The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-03-04
MANGANESE IN
CLARK COUNTY
qJErCSIrS NEAR LAS VEGAS
DISCOVERED AND MAY
PROVE VALUABLE

of unusual character that has recent
ly been brought to the attention
Of the United States geological sur
vey promises to yield a large and
readily available supply of this ma
terial. The deposit lies in CLARK
county, in the valley of Muddy riv-
er, one of the tributaries of Vir-
ginia river, a few miles above the
town of st. Thomas. The material
has been known for some time as
kaolin, and successful experiments
for utilizing it as a porcelain clay
are reported to have been made,
though they have not yet resulted in
the exploitation of the deposit. The
recognized outcrops have been To-
Gated as mining claims and some
preliminary exploration and develop
ment work has been done. A side
track on the st. Thomas branch OF
the San Pedro, Los Angeles and
Salt Lake railroad, about three
miles northeast of the northern
most group of claims offers a read
lily available railroad connection,
and the station has been named
Koalin.
This so-called kaolin is stated by
the geological survey to be in fact
a magnesite, and was deposited in
a highly magnetism sedimentary bed,
a part of a regularly stratified series
Of sedimentary strata. exposed by
x1oo channels fhof ant nnrnCC a
low ridge at the upper edge OF
Muddy valley. The deposit forms
a chalky looking bluff, dazzlingly
white in the bright sunlight.
material is porcelain-white, fine
grained, and massive, is remarkably
free from foreign material and has
the st~ructureless appearance and
%conchoidal fracture that is
generally characteristic of magne-
site. and it crumb1es more rapidly
on exposure to the weather.
The deposit is included between
tilted beds of conglomerate and
handsome below and shale above.
The lower contact is sharply de-
fined, but the magnesite grades on
into the everything beds. The purer
part of the deposit consists of beds
aggregating at least 200 feet in
thickness. Within the section OF
purer material there are a few
bands of sandy matter. but these
are minor in amount and apparent
ly almost negligible, a they could
-doubtedly be avoided in mining.
whole section lies in the form
Of a "hog-back"-that is, the softer
beds lap up against a uniform slope
OF the sandstone and ~conglomerate
that has a northeasterly dip OF 30
to so degrees.
The region in which the deposit
lies is in large part covered with
alluvial wash, which conceals most
of the bedrock formations, so that
the section including the magnesite
is exposed at only a few places
where streams have cut down
through the everything deposits. The
regularity of the exposed section
and the continuity of the harder
beds, which project through the
surface wash, justify the assump
ton that the magnesite is practical
" continuous between exposures
and for considerable distances be-
vond. It's length at the surface
seems to be a mile at least.
Unlike most other deposits OF
magnesite in California and else
where in his country, this is not
a vein deposit, such as occurs with
serpentine. but resembles closely the
deposits discovered in 1911 at Bissell
siding. near Mojaver Cal, both be-
ing interbedded with sandstone and
shale and of sedimentary origin.
The deposit at Bissell, however, does
lot appear to be so large or regular
as the deposit on Muddy river.
Samples of this material were no.
ticed in a mineral cabinet at Las
Vegas last August by a g%eologist OF
the survey, who then recognized the
material as m~agnesite, though he
was informed that it was kaolin.
Later he visited the deposit in com
pany with one of the claimants, and
was then informed thai analyses
made in Salt Lake City showed :
it was magnesite. So far as known,
however, no special Importance had
been attached to this fact, as the
material was then being exploited
at the Panama-Pacific exposition in
San Francisco under the name OF
kaolin. The new deposits are so
large and so readily accessible that
they may form a valuable source {
magnesite.-Reno Journal.