Mineral Resources of the Blue Canyon and Owyhee Breaks Wilderness Study Areas,Malheur County, Oregon

摘要

The U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted field studiesof 12,700 acres and 13,100 acres, respectively, in the contiguous Blue Canyon (OR-003-073) and Owyhee Breaks (OR-003-059) Wilderness Study Areas; the areas are adjacent to and include part of the Owyhee River in eastern Oregon. Fieldwork was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey during 1985 and 1988 and by the U.S. Bureau of Mines during 1988 to appraise the identified mineral resources (known) and assess the mineral resource potential (undiscovered) of the study area. The southern part of the Blue Canyon Wilderness Study Area contains identified resources of jasper and perlite and occurrences of bentonite. The Owyhee Breaks Wilderness Study Area contains occurrences of bentonite, jasper, and zeolite minerals. In the northern part of the study area, an area underlain by silicified lithic tuff has high mineral resource potential for gold, silver, mercury, and molybdenum. Silicified and brecciated tuffs exposed along two north-trending fault zones in the east-central part of the study area have high mineral resource potential for gold, mercury, and molybdenum. Rocks exposed along the west side of the Owyhee River in the western part of the study area have high mineral resource