Iron Point occurs at the general intersection of the northeast-striking Getchell Trend, the larger northwest-striking Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend, and a third sub-trend that Miranda Gold infers to exist between Lone Tree and the Iron Point district. Further, the Iron Point district is within the northeast-striking "Humboldt Lineament" which may exert basement or crustal-scale controls to mineralization where it crosses the Independence, Carlin, and Battle Mountain-Eureka Trends. The regional geology of the Iron Point district is dominated by folded and faulted lower Paleozoic (Cambrian) sedimentary rocks which are structurally overlain by upper Paleozoic (Pennsylvanian-Permian) rocks. The Iron Point and Golconda thrusts are structural features that complicate the geology of the district.
On the Iron Point project, rocks of the Ordovician Comus and Cambrian Preble Formations are exposed at surface. These rocks are significant gold hosts at the Pinson, Getchell and Twin Creeks mines. The Cambrian rocks are in fault contact with Ordovician Valmy Formation.
component.
Work from a previous exploration program suggests the Comus Formation at Iron Point may be distinct from Comus in other parts of the Getchell Trend. Portions of the stratigraphy are lithologically very similar to the Ordovician Hanson Creek and Silurian Roberts Mountain Formations observed on the Carlin and Cortez Trends. Silurian age graptolites have been collected from laminated silty limestone with phosphatic lenses. These patterns are similar to rocks assigned to the Roberts Mountain Formation, however the Iron Point rocks have been included in the Ordovician Comus Formation. The "Comus" Formation at Iron Point may represent a similar depositional environment to the Hanson Creek and Roberts Mountain Formations. Ordovician and Silurian age rocks of the Hanson Creek and Roberts Mountain Formations respectively are ore hosts for profitable gold mines within the Cortez Trend, which is an important component of the larger Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend. This stratigraphic sequence should be drill tested on Iron Point project.
Intruding the sedimentary package is a Cretaceous age equigranular granodiorite, and numerous northwest to west northwest-striking feldspar porphyry dikes and sills. Cross cutting relations indicate at least two distinct igneous pulses on the project. A crude metal zonation is inferred from mapping and previous drilling. Base metals coincide with hornfelsed rocks, whereas gold mineralization appears to be on the hornfels margin to slightly outboard of the thermal alteration.
Braided strands of the Getchell fault system are inferred to project south directly through the Iron Springs district. This projection is substantiated by United States Geological Survey (USGS) multi-sensor airborne geophysical programs conducted in 1988.
Notable alteration at Iron Point includes broad zones of decalcified and silicified limestone, and clay-pyrite rich felsic dikes and sills. USGS quadrangle mapping suggests a distinctive and repeated pattern of west-northwest and north-northwest inflections and intersections of multi-phase dike-filled fault zones that suggest local dilational pull-apart fault blocks created from a lateral component of movement on west-northwest-striking faults. These fault intersections and the margins of intrusive rocks appear to be the favored locus for alteration and metals within the Iron Point district.
North northwest-trending map-scale fold patterns parallel to north-northwest-trending "Getchell Trend" fault extensions are a notable feature in the district. At least locally, some of the north-northwest faults show reverse movement and extensional reactivation. Significant alteration is also observed in Comus rocks related to a reverse fault that is mineralized and trending northwest under young basalt.
