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Can the Superstition Mountains hold a rich gold vein?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·4 answers·0·0 following
Most likely: the range is mid-Miocene ash-flow tuff and lava of a caldera complex, without the hydrothermal systems that…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

Where it stands

Four answers have been proposed. Gold exists on the range's margins (Goldfield's epithermal veins) and a legend placed inside the range could… leads, with evidence 1 for: partly supported by its tests. Three are still possible.

Why it matters

If the rocks cannot host the deposit the legend describes, searching is futile whatever Waltz said⁠[1]⁠[2].

Answers 4

Evidence: 1 for
Most likely
Evidence: 2 for
Most likely
Evidence: 1 for
Still possible
None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible

History

  1. Kollenborn puts forward: gold exists on the range's margins (Goldfield's epithermal veins) and a legend placed inside the range could…
  2. Kollenborn: the wilderness has never proved mineralised near the surface; 1970s drilling near Woodbury found nothing;…For: The range is mid-Miocene ash-flow tuff and lava of a caldera complex, without the hydrothermal systems that…
  3. Kollenborn: precambrian granites occur in a few isolated areas of the wilderness.For: A mineralised pre-volcanic basement or a cache (not a vein) lies inside the range.
  4. Ferguson & Trapp puts forward: the range is mid-Miocene ash-flow tuff and lava of a caldera complex, without the hydrothermal systems that…
  5. Ferguson & Trapp: the state survey maps one regional ash-flow sheet (Apache Leap Tuff, 18.58 Ma) from a single Superstition…For: The range is mid-Miocene ash-flow tuff and lava of a caldera complex, without the hydrothermal systems that…
  6. Asked on this site
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