Gold Deposits Near Cheyenne, Wyoming

Yes, its a silly looking hat. But in Wyoming, even the GemHunter needs to be warm. 

When Hausel began working for the Wyoming Geological Survey, it was a relatively productive government agency in charge of unraveling the geology associated with mineral deposits as well as  in charge of finding new mineral deposits. But, we were one of the smallest agencies in the State: a very sad commentary for a state that makes its living off mining and oil and gas resources. In addition, salaries were just one step above some custodians.

Prospectors and geologists a found many at the University of Wyoming were anti-mining. This is a very strange concept particularly since the University of Wyoming and many of the professors owe their jobs and existence to the mining and oil and gas industries. But even professors are under the assumption that money grows on trees.

Some years ago, Hausel was asked to assist in building a Children's Museum in downtown Laramie - it was going to have a geology theme. He donated rocks and assisted in building a mine tunnel for the kids to walk through and on the outside of this exhibit, one board member requested he put on a simple pie diagram to show kids and parents how important mining and oil and gas was to the state. It was a pie diagram showing ad valoreum taxes to the state. Whoa - was this a bad idea.

Hydrothermal alteration mineral assemblages found in the Silver Crown district, Wyoming, and on
some nearby properties.

One board member, a flaming liberal professor from the university, demanded the pie diagram be modified to show mining, oil and gas were not important! She demanded that statistics needed to be modified to fit her agenda! "Mining can't be important she exclaimed - it's bad for the environment and attracts dirty people". Hausel mentioned they were dirty because they have to work for a living (unlike her) and mention mining was also referenced in the Holy Bible, and no where did it indicate mining was a bad profession - remember the Golden Fleece? This was sheep skin used in a sluice to extract gold. As suspected, she was not into the Bible. 

Visible gold is seen in rock sample adjacent to brassy
pyrite in this sample from the Copper King

That was one of the first times science took it in the shorts for politics - and this was 30 years ago. Hausel quit volunteering at the Children's Museum when the rest of the board sided with the liberal professor and modified the pie diagram to show mining and oil and gas contributed little to the state. 

When Hausel left the Wyoming Geological Survey some years later, another corrupt professor hired Chinese and Russian communists on the geological survey staff.

Over the years, he developed a fascination with different mining districts, and one of his favorites was the Silver Crown. At one time he had planned to do a detailed study of the hydrothermal alteration patterns at the Copper King and acquired drill core from the US Bureau of Mines and hoped to find money to pay for thin sections and microprobe analyses, but it didn't work out.

Stockworks at the Copper King

In spite of this and set-backs, he was able to spend time on the ground at the Silver Crown district and at the Copper King mine and map the accessible underground mines in the district (Hausel and Jones, 1982) and over the years, spent time researching the mineralization and alteration at the Copper King mine and nearby properties (Hausel, 1997). It became clear that the Copper King was a deeply-eroded core of a Proterozoic age gold-copper porphyry. Over the years, he had exploration geologists and company CEOs visiting his office on the UW Campus while searching for ideas for gold mines. They were told that this was one of his top picks for a commercial gold deposit. Some listened, and it was picked up time and time again. But like most commercial gold deposits, development awaits the an alignment of stars.

Most are under the impression when a commercial gold (or other metal or gemstone) deposit is found, it is "Eureka" and then the mining begins. Unfortunately, that never happens except in the movies. "Mines are made, they are not found" was stated at some talk attended at the Northwest Mining Convention many years ago. It takes the right circumstances, people, investments, government support, etc, etc, etc. Take a look at the Pebble deposit in Alaska. A prophyry deposit so large that it dwarfs the Bingham Canyon deposit in Utah. Can you imagine finding a $100 billion deposit and no one can figure out how to make a mine out of it?  WestGold found a world-class, $multi-billion gold deposit at Donlin Creek Alaska in 1988, and its taken 34 years so far to put it in production. Hausel found gold in 1981 at the Rattlesnake Hills, and again, no one yet has made a mine out of it.

Pervasive propylitic altered quartz monzonite

The Copper King mine near Cheyenne, was drilled by the US Bureau of Mines (one of the few productive government agencies that met its demise under Clinton and Gore because it didn't fulfill their political agenda of making things greener - so thousands of government employees were terminated, valuable research ended, all because a few politicians wanted to promote global warming whether fact or fiction) and several different exploration companies. 

It is apparent that the deposit is bigger - based on exploration and drilling - it is open in every direction (except up). That's right, drilling has yet to find the limits of the ore deposit. However, the ore appears to end to the east - or does it?  

Then there is the problem of having similar anomalies in the area. Terry Klein of the USGS pointed out that there were similar hydrothermal anomalies nearby, and I worked on another I found that appears to be very large, but could not map the anomaly due to private land access problems. 

References Cited
Hausel, W.D., and Jones, S., 1982, Geological reconnaissance report of metallic deposits for in situ and heap leaching extraction research possibilities: Geological Survey of Wyoming Open File Report 82-4, 51 p.

Hausel, W.D., 1997, The geology of Wyoming's copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and associated metal deposits: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bulletin 70, 224 p.