Contention Mine, Contention-Grand Central Mine group, Tombstone District, Tombstone Hills, Cochise Co., Arizona, USA

‡Ref.: The Resources of Arizona - A Manual of Reliable Information Concerning the Territory, compiled by Patrick Hamilton (1881), Scottsdale, AZ: 37.

Blake, William P. (1882) The geology and veins of Tombstone, Arizona: American Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions: 10: 335-339, 342-343.

Dana, E.S. (1892) System of Mineralogy, 6th. Edition, New York: 1093.

Church, J.A. (1903) The Tombstone, Arizona, mining district: American Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions: 33: 4, 8, 11-12, 16, 18-20, 23-25, 28, 33-34.

Butler, B.S., et al (1938b), Geology and ore deposits of the Tombstone district, Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 143: 41, 43-45, 51, 69-71, Pl. IV, VIII, IX.

Keith, Stanton B. (1973), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 187, Index of Mining Properties in Cochise County, Arizona: 74.

Niemuth, N.J. & K.A. Phillips (1992), Copper Oxide Resources, Arizona Department Mines & Mineral Resources Open File Report 92-10: 4 (Table 1).

Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 169.

Arizona Bureau of Mines files.

A Ag-Au-Pb-Cu-Zn mine located in T.20S., R.22E. (Tombstone 15 minute topo map). Owned at times, or in part, by the Western Mining Co., Grand Central Mining Co., Tombstone Mill & Mining Co., Head Center Co., Head Center & Tranquility Co., Contention Mining Co., Tombstone Consolidated Mines Co., Bunker Hill Mines Co., and the Tombstone Development Co.

Mineralization is oxidized argentiferous and auriferous galena and minor copper and zinc ores in large, rich orebodies in faulted and fractured segments of a large dike, and in brecciated footwall zones of the dike. Ore was also found in replacements of Cretaceous Bisbee Group limestone beds where intersected by "northeast" fissures.

Workings included extensive shaft(s). One of the earliest and most productive mines of the district. Over $10,000,000 was produced prior to 1886 and several hundred thousand tons were produced from the 1880's to the early 1900's. There was some sporadic production up to 1929.