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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.
