Toronto, Ontario, 2nd February 2022: Nevada Silver Corporation (“NSC” or the “Company”) (TSXV: NSC) (OTCQB: NVDSF) is pleased to advise that it has filed 124 new claims and reached agreement to acquire a number of patented claims, to cover two areas of extensive historic silver mines 15 kilometers southwest of the Company’s 100% owned Corcoran Silver-Gold Project and 80 kilometers north-east of Tonopah in central Nevada (Figure 1). A total of 2,800 acres of unpatented and patented claims have been secured.
The new NSC claim areas (Belmont Silver Project and the North Belmont Silver Project) surround or cover the majority of old silver workings of the Belmont silver mining camp near the historic Belmont town.
Belmont was among the earliest and richest silver mining camps in the Tonapah district with an estimated ore head-grade averaging 25 ounces per ton of silver. Historical accounts describe numerous prospect pits and mine openings of shallow underground workings with richest ore above the water table where silver occurred mostly as silver chloride (cerargyrite). Silver-bearing sulfides together with copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc and antimony minerals were reported at depth.
During the camp’s silver mining heyday between 1865 and 1889 Belmont’s population was about 10,000 and the town was the seat of Nye County Government. 1887 silver production from the district was estimated as $3,793,103 (1887 value) from 58,906 tons, more than $110,000,000 in today’s dollars. Most mining activities are thought to have been suspended when mine dewatering reduced the Belmont township water supply.
Belmont Silver Project
Accounts of mining activities in the main Belmont mines suggest the two principal shafts (Highbridge (110 meters) and Belmont (180 meters)) were connected on the 300-foot level and that the 500-foot level contained a ‘large tonnage of ore’. Two main vein systems were mined. The eastern veins (Highbridge and Transylvania ledges) were hosted in slate and limestone and dip easterly at 40-50 degrees. High-grade mineralization was reported adjacent to hanging walls of massive quartz veins and generally conformable with strata of Ordovician shale, quartzite and limestone.
Between 1915-17 the Monitor-Belmont Company treated some remaining mine dumps and in 1918 dewatering of old workings was undertaken by the Nevada Wonder Mining Company although no underground production was reported. There has been negligible exploration during recent decades despite high-grade silver samples (up to 5,000g/t silver) collected from remnant dumps during a surface geochemical study of the Belmont silver district by the US Geological Survey in 1985.
North Belmont Silver Project
At the North Belmont Silver Project two separate clusters of historic silver workings are located in quartz vein systems hosted by Ordovician rocks. The northernmost mined area has five old shafts on a near vertical quartz-vein zone trending 030o within thin-bedded silicified limestone. Mine dumps include pyrite, galena, stibnite and tetrahedrite ore minerals.
Seven shallow inclines and numerous prospecting cuts occur in the southern workings north of Belmont town. These workings expose a NW trending quartz vein breccia zone formed along bedding planes in limestone.
Figure 1. Claim location map of Nevada Silver Corporation’s Belmont Silver, North Belmont Silver and Corcoran Canyon Silver-Gold Projects.
see & read more on
https://nevadasilvercorp.com/news-releases/nevada-silver-corporation-acquires-historic-high-grade-silver-mines-south-of-the-corcoran-silver-gold-project-nevada-usa/ |
