The Orion Placer claims are located in the Goldfield Mining District in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The claims are approximately 5 miles north of Goldfield and just to the east of Highway 95. The physical location of the claims is in the Big Wash drainage, which drains from the main areas of gold mineralization and mining areas of the Goldfield Mining District. The district has a history of gold mining exceeding 100 years. 

As with every gold mining district there are boom and bust periods of exploration and mining. Recent activities have proved gold mineralization to the south of this potential placer deposit. 

The location to the Orion Placer Claims was and still is ideal for the deposition of Gold into the Big Wash area. This is good indication that other heavy metals are possible in the nearby area. Although the depth of the alluvial material is not exactly known, the width and length of the wash across the claims and the indicators cited above are enough to warrant the further exploration of the claim area. 

The Orion placer claims located about 5 miles north of Goldfield, Nevada, cover a portion of well developed bajada sediments derived from the primary mining areas of the Goldfield mining district. The claims are situated along what is known as Big Wash. This wash varies from 400 feet to over 1,000 feet across. The headwaters include much of the heart of the mining district. High-grade pockets of gold and to a lesser extent disseminated mineralization occur in silicified and alunized Miocene rocks of the Milltown Andesite and underlying rhyodacite. The Milltown Andesite is approximately 22 million years old. Mineralization is thought to be slightly younger. Ore occurs in depths of less than 1,000 feet. Approximately 5 million ounces of gold have been mined. There is little indication of how long the mineralized rocks have been exposed, but the bajada north of town is well developed and mature. Big Wash is developed in this bajada.

Big wash is currently incised into the bajada by 20 to 30 feet. The wash is a well developed series of braided ephemeral streams eroding into the top of the bajada. Sheet wash from the west and southwest are reworking older sediments and widening the wash in those directions. In recent years, tailings from historic mining have been washed into the drainage. Overall, erosion is outstripping deposition of new sediments.

The sediments are well exposed in both walls of the wash and along the current channel. These exposures show a well developed set of graded beds with cross-bedding in finer material. Gravels are not particularly well sorted, but do show graded bedding that does culminate in clays and silt. These fine grained sediments are then overlain by coarser material. These changes in depositional regimes are good traps for fine gold. Exposed gravel beds are up to 3 to 4 feet thick. The overall thickness of the sediments is not known. Locally, boulders up to several feet across are found interspersed in the silts and gravels an indication of the power of flash flooding. These boulders are composed of silicified rhyodacite and much young basalts. All of the rocks found in the wash are subrounded to rounded indicating both tumbling of the larger rocks and polishing by finer material being washed over the larger rocks. Locally, patches of tailings are found both above and in the wash.

A striking characteristic of the sediments is their magnetite content. A magnet reveals that the sediments contain 1 to 2 percent magnetite. The magnetite is found as small concentrations or, more frequently, disseminated in the sediments. The small concentrations indicate reworking of the material containing the magnetite. These concentrations of magnetite undoubtedly contain fine gold. Magnetite is derived from the mafic rocks of the district such as Andesite and basalt. The assays provided indicate a potential resource for gold. The sediments are well developed with numerous traps for fine gold. The sediments are being reworked by present day erosion providing a concentration mechanism for fine gold. There is an additional resource of magnetite which can be easily extracted with magnetic separation. With the magnetite removed, the remaining heavy mineral concentrate can then be gravity separated.

 There is good potential for a placer resource along Big Wash north of Goldfield. Combined with magnetite collected and sold to a cement plant and a gold grade of at least 30 grams to few hundred grams per ton, a significant resource can be developed.