The discovery of the gold deposits in the Jerritt Canyon area, containing in excesses of 2.25 million oz (70 million g) of recoverable gold, is one of the most significant precious metal developments in the last decade. The Bell Mine at Jerritt Canyon began production on July 4, 1981, and is currently producing in excess of 193,000 oz (6 million g) of gold per year from ore with an average grade of 0.24 oz per MT (7.4 g per MT).

Disseminated sub-micron gold is hosted within oxidized and unoxidized portions of Upper Ordovician and Lower Silurian limestones, dolomites, and calcarenites that have been locally extensively silicified and subjected to low pH hydrous alteration. Hydrocarbons have been locally remobilized and oxidized and may have played an important role in gold precipitation. Structural control of mineralization is manifested by the location of higher grade gold along northeasterly trending normal faults at the intersection of favorable host lithologies.

Jerritt Canyon is the most recently developed of a group of similar deposits within the Basin and Range province that collectively contain recoverable reserves in excesses of 16 million oz (500 million g) of gold. Similarities and differences between Jerritt Canyon and the other deposits are reviewed in terms of geologic setting, geochemistry, host-rock characteristics, structural controls, and ore reserves.

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