The Round Mountain gold deposit is located in central Nevada and is a low-grade, disseminated gold deposit. The mineralization is hosted by Tertiary rhyolite tuff and Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks. The deposit was discovered in the early 1900s by local prospectors. The discovery included a multi-pound gold "nugget" that was found at a badger hole on the flank of the hill of Round Mountain. Early production was by placer, open cut and underground mining. Modern production began in 1977 and continues today (2019) by open pit mining with the gold recovered by heap leaching and milling.
The mine is currently owned and operated by Round Mountain Mining Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Kinross Gold Corp. The gold production since 1977 exceeds 15 million troy ounces.
The Round Mountain deposit is unique in the quality of coarse, crystalline gold (electrum) specimens that it has yielded. These are a few examples of the gold from the author's collection.
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Coarse gold veining with quartz vein cutting a hydrothermally altered rhyolite tuff. The vein with adularia is 26.0 Ma
and the rhyolite tuff is 26.5 Ma |
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Coarse gold associated with intense quartz-adularia (potassic) alteration in the non-welded pumice tuff of Round Mountain.
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Crystalline gold in quartz +/- adularia vein hosted
by Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks.
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Coarse crystalline gold "nugget"
approximately 1.3 troy ounces (electrum.) |
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For more information on the Round Mountain gold mine just Google it and for a satellite image search for "Round Mountain, Nevada" in Google Earth.
