Corporate and Climax claims (Corporate group; Climax claim), Copper Mountain District (Clifton-Morenci District), Shannon Mts, Greenlee Co., Arizona, USA

• Display
  • Standard
  • Detailed
  • By Strunz Category
  • By Dana Category
• Photos
  • Add Photo
• Maps
  • Map Pages
  • Nearest Localities
• Search
  • Mineral Search
  • Search Google
  • Link to USGS

A former surface and underground Mn-Au mine located in the SW¼ sec. 29, T4S, R29E, 5 miles W of Clifton, on the divide between Gold Gulch and Silver Basin, on state land. Discovered in 1932: The corporate group of claims: by the Hennandez family (1932); Climax claim: by Victoriano Dominguez and Diego Hernandez (in 1951) [?]. The Corporate group consists of 5 contiguous claims. The Climax claim lies adjacent to the 2 easternmost Corporate claims. The Corporate and Climax claims are contiguous and are accessible by travelling 2.3 miles W of Morenci on the Eagle Creek Road, then 0.5 mile S on a dirt road. Owned by State Lands; Corporate Group: Diego Hernandez (1951).

Mineralization is an irregular ore body hosted in the Pinkard Formation. The ore zone is 304.8 meters long, 3.05 meters wide, striking N30E and dipping vertically. An associated rock unit is the Morenci Granite Porphyry. Ore control is manganese minerals confined to irregular bands within a prominent vertical quartz vein that cuts diorite porphyry; gold occurs in pockets along irregular veins in the porphyry near the contact between Pinkard Formation shales and diorite porphyry. Ore concentration was mineralizaton along quartz vein in pockets or irregular vertical bands. Alteraton is sericitization of diorite-porphyry wall rock.

Area structures include NE-trending fissure vein in the southernmost extension of the main Morenci Porphyry mass; diorite porphyry cut by many irregular and NE-trending fissure veins; veins are narrow, small, and do not attain great depths. Diorite porphyry in the region contains many included masses of limestone and other sedimentary rocks. Placer gold was derived from oxidized gold-bearing veins associated with the intrusive porphyry and commonly located near or along the porphyry-sediment contact.

Tectonic components are the southern of two well-defined fissure planes in Silver Creek Basin, separating Cretaceous sandstone and shale from porphyry; downthrow on the west is about 200 feet.

Workings are 24.38 meters long and 21.34 meters deep. Developments included a 20 foot cut in the vein on the Climax claim; shaftlike pit on the Corporate No. 3 claim (dimensions: 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 15 feet deep); a 70 foot adit on the Corporate claims. The Corporate claims were located for gold and the many old cuts are unrelated to Mn production.

References

Lindgren W. (1905) The Copper Deposits of the Clifton-Morenci District, Arizona. USGS Professional Paper 43: 229-230.

Farnham, L.L., Stewart, L.A., and Delong, C.W. (1961), Manganese Deposits of Eastern Arizona, US Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7990: 103.

Johnson, M.G. (1972), Placer gold deposits of Arizona, USGS Bull. 1355: 15-16.

Bennett (1975) Geology and Origin of the Breccias in the Morenci-Metcalf District, Greenlee County, Arizona, MS thesis, University of Arizona, 153 pp.

Gold Mining. Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 137: 185.

U.S. Bureau of Mines files, Corporate group, Climax claim.

MRDS database Dep. ID #10048294, MRDS ID #M800426; and Dep. ID #10113057, MAS ID #0040110027; and Dep. ID #10282953, MAS ID #0040110028.

Mineral List

Anorthite var: Labradorite Biotite

Gold 'Hornblende'

Limonite Pyrolusite

6 entries listed. 2 valid minerals.