Gold-Silver Mining Districts, Alteration Zones, and Paleolandforms in the Miocene Bodie Hills Volcanic Field, California and Nevada

Three precious metal mining districts and nine areas of extensive hydrothermally altered rocks, or alteration zones, occur in the Bodie Hills, an upland of Tertiary-Quaternary volcanic and Mesozoic granitic and metamorphic rocks that straddles the California-Nevada state boundary between Mono Lake and the East Walker River (fig. 1). Cumulative production from the mining districts, Bodie, Aurora, and Masonic, is 3.4 million ounces (Moz) of gold (Au) and 28 Moz of silver (Ag). Small amounts of Hg were produced from the Potato Peak, Paramount-Bald Peak, and Cinnabar Canyon-US 395 alteration zones; a native sulfur (S ) resource in the Cinnabar Canyon-US 395 alteration zone has been identified by drilling. There are no known mineral resources in the other six alteration zones, Red Wash-East Walker River, East Brawley Peak, Sawtooth Ridge, Aurora Canyon, Four Corners, and Spring Peak. The mining districts and alteration zones formed between 13.4 and 8.1 Ma in predominantly...