California · Nevada County
Past Producer

Champion-Providence Mine

Nevada County, California, United States
GoldSilverCopper
⌖ Show on mapUSGS source ↗
Commodities
PrimaryGold, Silver
SecondaryCopper
Commodity typeM
Deposit
Deposit typeHydrothermal vein; hydrothermal stringer zone
Model273: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Orebody formTabular
Ore controlOre shoots within quartz veins formed by open-space filling along a fault zone that approximately follows the contact between metamorphic rock and granodiorite. Lindgren (1896b) observed that where the Merrifield Vein was widest, the ore is generally poor in grade.
Materials
Ore mineralsGold, Pyrite, Chalcopyrite, Galena, Sphalerite, Arsenopyrite, Pyrrhotite, Telluride, Altaite
GangueQuartz
Geology
Host rockGranodiorite,Slate,Schist,Diabase · "Yuba Rivers Pluton", "Lake Combie Complex"
StructureWeimar Fault Zone
Tectonic settingMagmatic arc
AlterationCarbonate; calcite
Economic & production
Development statusPast Producer
Discovery year1851
Identification
Deposit ID10310701
Alternate namesChampion, Champion Group, Nevada City, Wyoming, Home, Merrifield, Cadmus, Soggs, several other properties, Providence, New Year
RegionNA
Data scoreA
Coordinates39.25889, -121.03694
References
Clark, W.B., 1970, Gold districts of California: California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 193, p. 97-101.Crawford, J.J., 1894, Nevada County: Twelfth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 187.Crawford, J.J., 1896, Nevada County: Thirteenth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 239, 260.Havard, J.F., 1980, The Champion Mines Preliminary Report: Unpublished report prepared for Erickson Lumber Company.Hobson, J.B. and Wiltsee, E.M., 1893, Nevada City Mining District: Eleventh Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 285-296.Hobson, J.B., 1890, Nevada City Mining District: Tenth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 386-387.Irelan, W., Jr., 1887, Nevada County: Sixth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 47-50.Irelan, W., Jr., 1888, Nevada County: Eighth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 418-420.Johnston, W.G., Jr., 1938, Vein-filling at Nevada City, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 49, no. 1, p. 23-34.Johnston, W.G., Jr., 1940, The gold-quartz veins of Grass Valley, California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 194, 101 p.Koschmann, A.H., and Bergendahl, M.H., 1968, Principal gold-producing districts of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 610, 283 p.Lindgren, W., 1896a, Geologic atlas of the United States - Nevada City Special Folio: U.S. Geological Survey Folio 29, 7 p.Lindgren, W., 1896b, The gold-quartz veins of Nevada City and Grass Valley Districts, California: Seventeenth Annual Report of the U.S. Geological Survey, Part 2, p. 1-262.Logan, C.A., 1921, Nevada County: Seventeenth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 435-436.Logan, C.A., 1930, Nevada County: Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California Division of Mines, p. 103-104.MacBoyle, E.M., 1919, Mines and mineral resources of Nevada County: Sixteenth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, California State Mining Bureau, p. 1-270.Saucedo, G.J. and Wagner, D.L., 1992, Geologic map of the Chico Quadrangle, California: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology Regional Geologic Map Series, Map No. 7A, scale 1:250,000.Schweickert, R.A., Hanson, R.E., and Girty, G.H., 1999, Accretionary tectonics of the Western Sierra Nevada Metamorphic Belt, in Wagner, D.L. and Graham, S.A., editors, Geologic field trips in northern California: California Division of Mines and Geology Special Publication 119, p. 33-79.Tuminas, A., 1983, Structural and stratigraphic relations in the Grass Valley-Colfax area of the northern Sierra Nevada, California: Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Davis, 415 p.