Aravaipa Mining District, Graham County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Aravaipa Mining District	Mining District
Graham County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

This is a lead-zinc mining area in T5-7S, R.19-21E, in the western part of Graham County, south of Stanley Butte.

Prospecting and development in the Aravaipa District began in the late 1870's. Development was desultory and on a small scale throughout its history. In 1878, a small smelter was erected near the Aravaipa claims, and a nominal tonnage of ore was smelted. Perhaps the best-organized and best-financed attempt to operate the property was begun in 1926 by the Aravaipa Mining Corp. Exploration and development of four widely separated occurrences of Pb-Zn ore carrying some values in silver was undertaken. All work ceased by the end of 1927 and the property remained idle until 1942 when small-scale exploratory work commenced.

Rocks exposed in the district range in age from Precambrian to Quaternary. Stratigraphically, in ascending order, they consist of schist, quartzite, limestone, and a series of conglomerate, arkosic sandstone, and shale interbedded with volcanic rocks. The limestone, Paleozoic in age, and older rocks have been intruded by rhyolite and andesitic and basaltic porphyries. These intrusives occur as irregular masses, sills, and dikes. Part of the area is covered by loosely consolidated gravel, sand, and silt, which locally is mantled by alluvium.

The Precambrian schist of granular quartz and sericite occurs as steeply dipping laminae. Its character is attributed to igneous intrusion and intense deformation. Regional compression, during the next period of great deformation, occurred in late Cretaceous to early Tertiary time. This resulted in folding and thrust-faulting of the formations and ended with igneous intrusion followed by steep-angle faulting.

Mineralization involves oxidized ores replacing Paleozoic limestones. The principal types of deposits on the Aravaipa claims are: 1)Veins associatedwith thrust-fault zones, as exemplified by the Head Center and Iron Cap deposits; 2) veins in steeply dipping fissures, as on the Arizona and Panama claims; and, 3) irregular replacements having some of the characteristics of contact metamorphic occurrences, as on the No. 1 and No. 2 claims, and, perhaps, in parts of the Arizona shaft workings.

Although lead and zinc are the principal metals in the ore deposits, some copper, silver, and gold are present. Primary ore minerals common to all three types of deposits are sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, and pyrite. They are believed to have been deposited from hydrothermal solutions that ascended from a buried monzonitic magma. Microscopic examination of sulfide ore shows much of the sphalerite to be encased with, and contains, stringers of chalcocite and covellite. Oxidized lead and zinc minerals occur as cerussite and smithsonite.

Additional claims owned by the Athletic Mining Co. circa 1940s, but not otherwise entered into this database due to a lack of documented mineralization, include the: Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Ironton, Ionia, Ramon Coro, Babcock, Tolman, La Sorilla, Triangle, Extension, Mammoth Chief, Silver Bell, Johnny Walker, Livingston, Keedy, Connection, Stanley, Thanksgiving, Babe Ruth, David, Jose Cuervo, Box Canyon, Curtis, Norton, Colon, Bimbo, Nina, No. 16, Fairbanks, Cows Head, Sand Carbonate, Dawes, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Forrest, Bullis, and the Group.

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