California Creek Uranium, Elko County, Nevada
Shoshone Silver controls 860 acres via 43 unpatented claims that cover and surround the California Creek uranium deposit 90 miles north of Elko, Nevada. The property abuts Kilgore Mineral's Mountain West property.
The deposit occurs in fluvial sediments along an unconformity between granitic basement rocks and overlying unconsolidated Tertiary sediments. Uranium bearing fluids migrated along this unconformity in the fluvial sediments and deposited U3O8 in locally reduced environments within the sediments.
Two different configurations of deposit have been identified on the property. The first is lens and cigar shaped occurrences reflecting the fluvial nature of the unconformity. The second is a tabular gently dipping configuration reflecting deposition in volcanogenic beds. Overall thickness of the deposit is around 80’ at depths of up to 500 feet.
Exploration History
There has been small scale historic production from a small pit on the property. Limited drilling occurred in the 1980’s and scintillometer geophysics was conducted in 2006. Several anomalies were detected, including one area of undisturbed, previously unexplored ground with scintillation counts as high as 250 times background.
Exploration Plans
Potential uranium resources have not yet been quantified. Shoshone plans further exploration and development of the property, potentially as a joint venture.