz, which occur commonly on the mine dumps and piles in this area.
SPHALERITE: Very rare, brownish-green, transparent/translucent, cleaved blobs of massive sphalerite to 0.5cm have occurred at the upper mine dumps, in the typical, massive white quartz. No crystal have been see, yet.
TETRAHEDRITE: Some of the large, massive quartz boulders contain anhedral blobs of silvery-metallic tetrahedrite to 1cm. One specimen that I collected a couple of years ago has two euhedral tetrahedrons to 1mm in a quartz vug, but this is the only specimen that I have seen with actual crystals of this species. (As a note: There are some lime-green coatings that appear to be conchalcite, in the area, which wouldn't be surprising with the occurrence of the tetrahedrite and the obvious alteration of such, but these coatings have not been positively identified as yet.)
DISCUSSION
In the Fall of 1991-1992, I was told of this locality by a friend, for its "turquoise", but as soon as I saw the mine dumps I knew that this blue mineral was actually chrysocolla. While collecting on the lowest tailing piles, I found a specimens with a tiny, 0.5mm splotch of, what I thought was, chalcopyrite, at the time.
About two months later, while digging around in my desk drawer, I came across this "chalcopyrite" specimen and took a better, more educated look at it. As I flecked the chrysocolla away from the coppery-colored point with a penknife, I suddenly discovered that this was actually a *WIRE* of GOLD about 3mm long in chrysocolla! The next day, in late December, I went back to the dump piles and spent a chilly, eight-hour day looking for more gold specimens. After pounding on many hundreds of rocks, for several hours, I was pooped out! It was getting dark and very cold, and I was loosing interest fast. On the way back down to my car, from the upper-most dump group, I casually picked up yet another piece of quartz off of the ground, to satisfy my lingering mineral collecting curiousity. I put this fist-sized chunk on top of another rock so that I could easily break it with my hammer. On my first hit, it cleanly broke through the middle of the specimens, revealling *FOUR* lenses of gold, one lens on one half, three on the other, each piece of gold being about 6mm long!! I about died! Being that I was on Christmas Break from school during this time, I went back and collected there nearly every day, for the next couple of weeks. I found one area, to the east of the upper group dumps that had dozens of large boulders of quartz with chrysocolla-filled fractures running though them. Though I had to pry most of the boulders out of the frozen ground with a pick, I continually discovered several specimens of gold each day that I went collecting there, until I exhausted the supply of this material.
CONCLUSION
Today, I am still finding mineral specimens there. Just a couple of weeks ago, I found three specimens of gold in chrysocolla there in one afternoon. Oh, BTW, don't even think of bringing a metal detector there. There is so much Copper in the rocks that the detector will just go crazy over anything there. You will have to work hard and be persistent, observant and tenacious, but gold can still be found there. It just goes to show you that no matter how close you are to houses, freeways and paved roads:
Burrus mine, Pyramid district, Washoe County, Nevada
Azurite, Barium-pharmacosiderite, Brochantite, Chalcanthite, Conichalcite, Cornwallite, Cyanotrichite, Enargite, Olivenite, Parnauite, Richelsdorfite, Strashimirite, Tyrolite
Source: Scott Kleine
Reno, Nevada
skleine@scs.unr.edu
About 3 miles west of Pyramid lake, along Pyramid way is a locality for what may arguably be the best richelsdorfite in the world. Along with this secondary-arsenate mineral, 30 other minerals occur there. Some of the most interesting of these minerals include: Barium-pharmacosiderite, parnauite, cornwallite, conichalcite, olivenite, strashimirite, chalcophyllite, tyrolite, cyanotrichite, chalcanthite and azurite. Enargite comprised the main economic interest in the mine with an abundance of the species still evident in the main stope. The mine is relatively dry and can be accessed by a 2WD car, with care. The minesite is located on patented property which is owned by the Mackay School of Mines at University of Nevada, Reno.
Burrus mine is located approximately 25 miles NE of the McCarren/Pyramid Way intersection, on Pyramid Way, out of Reno. About a mile before the right turn onto a dirt road, from Pyramid Way, a house can be seen below the mine, a mile or so away from the main road. Make a right turn onto the well used dirt road (If you pass the indian smoke shop you've gone too far), and meander back in a southwestern direction for approximately 3 miles. At the east side of a ridge leading into a large canyon several buildings and a small headframe can be seen after the road steepens at the mouth of the drainage. The first level, and main haulage level, entrance is about 200 feet to the west and 60 feet below the headframe.
The first level of the mine is basically shaped like a big "F". The main stope, where most of the collecting occurs, is 400 feet straight in from the adit and then 30 feet past the 90 degree angle turn in the drift, at the farthest end from the adit. After this sharp bend, and before the main stope, the main shaft can be seen. The stope is comprised of the first level, with a wooden floor, and then continues for about another 40 feet below this level. A small trap-door and subsequent ladder gives access to this "under area". The ladder continues past the 4 foot wide stope and intersects back to the main shaft. Here the ladder continues for another 20 feet before it becomes dangerously weak. 10 feet below where the ladder ends, the shaft is plugged by rocks and debris.
There are several collecting sites in the main stope. Three of them are on the first level, along the main north/south-trending enargite vein. An abundance of colorful secondary minerals can be seen at the back and head of the stope here. Below the wooden floor, more collecting sites occur of the western-most rib of the stope. These collecting sites are not for the weak of heart, because of the vertical nature of the stope. One must stand on the ladder to collect, with 20+ feet of open stope below them.
The richelsdorfite is seen as light-to-dark neon-blue masses and crystals in enargite vugs and along fracture surfaces in the altered rhyolitic host rock. The best crystals of richelsdorfite are up to 1mm in diameter, transparent and thin, with a six-sided morphology. They can occur as either individual, free-standing crystals, or as stacked groups.
As for my collecting experiences at this mine, I've been collecting at here for a couple of years now. I was one of the original discoverers of the richelsdorfite at this mine. In previous visits I've found wonderful, blue, fuzzy balls of cyanotrichite to 3mm WITH chalcophyllite, brochantite and tyrolite. I've also collected 1cm, flat-lying sprays of lustrous, green chalcophyllite, 1cm euhedral enargite crystals, some doubly-terminated, 0.5cm balls of strashimirite, 0.5cm glassy, green crystals of olivenite and of course extremely fine specimens of richelsdorfite in examples ranging in size from micros to handspecimens.
On the 26th of August, 1995, I found what I feel is the best richelsdorfite ever from this mine, at that present time. I discovered a small area of localized brecciation that once had a rich, mineralized solution front percolating through these fractures. Upon these fracture surfaces were 0.5cm-wide bands of richly-colored, sky-blue, crystallized richelsdorfite! About 13 specimens in all were collected from this zone before it was exhausted. 3 handspecimens, along with several miniatures and thumbnails comprised the lot.
This locality has in the past produced world-class specimens of richelsdorfite, along with many other fine examples of the various species from there. With a lot of very hard work and persistence, there is no reason why this locality won't continue to do so in the future.
09-06-98 Burrus Mine Update
Source: Sbogosian@aol.com
This mine is gated with heavy guage steel. Furthermore, the road is gated. Unless you have a 4X4, there is some hiking involved.
Some of the minerals the author listed can be found on the dumps there is one dump half-way down the hill from the headframe which contains some material from the oxidized zone of interest.
Unless one can make arrangements with the University for access to the mine, this is probably not worth a trip out there.
bkeller@rockhounds.com 8/31/95
