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The gold mineralization at Marigold is best described as distally disseminated. This means that the gold is finely disseminated into the host rock as very small particles and that it is far from its origin, meaning that the gold at Marigold was transported in from greater depths and along zones of hot water flow. This occurred along faults and fractures in the rock acting as fluid conduits. Ore deposition at Marigold is controlled by both favorable stratigraphy and or structurally prepared rock types near these conduits to deeper within the earth. The rock formations exposed or mined into at Marigold consist of the Valmy, Antler, and Havallah; all three formations have members that act as host rock. These sedimentary and meta-sedimentary rocks are Paleozoic in age with the Havallah formation as the upper plate of the Golconda thrust fault. The great majority of mineralization occurs in or below the Golconda thrust fault which has acted as a type of seal, causing the deposition of gold into favorable host rock.
The various open pit mines at Marigold contain examples of the variety of rock hosting gold mineralization; these include limestone, siltstone, breccias, meta-basalts and quartzite. To-date little in the way of sulfides has been encountered as exploration has concentrated on discovering and defining the oxide resource. This oxide ore is fractured enough that run of mine gold recovery is over 70%, making Marigold an excellent deposit type for bulk open pit heap leach mining methods and recovery. High angle north–south trending faults have facilitated the mineralizing hydrothermal fluid flow and these faults run the length of the property. Much of the property is masked by a cover of Tertiary tuff and Quaternary alluvium so drilling is very important in the unraveling of Marigold’s geologic secrets.
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