California · Inyo County
Producer

Briggs Mine

Inyo County, California, United States
GoldSilver
⌖ Show on mapUSGS source ↗
Commodities
PrimaryGold, Silver
Commodity typeM
Deposit
Deposit typeHydrothermal disseminated precious-metals
Model129: Detachment-fault-related polymetallic Cu-Au-Ag-Pb-Zn deposits
Deposit sizeL
Orebody formLens (multiple stacking of sub-horizontal to steeply dipping lenses; near-vertical lenses along steeply dipping faults)
Ore controlThe gold occurrences at the Briggs Mine area and throughout the Panamint Range are strongly controlled by several parallel vertical to near-vertical faults, including the regionally persistent Goldtooth fault, and low-angle gravity slide (extensional) faults. The vertical faults have acted as the feeder conduits to the disseminated Briggs mineralization and to the mineralization that made its way into the permeable plumbing zones represented by the low-angle faults (at the North Briggs and Cecil R deposits).
Materials
Ore mineralsPyrite
GangueAmphibolite, Gneiss
Geology
Host rockGneiss,Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) · Briggs Mine formation
Associated rockSedimentary Rock,Plutonic Rock,Volcanic Rock (Aphanitic) · Pahrump Group
StructureNorth- to northwest-striking, west-dipping rangefront faults with both normal and right-lateral components (some active); high-angle faults that strike northwest along the rangefront but generally strike north to northeast within the range (the high-angle north-trending, west-dipping Gold Tooth fault in the Briggs Mine area shows evidence of normal movement but may have originated as a reverse fault that later had dip-slip displacement to the west); north-trending, west-dipping low-angle extensional faults, some of which appear to steepen and merge or transform into rangefront faults; north-trending anticlines and synclines.
Tectonic settingBack-arc extensional cratonic basin
AlterationSilica-carbonate-pyrite
Economic & production
Development statusProducer
Discovery year1970
Identification
Deposit ID10310699
Alternate namesBriggs, C.R. Briggs
RegionNA
Data scoreA
Coordinates35.9375, -117.185
References
Aerodat, Inc., 1997, Unpublished report regarding interpretation of airborne geophysical data.Andrew, 1998, 1999, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Anzman, 1990, 1997, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Burchfiel, B.C., Hodges, K.V., and Royden, L.H., 1987, Geology of Panamint Valley-Saline Valley pull-apart system, California: Palinspastic evidence for low-angle geometry of Neogene range-bounding fault: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 92, no. B10, p. 10,422-10,426.Canyon Resources Corporation Website (accessed various times between May 2004 and July 2006).Canyon Resources Website, 7/9/2007: http://www.canyonresources.com/projects/briggs.phpCGS Minefile Folder No. 322-5671Chickanski, M., 1995, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Chickanski, M., 2000, Low-angle, range-flank faults in the Panamint, Inyo, and Slate ranges, California: Implications for recent tectonics of the Death Valley region, Geological Society of America Bulletin 112, p. 871-883.Crossland, 1995, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Hall, 1983, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Harding, 1988, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Labotka, 1990, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Labotka, T.C., 1988, Geology of the Telescope Peak Quadrangle, Central Panamint Mountains, California. in Gregory, J.L., and Baldwin, E.J., eds., Geology of the Death Valley Region: South Coast Geological Society Annual Field Trip Guidebook #16, p. 103-109.Labotka, T.C., 1988, Mesozoic thermal history of the Panamint Mountains, Death Valley area, California: Geological Society of America 1988, Abstracts with Programs, v. 20, p. 17.Labotka, T.C., Albee, A.L. and Ernst, W.G., 1988, Metamorphism and tectonics of the Death Valley region, California and Nevada, in Ernst, W.G., Editor, Metamorphism and crustal evolution of the Western United States: Rubey colloquium on Metamorphism and crustal evolution of the Western United States, v. 7, p. 714-736.Labotka, T.C., Albee, A.L. and Wernicke, B.P., 1990, Uplift and exposure of the Panamint metamorphic complex, California: Basin and Range extensional tectonics near the latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada: Geological Society of America, Memoir 176, p. 345-362.Labotka, T.C., Albee, A.L., Lanphere, M.A., and McDowell, S.D., 1980, Stratigraphy, structure and metamorphism in the central Panamint Mountains (Telescope Peak quadrangle), Death Valley area, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 91, Part I, p. 125-129, Part II, no. 3, p. 843-933.Labotka, T.C., and Albee, A.L, 1990, Uplift and exposure of the Panamint metamorphic complex, California, in Basin and Range extensional tectonics near the latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada, Geological Society of America, Geological Society of America Memoir 176, 511 pages.Labotka, T.C., and Albee, A.L., 1977, Late Precambrian depositional environment of the Pahrump Group, Panamint Mountains, California, in Short contributions to California geology, California Division of Mines and Geology, California Division of Mines and Geology Special Report 129, 106 p.Labotka, T.C., and Albee, A.L., 1978, Contrast in metamorphic facies in the Panamint and Funeral mountains, Death Valley area, California: Geological Society of America, Cordilleran Section, 74th annual meeting, Abstracts with Programs, v. 10, p. 112-113.Labotka, T.C., and Albee, A.L., 1988, Metamorphism and tectonics of the Death Valley region, California and Nevada, in Ernst, W.G., ed., Metamorphism and crustal evolution of the western United States: Rubey Volume VII, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, p. 714-736.Labotka, T.C., and Albee, A.L., 1990. Uplift and exposure of the Panamint metamorphic complex, California, In Basin and Range Extensional Tectonics Near the Latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada, B.P. Wernicke, ed., Geological Society of America Memoir 176, p. 345-362.Lanphere, J.A., Wasserburg, G.J.F., Albee, A.L., and Tilton, G.R., 1964, Redistribution of Sr and Rb isotopes during metamorphism, World Beater Complex, Panamint Range, California, in Craig, H., Miller, S.L., and Wasserburg, G.J.F., eds., Isotopic and Cosmic Chemistry: Amsterdam, Holland, North Holland Publishing Company, p. 258-320.Luddington, 1992, referenced in Lang, Dennis, Senior Geologist, Canyon Resources Corp.; May 22, 2004; Field trip to the C.R. Briggs Mine, sponsored by Canyon Resources Corp. and Southern California Section, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration: personal communication and unpublished text.Mahood, G.A., Nibler, G.E. and Halliday, A.N., 1996, Zoning patterns and petrologic processes in peraluminous magma chambers, Hall Canyon Pluton, Panamint Mountains, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v, 108, p. 437-453.Published(?) or unpublished(?) sources: