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Analyses of samples from the Lava Creek mining district, Blaine and Butte counties, Idaho

1983; United States Department of the Interior; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3133/ofr83705

2332-4899

Barbara M. Hillier, D.J. Grimes, R.B. Vaughn, B.F. Arbogast, C.M. McDougal,

Archaeology and Natural History

Location of study areaThe Lava Creek mining district is just north of Craters of the Moon National Monument in the southern Pioneer Mountains, central Idaho (fig.1).The district consists of two main mined areas, one along Lava and South Lava Creeks, and the other along Champagne Creek, plus some mines south, southwest, and northwest of these areas. Purpose and description of sampling programA reconnaissance sampling program was undertaken as part of a study of the geology of the Grouse 15-minute topographic quadrangle (Betty Skipp, unpub.data, 1981), to provide current analytical data for this mining district.At the time this sampling program was done (1979), no data were available.The mining activities, geologic setting, and mineralogy of the district were described by A. L. Anderson (1929) more than 50 years ago. Sample media and localitiesA total of 93 samples were collected from 85 sites (pi.1).Eighty-seven were rock, three were soil, two were panned concentrates of stream sediments, and one was drill cuttings.The sample sites were chosen in two ways.In the Champagne Creek area, samples were collected about 1,000 ft apart along two traverses trending north and N. 45° W.These traverses extended across the apparent longest dimensions of the mined area north of Champagne Creek.For control, some samples of soil (79-BH-9, 15, and 17) and apparently unmineralized rock were collected on the traverses and from areas around some of the mines, approximately 1,000 ft away from them.Samples of highly mineralized and altered rock (as indicated by the presence of pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and other metallic minerals, and iron staining and bleaching of country rock) were sought in mine dumps and prospect pits throughout the district.A mine in the St. Louis Group (Champagne Creek area) was active at the time of sample collection, and several samples were obtained in the mine (79-BH-33 to 36, 39).Two rock samples (79-BH-37, 38) were obtained from a tunnel south of this mine in the St. Louis Group.The drillcuttings sample (79-BH-21) came from about the 120-ft level in an exploratory hole being drilled at the Reliance Mine (Group) property.Two stream-sediment samples (79-BH-23, 44) were taken from dry stream beds below the Reliance and Golden Chariot mines. Sample preparation and analysisThe rock samples were reduced to minus 6 mm in a jaw crusher, split using a Jones 1 splitter, and ground to minus 0.15 mm in a vertical pulverizer equipped with ceramic plates.The stream-sediment and soil samples were air dried in cloth bags and sieved to minus 0.18 mm using stainless steel ieves.The samples were analyzed for 31 elements by an emission of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.