Newberry District – Clark County, Nevada
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On the western side of the Newberry Mountain range, just south of Christmas Tree Pass is an expansive placer operation locally known as the Cottonwood Placer Mine. The history of this mine is relatively well documented. Gold was found here in 1906, and before 1920 there had been an estimated 16,000 ounces removed from small pits and prospects. The mines were noted in 1982 as shallow cuts and surface workings that were producing over 1000 oz of gold from a "primitive" wash system. With excellent gold showings, the Cottonwood Placer mine changed hands a few times in the 1920's-1940's. In the 1950's it was taken over by a family operation. This family ran the mines until 1978 when a failure to perform assessment work caused the claims to be null and void. It is rumored that some members of the family were buried on the claim, but the graves shown on the maps date back to 1930's. The Survey team was unable to locate any graves on the claim. The claims passed through several other holdings over the years with no real work done on the site. In 1983 a small group of Prospectors began working the Cottonwood Placer Mine on the weekends. This group made a lot of improvements on the site, including restoring and rebuilding the rock walls and some foundations. This group was actively panning the sands of the wash, which had been defined as "alluvial fans" with high gold recovery. The claims were held by this group until 1991. A JV Mining company filed claims on the land but never executed any work on the claim. It has remained much the same as when it was last abandoned in 1991. There are substantial rock walls that are designed to drive the flow of the wash in the inevitable flash flood times. There is some bedrock to be found in the wash and there are also remnants of old gold screens and sluice boxes around this wash. There was a good amount of work done at this site and the smelter/mill above is evidence that enough material was coming out to necessitate the smelting of metals. The wash is wide and accessible, in some cases, there are 4-5 feet of sediment before bedrock. The survey team reported a lot of quartz, native gold in small flake and some azurite. Historically the Cottonwood Placer mine was only worked for Gold, but there may be some copper to be had. The roads to and around the claim are all in excellent condition and could be traversed easily with a good high clearance 2WD. Keep in mind that this is the desert and a good rainstorm can change road conditions drastically in just a few minutes. This is a small claim in its current state but there is a large area of land that has been worked within a wide canyon. The site is ideal for the small miner at this time and could be worked under casual use guidelines. It is suggested that a small group of miners or a small mining company take this claim over and begin operations in earnest to recover the gold that is deeper in the bedrock. In this case, bonds would likely be required but the return potential is very high.

Many of the workings follow the general trend of the mafic and felsic dikes and the contact between the Tertiary Spirit Mountain Pluton and the Precambrian metamorphics where the granitic gneisses have been thrust easterly over the pluton. The workings also follow gold bearing hydrothermal quartz veins which cement the fault and sheer zones and outcrop prominently along exposed ridges and slopes. The quartz veins cut all rock types. Rocks adjacent to the veins and dikes are sericitic and chloritic altered.

Gold occurs freely or is associated with pyrite and chalcopyrite in a quartz matrix. It was also noted that the sulfides occur in the mylonite. Fresh sulfide rich ore was observed only a few feet below the surface. Antimony in the form of tetrahedrite and oxides have been reported north of the Camp Thurman area (Lawrence, 1963).

From a 1982 report on the mine:

Lower workings following an E-W Trending, massive white quartz veins and stringers cutting PG granite gneiss. Upper workings following a N75E almost vertical 1-5' alaskite (?) dike (abundant quartz, feldspars), carrying oxidized sulfides. Hematite coats fractures. A prominent set of fractures parallel the dikes. Surrounding hills are intersected with sets of prominent leucocratic dikes. Diabase dike material was observed in float and on the dumps. The texture of the gneiss was finer than previously observed southward and feldspars were less prominent. The host rock appear almost mylonitic, Volboeth suggests that the area is a gravity slide block resulting from the doming of the Spirit Mountain Intrusive. (NBMG, Smith, Dec.1, 1982)

The Cottonwood Placer Mine is a working Placer Operation. It's a wide wash, 12-18' in most places. Up to 20' in some sections. It is part of an alluvial fan according to geology reports. The material is from 6" to a few feet deep in some sections. There is exposed bedrock that forms the base of the wash. Gold has historically been found in concentrations from flake to large nuggets. Gold and heavy metals will settle on this lowermost section of the bedrock which has not been addressed at current.

Federally Registered Mining Claim ID: NMC1136605