The Getchell Mine is an

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ( ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

in the

Potosi Mining District :''The current Potosi Mining District in Humboldt County, Nevada is a major world-class producer of gold and includes the Pinson, Twin Creeks, Turquoise Creek and Getchell mines. There was a Potosi mine in Lincoln County, Nevada.'' The Potosi ...

of Humboldt County, Nevada, on the east flank of the

Osgood Mountains The Osgood Mountains are a mountain range in Humboldt County, Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, Ca ...

, 35 miles northeast of Winnemucca. Prospectors Edward Knight and Emmet Chase discovered gold in 1933 and located the first claims in 1934. With the financial backing of Noble Getchell and

George Wingfield George Wingfield (August 16, 1876 – December 25, 1959) was a Nevada cattleman and gambler who became a financier, investor and one of the state's most powerful economic and political figures during the period from 1909 to 1932. With future sen ...

, the Getchell Mine, Inc. was organized in 1936 and the mine was brought into production in 1938. The mining operation currently consists of two underground mines, Getchell and Turquoise Ridge, operated as the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture.

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...

is operator and 75% owner with

Newmont Mining Newmont Corporation is a gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Domin ...

owning the remaining 25%. The mining method currently used is underhand cut-and-fill. The refractory gold ore is treated by pressure oxidation technology at the Twin Creeks Sage autoclave and gold recovered using conventional carbon-in-leach technology. The gold deposit is a

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

-hosted disseminated Carlin–type deposit, with sub-micron sized gold distributed in

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...

and

marcasite The mineral marcasite, sometimes called “white iron pyrite”, is iron sulfide (FeS2) with orthorhombic crystal structure. It is physically and crystallographically distinct from pyrite, which is iron sulfide with cubic crystal structure. Bot ...

. The mineral getchellite, a rare

sulfide Sulfide (British English also sulphide) is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a compound containing one or more S2− ions. Solutions of sulfide salts are corrosive. ''Sulfide'' also refers to chemical compounds l ...

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, bu ...

and

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient ti ...

, AsSbS₃, was discovered at and named after the Getchell mine .

References

External links

Getchell Mine at mindat.org

Turquoise Ridge JV, Twin Creeks Operation
mine data updated to 2018. Accessed 11/9/2019.

Mar 21, 2018. Accessed 11/9/2019
Turquoise Ridge Mine
at Western Mining History Gold mines in Nevada Buildings and structures in Humboldt County, Nevada Underground mines in the United States Barrick Gold 1930s establishments in Nevada {{mining-stub

References

Further reading

External links