Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-09-18
SILVER STAR MINES.
An Interesting Description of the
General Formation.

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Messiah Mountain, aud are in Silver
Star mining district. The country
rock of the district, says Dan De
guile, in the Salt Lake Tribune. is
trap or diorite ON the north side of
the mountain, aud it is in this forma,
ton that the gold veins are found;
on the south side limestone is the
prevailing formation with strong
syenite belt running parallel with
and between the limestone and the
diorite, The collaborating veins run
east and west and the syenite APP
pears to form the foot-wall of the
whole mineral belt. The mountain
itself is huge one, and the only one
in all that region that is heavily tim
bered.
The mountain rises to height of
s, 500 feet above sea level, and the
mines are situated on its slope at an
altitude of from $500 70 100 feet
All the veins are well defined and
vary in width from two TO twenty
feet. The vein material is a friable
calcite. In this gold is fonnd in the
free state and containing a very
small per cent of silver.
The mines yield near the surface
from Sl20 to $3.50 per ton and at the
east end of the system there are
seven veins lying from 300 to 400 feet
apart. These veins seem to converge
at point about u mile west where
on a ridge the vein is about thirty
feet wide on the surface, the surface
material assaying from 50 to So in
gold and about so cents in silver. AT
depth this large bulge is liable to
contain a bonanza of great size
AS the strike of the several veins
of the system is east and west, some
are of the opinion that they are the
feeders of a big mother vein that has
north and south course and still
lies undiscovered in the heart OF
Messiah mountain. Most of the ex-
perts, however, are opposed to this
notion, and assert that the mines are
situated on genuine and permanent
lodes All the leads, both great and
small, have all the earmarks of well
defined, Independent veins, and their
walls are smooth and regular.
Although the majority of mineral
veins have Il north aud south course,
there are many instances of very
rici. east and west veins and systems
of veins in all parts of the world.
North and south seems to be the
natural course of main mineral bear
ing lodes, but they are in many
places found to have been so far
swung out of that direction as to lie
squarely east and west To noun
tain ranges there not infrequently
occur kinks and twists in which a
considerable section may be SO far
turned aside that any veins cone
tanned in it will be seen to lie at a
right angle to the course of the main
range. Portions of mountain ranges
may have been turned aside from
the general course by some great
convulsion of the earth or crowded
out in the form of " kink by the
shrinkage of the earth's crust.
In the great basin region the
mountain ranges run north and
south, and the dykes and belts of
rocks of which they are composed
follow the course of the ranges as do
the main veins of quartz. This is
the rule, but as stated above, there
are places where there are twists in
the ranges. The general course OF
a rope thrown loosely upon the
ground may be north and south, but
in places sections of it will lie east
and west. There are similar kinks
in mountain ranges whose blocks of
many square miles are Slowed y
round out of the general course
There appears to be a twist of this
kind at Silver Star. Thus we find
on the south side of Messiah noun
tain a limestone formation, with a
strong parallel belt of syenite, while
on the north side OF the mountain
hes a diorite formation. AS all OF
these big belts of rock lie east and
west.it is but natural that the quartz
veins should also run east and west
In the vicinity there have been great
upheavals and commissions. AT the
time when the goldbearing veins