Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1908-02-01
The Genesis
OF the Ores

Frederick Bass, in the last issue Of
the Rawhide Times. gives an inter
esting paper on the geological form
alton of Rawhide. the first of the
kind that has yet been made public.
1t is one Of the strongest arguments
for the permanency of the camp, and
to those who have been wont to find
fault with the number of small
seams that have been found, not
withstanding their richness, it will be
an eye-opener. That part of Mr..
Bass article referring to the ores Is
reproduced. 1t is as follows:
THE genesis of the ores of this
camp is three-fold, viz; stockworks,
impregnition and replacement. The
porphyries (acidic in type) as found
in the immediate vicinity, undoubt-
eddy represent two distinct geologic
ages. 1t is in the earlier or older
porphyries that all the values have
thus far been found. These values
are encountered over a most extern
sive area-probably | am well with
in the confines of accuracy when |
say Of three miles square. To the
eastern side of this area we have
three very prominent hills, named
from north to south as follows.
The Grutt. the Balloon and the
Murray. These Immediately bound
the town to the east, whilst the No
Cloud lies Just west of the main
street of the town, and are all con-
tributing their quota of shipping ore.
That large ore bodies of high grade
value exist therein is no longer an
undemonstrated problem but a VERT
table fact.
How these ore bodies make is an
interesting study, as well as a most
encouraging me-. Stockworks is a
term given to a reticulated rock-mass
which is made up of a number of
small seams and veins running in
every conceivable direction, and then
filled with silica and metals. If this
were the full meaning of stockworks
it would seem a rather discouraging
condition, but fortunately there are
larger or major veins here which arc
found not only in the shearing zones,
but also as fractures, thus a~ffording
double vent to the ascending waters
and their precious Accomplishments,
gold and silver. This then represents
impregnition.
We now come to a third process,
and really the one which is destined
to make Rawhide famous, and that
is the process of replacement
strange, metasomatic trick of nature
by which the worthless feldspars are
replaced by silica. gold and silver.
The replacement process is clearly
demonstrable in the K%earns, Murray,
Grutt and other leases. It is a har-
binger of glad tidings TO those who
are now in Rawhide, and to those
who are to come here. 1t means big
ore bodies, a big camp.
The other features of this camp
from a geologic standpoint are all
extremely favorable TO its future.
Dykes of basalt and dacyte may be
seen cropping here and there, most
of them in a northerly and southerly
direction and as a rule cutting
through the country rock at nearly
a right angle to the main axis Of It's
qualification.
Before closing this brief article
wish to correct an error which has
got abroad regarding the small
seams of this camp. There are
undoubtedly many such, but instead
of being decried they should b,
looked upon as the multiplied signs
of the existence of large associated
ore bodies, which ore bodies are
destined to be quickly uncovered
and to prove to the outside worlC
that the Rawhide Of today, with III
2000 inhabitants, will soon be
golden giant and. like a Moloeh o
old. will make for itself a name a
whose shrine many will worship"