Strata-bound, silver-bearing iron, lead, and zinc sulfide deposits in Silurian and Ordovician rocks of allochthonous terranes, Nevada and northern Mexico

Allochthonous terranes in northern Nevada contain strata-bound sulfide deposits at two horizons in Silurian and Ordovician siliceous sedimentary rocks. The most intensively mineralized horizon and most extensive deposit is at the base of the Silurian. Another less extensive deposit is in the lower Middle Ordovician. Spectrographic analyses of gossan from the basal Silurian horizon indicate anomalously high values of lead and zinc; and in about 40 percent of the samples, silver values are anomalously high. Suhsurface samples contain the primary minerals pyrite, galena, and sphalerite. The basal Silurian deposits are in thick-bedded chert that is overlain by micaceous siltstone. They are underlain by a thick-bedded black chert unit of Late Ordovician age. The basal Silurian gossan has been identified also in southwestern Nevada and in northern Mexico in stratigraphic sequences very similar to that of northern Nevada.