Geology and Mineralization at the Carlin Mine, Eureka County, Nevada

Abstract Introduction The Carlin gold mine, located in northern Eureka County approximately thirty-five miles northwest of the town of Carlin, is wholly owned by Newmont Gold Company (Fig. 1). The deposit was discovered by Newmont geologists in 1961 during regional reconnaissance around the historic Blue Star Mine. Rock chip sampling during a regional mapping and trenching program returned assays exceeding 0.100 oz/st Au (Coope, 1991). The discovery drill hole, completed in September, 1962, intersected approximately 30 meters (100 ft) of ore with an average grade of 1.03 oz/st Au (Coope, 1991). The Carlin Mine was originally put into production in April, 1965, with mining ceasing in 1986. Between 1965 and 1986 Newmont produced over 14 million short tons of ore from Carlin at an average grade of 0.270 oz/st Au, for a total production of 3.2 million ounces of gold. Production commenced again at Carlin in August, 1992. Current mining reserves stand are 9.119 million short tons at an average grade of 0.028 oz/st, for a total of 256,000 ounces of gold.