Tom Schweich  

Kings River Valley

Junction: Kings River Road, Horse Creek Road

Thacker Pass

Thacker Pass lithium deposit

The Thacker Pass lithium deposit, previously called the Kings Valley lithium deposit, is a lithium clay mining development project located in Humboldt County, Nevada. The project is located 21 miles (34 km) west-northwest of Orovada, Nevada within the McDermitt Caldera, and overlaps with 2866 acres of big sagebrush habitat, as well as known golden eagle breeding sites.

The most significant lithium-clay resource so far discovered is the Kings Valley hectorite deposit, located within the McDermitt caldera complex, which is an extinct volcanic center in northern Nevada. The McDermitt area had extensive volcanism during the Miocene; at least five collapsed vents and resurgent domes have been recognized within the complex. The lithium clays occur in hydrothermally altered, volcanic-derived sediments of lakes that occupied the caldera (Rytuba and Glanzman, 1979). Recovery of lithium by leaching the clay with sulfuric acid has proven feasible (Eggleston and Hertel, 2008). The deposit is being developed for production, but lithium production has not yet begun (Western Lithium Corp., 2015).(Bradley, et al (2017)

McDermitt caldera

The McDermitt caldera (western USA) is commonly considered the point of origin of the Yellowstone hotspot. The caldera formed during eruption of the 16.39 ± 0.02 Ma (n = 3) McDermitt Tuff. The McDermitt caldera formed in an area that had undergone two episodes of Eocene intermediate volcanism at 47 and 39 Ma and major middle Miocene volcanism that led continuously to caldera formation. Eruption of the Steens Basalt, the oldest Miocene activity, began before 16.69 Ma. Rhyolite lavas and domes were emplaced around what is now the caldera wall in 4 areas at 16.62, 16.49, and 16.38 Ma. Numerous hydrothermal systems probably related to caldera magmatism and focused along caldera structures produced Hg, Zr-rich U (some along the western caldera ring fracture dated as 16.3 Ma), Ga, and minor Au mineralization. Lithium deposits formed throughout the intracaldera tuffaceous sediments, probably ca. 14.9 Ma. Silicic volcanism around the McDermitt caldera is some of the oldest of the Yellowstone hotspot, but the caldera is younger than two known calderas in northwestern Nevada. The McDermitt caldera is similar to calderas of the middle Cenozoic ignimbrite flareup of the Great Basin, especially in strong compositional zoning and large volume of erupted tuff, collapse along a distinct ring-fracture system, abundance of megabreccia in intracaldera tuff, and resurgence. The greatest differences are that McDermitt is larger in area than all except a few flareup calderas and underwent far less collapse (~1 km versus 3–4 km to as much as 6 km) (Henry, et al., 2017)

Low pass

Cross Quinn River

Orovada

Junction: US Highway 95