Mine detail: Picacho Mine

Previously called 'Golden Casket ClaimEastern California ClaimDulcina ClaimDiablo ClaimCalifornia Gold King ClaimApache ClaimAlfonso ClaimAlycyon ClaimAlbert Polhamas ClaimPicacho Basin ClaimVenus ClaimTierra Rica ClaimSan George ClaimPonce de Leon ClaimOriental ClaimMina Rica ClaimMars Extension ClaimMars ClaimJita ClaimJayne ClaimHelen May ClaimGoshen ClaimGolden Rule ClaimGolden Dream ClaimGolden Crown ClaimGolden Hill ClaimGolden Sunshine Claim'

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Location

Lat / long: 32.96207, -114.64979

Resource(M)

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Mercury, Arsenic, Antimony, Silver
Tertiary: Copper
Ore: Gold, Electrum, Silver
Gangue: Quartz, Calcite, Pyrite, Hematite, Goethite, Magnetite, Gneiss, Granite
Orebody form: Tabular, Wedge
Discovery year: 1880

Production

Operation type: Surface-Underground
Deposit type: Hydrothermal vein; Hydrothermal breccia filling
Development status: Past Producer

Geology

Host rock:Marcus Wash Granite
Host type:Gneiss,Granite
Associated rock:Quechan Volcanics
Associated type:Andesite,Dacite
Structure:Chocolate Mountain Detachment Fault (CMDF), listric normal faults within the hanging wall of CMDF, late high angle northeast and northwesterly trending normal faults which cut haning wall and foot wall of CMDF, Vincent-Chocolate Mountains Thrust Fault, Chocolate Mountains Detachment Fault, Chocolate Mountains Anticlinorium
Tectonic:Extensional cratonic basin
Alteration processes:Minor hydrothermal chloritization of biotite; abundant post-mineralization, weathering related, sericitic alteration of plagioclase and clay alteration of placioclase and microcline.

References

DEP10310579
Reference{Deposit:: Atwater, T., 1989, Plate tectonic history of the northeast Pacific and western North America., in Winterer, E. L., Hussong, D. M., Decker, R. W., editors, The geology of North America: The eastern Pacific Ocean and Hawaii, Geological Society of America, p. 21-72.}{Deposit:: Burchfiel, B.C., Cowan, D.S., and Davis, G.A., 1992, Tectonic overview of the Cordilleran orogen in the western United States: in Burchfiel, B. C., Lipman, P. W., and Zoback, M. L., editors, The Cordilleran Orogen: Conterminous U.S.: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America, v. G-3. p. 407-479.}{Deposit:: Clark, W. B., 1970 Gold districts of California: California Divisions of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 49-50.}{Deposit:: Crawford, J. J., 1894, California Picacho mine, California Mining Bureau Report No. 12, p. 238.}{Deposit:: Crawford, J. J., 1896, Picacho Basin: California Mining Bureau Report No. 13, p. 343.}{Deposit:: Dillon, J. T., Haxel G.B., and Tosdal, R.M., 1990, Structural evidence for northeastward movement on the Chocolate Mountains Thrust, southeasternmost California: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 95, p. 19,953-19,971.}{Deposit:: Dillon, J. T., Haxel, G. B., and Tosdal, R.M., 1986, Field guide to the Chocolate Mountains thrust and Orocopia Schist, Gavilan Wash area, southeastern California, in Beatty, B., and Wilkinson, P. A. K., editors, Frontiers in geology and ore deposits of Arizona and the Southwest: Arizona Geological Society Digest, v. 16, p. 282-293.}{Deposit:: Drobeck, P. A., Frost, E. G., Hillemeyer, F. L., and Liebler, G. S., 1986, The Picacho mine: A gold mineralized detachment in southeastern California, in Beatty, B., and Wilkinson, P. A. K., editors, Frontiers in geology and ore deposits of Arizona and the Southwest: Arizona Geological Society Digest, v. 16, p. 187-221.}{Deposit:: Frost, E. G. and others, 1997, Emerging perspectives of the Salton Trough region with an emphasis on extensional faulting and its implications for later San Andreas deformation: in Baldwin, J. and others, editors, Southern San Andreas Fault- Whitewater to Bombay Beach, Salton Trough, California, South Coast Geological Society Field Trip Guidebook N. 25, p. 57-98.}{Deposit:: Haxel, G. B., Jacobson, C. E., and Oyarzabal, F. R., 1996, Subduction and exhumation of the Pelona-Orocopia-Rand schists, southern California: Geology, v. 24, p. 547-550.}{Deposit:: Haxel, G. B., Jacobson, C. E., and Oyarzabal, F. R., 1997, Extensional reactivation of the Chocolate Mountains subduction thrust in the Gavilan Hills of southeastern California: Tectonics, v. 16, p. 650-661.}{Deposit:: Haxel, G. B., and Tosdal, R. M., 1986, Significance of the Orocopia schist and Chocolate Mountains thrust in the late Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the southeastern California-southwestern Arizona region: extended abstract, in Beatty, B., and Wilkinson, P. A. K., editors, Frontiers in geology and ore deposits of Arizona and the Southwest: Arizona Geological Society Digest, v. 16, p. 52-61.}{Deposit:: Jacobson, C.E., Dawson, M.R., and Postlethwaite,C.E., 1988, Structure, metamorphism, and tectonic significance of the Pelona, Orocopia, and Rand Schists, southern California: in : Ernst, W. G., editor, Metamorphism and crustal evolution of the western United States: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, p 976-997.}{Deposit:: Liebler, G. S., 1988, Geology and gold mineralization at the Picacho mine, Imperial County, California, in Cooper, J. J., Schafer, R. W., and Vikre, P. G., editors, Bulk mineable precious metal deposits of the western United States: Symposium proceedings: The Geological Society of Nevada, p. 453-472.}{Deposit:: Long, K. R., 1992, Preliminary descriptive deposit model for detachment-fault-related mineralization in: Bliss, J. D., editor, Developments in mineral deposit modeling, U.S. Geologic Survey Bulletin 2004, p. 52-56.}{Deposit:: Losh, S., Jowett, E. C., and Sherlock, R. L., 1990, The detachment related Picacho gold deposit; structural setting and ore fluid controls, in Cuffney, B. editor, Geology and ore deposits of the Great Basin; programs with abstracts: Geological Society of Nevada, 110 p.}{Deposit:: Merrill, F. J., 1916, Imperial County, Picacho: California Mining Bureau Report No. 14, pp. 729-731.}{Deposit:: Morris, R. S., 1986a, Base of the Orocopia Schist as imaged on seismic reflection data in the Chocolate and Cargo Muchacho Mountains region of southeastern California and the Sierra Pelona region near Palmdale, California: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with programs, v. 18, p. 160.}{Deposit:: Morris, R. S., 1986b, Crustal geometry of detachment faulting-structural analysis of seismic-reflection data in southeastern California: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with programs, v. 18, p. 160.}{Deposit:: Morris, R. S., 1987, Tertiary basin formation above middle-crustal shear zones in southern Chocolate Mountains, California: in Geologic Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v.19, p. 434.}{Deposit:: Richard, S. M., 1993, Tertiary stratigraphy of the Middle and Chocolate Mountains of southwestern Ariz., in Nielson, J. E., and Sherrod, D. R., editors, Tertiary stratigraphy of the highly extended terranes, California, Arizona, and Nevada: U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2053, p. 193-197.}{Deposit:: Smith, D.R., Berger, B.R. Tosdal, R.M., Sherrod, D.R., Raines, G.L., Griscom, A., Helferty, M.C., Rumsey, C.M., and McMahan, A.B., 1987, Mineral resources of the Indian Pass and Picacho Peak Wilderness Study Areas, Imperial County, California, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1711-A.}{Deposit:: Tosdal, R. M., 1986, Gneissic host rocks of gold mineralization at the Picacho mine, southeastern Chocolate Mountains, southeastern California, in Cenozoic stratigraphy, structure and mineralization in the Mojave Desert: Guidebook and volume, trips 5 and 6, p. 143-144.}{Deposit:: Miscellaneous information on the Picacho Mine is contained in File Number 322-5648 (CGS Mineral Resources Files, Sacramento).}{Deposit:: Losh, S, Sherlock, R. L., and Jowett, E. C., 1996, Geological and geochemical study of the Picacho gold mine, California: Gold in a low angle normal fault environmant, Unpublished report, 28 p.}
ReporterFuller, Michael and Downey, Cameron (Higgins, Chris T.), Schruben, Paul G.