High-grade gold ore (bonanza-grade gold ore) (field of view ~10.5 cm across) from the Sleeper Open-Pit Mine (section 21, T40N, R35E), eastern side of Sod House Road, south of Rt. 140, northwestern margin of the Slumbering Hills, eastern margin of Desert Valley, northwest of the town of Winnemucca, central Humboldt County, northern Nevada, USA (41° 20’ 24” North, 118° 02” 58” West).
Geology - auriferous quartz-adularia rhyolite (some consider this rock to be a latite). Native gold (Au) occurs in this rock as colloform bands, partially replaces breccia clasts, and also disseminated in the matrix. Published research indicates that Sleeper Mine rocks represent an ancient epithermal gold deposit (hot springs gold deposit), formed by volcanism during Basin & Range extensional tectonics.
Age - the Sleeper Rhyolite dates to 16.3-16.5 million years (latest Early Miocene), and the gold mineralization dates to about 14.3-15.8 million years (during the early Middle Miocene).
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