Lodi District – Nye County, Nevada
Drive up access to shaft. No road access to adits.
Easy 2WD road claim. 2 miles of dirt road off the main highway
Contact us for exact coordinates.

The Lodi Mine may have also been known as the H&H or H&M Mine in the recent past (1960 and later). There is very limited information on the past production or development of the property. Surveyor assessments from onsite survey are relied on for the majority of this information. The Lodi Mine site is dominated by an industrial sized headframe/ore bin combination. Standing roughly 30 feet tall, the structure serviced a double compartment decline (85 degree) shaft. The shaft decline quickly turns into a 90 degree run. This shaft will need clearing as there are some overburden and slough on the upper edges of both the manway and the main pull. Based on the waste dump size the shaft is likely 150-200' with at 300-500' of drifting at unknown levels. The waste dump shows quartz with heavily oxidized iron and pyrites. Very little indication of lead or silver. The assumption is gold was located in iron-bearing quartz veins. The gold is likely coarse, native gold as noted in the Illinois and other mines in the vicinity. Lack of good samples in the waste dump could either indicate high values (where no samples were left behind due to value) or minimal values (no deposit located and thus no samples). There is another series of trenches to the south of the Lodi Mineshaft, these work up to a series of very old adits which are mostly obscured and will need significant work to re-open. The waste dumps on the 2 main adits are much more interesting. They show similar oxidized pyrites on quartz, but there is also small bits of native gold in fine veinlets visible in larger bits of crushed quartz. This waste dump appears to also have significant amounts of ore and deposits from inside the mines that have washed out and through the old drifts, depositing on the waste dumps and running down the hillside from heavy water runoff. Recommended site for small mining operation for early development. The shaft and adits will require rehabilitation to be safe for use. Once stabilized these drifts should give a good insight into the deposits and veins intersected in the workings. Sampling and drilling would define values and give direction of future workings. Bonds would be required for earnest work to begin.

Triassic limestone and lime-shale, probably dolomitic, are the principal host rocks for the ore deposits in the area. These sediments have been intruded by a granodiorite stock indicated by Muller and Ferguson to be Jurassic. Nearly all contact areas have been intruded by lamprophyre dikes. The youngest rocks in the district are Tertiary lavas and minor dikes which are found principally on the northwest slope of the Lodi Hills.

Lead-silver ores with a varying gold content have by far the most economic importance in the area, with the illinois mine and quartz mountain being the principal producers. Ores principally valuable for their gold content have been mined in a small way in several parts of the district, with the old camp called Granite at the southern tip of the Lodi Hills probably making the only appreciable production form gold occurring in seams and pockets. Recently, tungsten in the form of scheelite has had much attention as the Kay Cooper and Victory properties near the south end of the district have found fair grade mill ore with indications of substantial tonnages. Talc has been shipped form a deposit in the northern part of the district.[1]

This mine may have been known as the H and M mine. The history is unknown, but there was a brief, biased survey conducted in 1986,

Shaft was sunk on a 4'-5' thick band of silicated limestone and skarn within a largely hornfels section. There are large areas of outcrop of a fine­grained, green lamprophyre dike to the north and south of the shaft, skarn may be related to the dike contacts. The shaft workings are on the nose of a fold, where a shear zone cuts through the fold. Strike of the beds changes from N45W to N30E just north of the shaft. A northeast-trending of oxidation/coloration extends along strike to the northeast for about 1000 feet from the shaft.[1]

Based on the construction of the head frame this is assumed to have been at very least a well-funded mine. The construction is heavy timber with double and triple bolt joints. Estimated to have been constructed 1910-1920. This based on construction materials, degradation, and surveyor expertise. Adits were likely constructed prior to the shaft and have suffered heavily from runoff and water damage. Washes below the adits are filled with pyrites and quartz which obviously originated in the adit workings.

Good potential for re-defining gold deposits in the underground workings of the mine. Very little lead or silver seen.

Vehicles and relics in the area date from 1924-1940 (est). There is no evidence of recent development or work. Mine has likely been dormant since 1950 if not before that.

Federally Registered Mining Claim ID:NMC#1121046