Enzyme LeachSM Signatures of the Marigold 8 North and Clay Pit Gold Deposits, Humboldt County, Nevada

ABSTRACT
Enzyme LeachSM orientation studies were carried out at the
alluvium covered 8 North and Clay Pit gold deposits in the Marigold
and Preble mine complexes, respectively. Two-hundred forty sites
were soil sampled at 8 North, and 120 were sampled at Clay Pit. The
data were interpreted through the generation and inspection of single
element and multiple element plots. Some of these were produced
from the raw data, while others were generated from truncated
data in order to better display important features in the lower
ranges of the data. Several groups of elements were normalized,
summed, and plotted as a means of displaying the enrichments of
elements in oxidation halos and fault-related anomalies. Oxidation
halos are present above the 8 North and Clay Pit deposits as shown
by the distributions of many oxidation suite elements, high field
strength elements, base metals, and lithophile elements. Buried
faults and fault zones are also indicated by these data. The oxidation
halos at both deposits provide distinct signatures that indicate the
gold deposits at depth. Gold was detected in the oxidation halos
formed above both deposits.