Mineral resources and resource potential map of the East Yuba and West Yuba Roadless Areas, Plumas and Sierra counties, California
Year: 1986
Type: report
Abstract: Under the provisions of the Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577, September 3, 1964) and related acts, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines have been conducting mineral surveys of wilderness and primitive areas.Areas officially designated as "wilderness," "wild," or "canoe" when the act was passed were incorporated into the National Wilderness Preservation System, and some of them are presently being studied.The act provided that areas under consideration for wilderness designation should be studied for suitability for incorporation into the Wilderness System.The mineral surveys constitute one aspect of the suitability studies.The act directs that the results of such surveys are to be made available to the public and to be submitted to the President and the Congress.This report discusses the results of a mineral survey of the East Yuba Roadless Area (5264), Tahoe National Forest, Sierra County, and the West Yuba Roadless Area (5172), Plumas and Tahoe National Forests, Plumas and Sierra Counties, California.These areas were classified as further planning areas during the Second Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE II) by the U.S. Forest Service, January 1979. Buckshot, Progressive, and Crescent mines.Sample analyses and (or) histories of past production indicate that further work on gold-bearing veins at the Poker Flat and Telegraph mines and the Mammoth No. 1 and Sebastapol prospects is warranted.Disseminated, podiform chromite has also been reported at the Sebastapol prospect.There is a low potential for placer gold in Tertiary gravel beneath the extensive, locally thick sequences of volcanic rocks that cover a large part of the West Yuba Roadless Area.The major drainages contain sporadic occurrences of placer gold that are prospected on a seasonal basis.Geochemical sampling of the West Yuba Roadless Area indicates three drainage basins having a low to moderate potential for small deposits of vein-hosted gold, silver, and associated base metals.A low to moderate potential exists for gold resources in fissure-filling quartz veins and for chromite in serpentinite in the Melones fault zone.Approximately 1,000 tons of chromite was produced during World Wars I and II from three mines within 2 mi of the roadless area.There is no indication of a potential for coal, oil and gas, or geothermal resources in the roadless area.
DOI: 10.3133/mf1613a
Authors: J.R. Bergquist, Andrew Griscom, S.S. Page, W.W. White, Douglas F. Scott
Language: English
Subfield: Geochemistry and Petrology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Funder: U.S. Forest Service
OpenAlex ID: W118356387