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Silver Bell District, Silver Bell Mts, Pima Co., Arizona, USA

‡Ref.: The Resources of Arizona - A Manual of Reliable Information Concerning the Territory, compiled by Patrick Hamilton (1881), Prescott, AZ: 47.

Barney, W.G. (1904), The Silver Bell Mountains, Arizona, Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 78: 755-756.

Tolman, C.F., Jr. (1909), Copper deposits of Silverbell, Arizona, Mining & Scientific Press, Vol. 99: 646-658.

Stewart, C.A. (1912) The geology and ore deposits of the Silverbell mining district, Arizona, A.I.M.E. Bull. 65: 455-505 (AIME Transactions, Vol. 43: 240-290).

Mining World, Vol. 36: 1104-1107, 1147-1150.

Galbraith, F.W. (1947), Minerals of Arizona, Arizona Bureauof Mines Bull. 153: 16, 17.

Kerr, P.F. (1951), Alteration features at Silver Bell, Arizona, Geological Society of America Bull., Vol. 62: 451-480.

Richard, K.E. & Courtright, J.H. (1954), Structure & Mineralization at Silver Bell, Arizona, Mining Engineering, Vol. 6(11): 1095-1099 (A.I.M.E. Transactions, 1954 - Vol. 199 (1955)).

Galbraith, F.W. & D.J. Brennan (1959), Minerals of Arizona: 43, 49, 60, 61, 63, 91, 110.

Richard, K.E. & Courtright, J.H. (1966), Structure & Mineralization at Silver Bell, Arizona, in Titley, S.R. and Hicks, C.L., editors, The Geology of the porphyry copper deposits, southwestern North America: 157-163 (University of Arizona Press).

Williams, S.A. (1966), The significance of habit and morphology of wulfenite, American Mineralogist: 51: 1212-1217.

Keith, Stanton B. (1974), Arizona Bureau of Geology & Mineral Technology, Geological Survey Branch Bull. 189, Index of Mining Properties in Pima County, Arizona: 142 (Table 4).

Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 161, 238, 341, 370, 374, 377, 424, 426.

A Cu-Ag-Pb-Zn-Mo-Au-Mn mining area located in T.11-12S. R.7-8E., in the Silver Bell and West Silver Bell Mountains, some 50 miles West from Tucson.

Mineralization is varied: (1) Supergene enriched deposits of chalcocite with minor copper carbonates and silicates in sheeted, closely spaced veinlets and seams of quartz, with pyrite and chalcopyrite, in hydrothermally altered Laramide alaskite, monzonite, and some dacite porphyry; (2) Disseminated, partly oxidized chalcopyrite, and minor galena and sphalerite, in pyrometasomatized Paleozoic limestone and quartzite pendants in Laramide intrusives; (3) Pyrometasomatic mantos, pods, and lenses of zinc, copper and lead carbonates and sulfides in a garnetized Paleozoic limestone block. Ore controlled by faults, bedding, and andesite dikes; and, (4) Spotty copper oxides, minor wulfenite, and manganese and iron oxides in limy Cretaceous and interbedded Permian limestone and quartzites along a fault zone. Often associated with andesite porphyry intrusives. The district features immense dikes to 50 feet wide carrying carbonates and red and black oxides of copper.

Workings include shaft, adit, and open pit operations. Worked since 1873 but the major production from open pits occurred after 1953. Total estimated and reported output through 1972 would be some 61,200,000 tons of ore containing about 504,400 tons of Cu, 24,000 tons of Zn, 900 tons of Pb, 5,300,000 oz. of Ag, & 1,490 oz. Au.



Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities
Acanthite
Actinolite
Alunite
Andradite
'Apatite'
Aragonite
Azurite
Baryte
Bayldonite
'Biotite'
Bornite
Brochantite
Cacoxenite
Calcite
var: Manganoan Calcite
Cerussite
Chalcanthite
Chalcocite
Chalcopyrite
Chlorargyrite
'Chlorite Group'
Chrysocolla
Copper
'Copper Stain'
Covellite
Cuprite
Descloizite
Diopside
'Endellite'
Epidote
Epsomite
Fluorite
Galena
'Garnet'
Goethite
Gold
Goslarite
var: Cuprogoslarite

Grossular
Hedenbergite
Hematite
Hematite
var: Specularite

Jarosite
Kaolinite
'K Feldspar'
Leucosphenite
Libethenite
'Limonite'
Lizardite
Magnetite
Malachite
Melanterite
var: Cuprian Melanterite

Metatorbernite
'Mica Group'
Mimetite
Molybdenite
Montmorillonite
Muscovite
var: Sericite

Opal
Orthoclase
Pseudomalachite
'Psilomelane'
Pyrite
Quartz
var: Chalcedony
var: Jasper
Rutile
Siderite
Smithsonite
Sphalerite
Tenorite
Titanite
Torbernite
Turquoise
Vanadinite
'Wad'
Willemite
Wollastonite
Wulfenite
Zircon


93 entries listed. 61 valid minerals.

Localities in this Region

USA
USA

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