Historic work by the Nevada Bureau of Mines & Geology (Bull. 99B) gives a brief historic account of the Makenzie project and some of the surrounding Washington Mining District.
The area was originally discovered by Mexican prospectors in the 1860’s, as they searched northwards from the famous Mexican silver mines.
Later investigations discovered antimony in the general area of the Washington District that now are covered by the Makenzie project.
The historic Washington Mining District was characterized by Silver Base Metal veining and subsiduary gold and tungsten mineralization. Outboard from the general Makenzie prospects lie the mining districts of Austin and Reese River, with the mines of Round Mountain, Paradise Peak, Jefferson and Bruner all within a 45km radius of the project.
The historic and current mining projects are all epithermal systems similar in style to Makenzie.
The State of Nevada (The Silver State founded in 1864) was founded on its Silver/Gold discoveries originally at the Comstock Lode in 1859 and the Tonopah District in 1910 (lying some 100kms south-south-east of Makenzie), all epithermal vein style mineralisation. It was then in 1962 that the first of the large low-grade gold open pit deposits was discovered and lead to current large scale mining.
Latest figures (2023) quote Nevada producing ~ 4.4Moz gold (predominantly from Carlin type deposits) some 72% of the US gold production.