Latitude: 31°49'59"N
Longitude: 110°22'15"W
‡Ref.: Arizona Mining Journal (1948) April, 1948.
Wilson, E.D. & G.H. Roseveare (1949), Arizona Nonmetallics, A Summary of Past Production and Present Operations, 2nd. Edition (revised), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 155: 21.
Wilson (1950) Fluorspar in Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Circular 15: 9-10.
Johnson, A.L. (1952) Arizona Department of Mining and Mineral Resources Engineers Report: 1.
Johnson, A.L. (1954) Arizona Department of Mining and Mineral Resources Engineers Report: 1.
Johnson, A.L. (1964) Arizona Department of Mining and Mineral Resources Engineers Report: 1.
Irvin, G.W. (1967), Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources Engineers Report: 1.
Burnette, C.R. (1957) Geology of the Middle Canyon, Whetstone Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona: Tucson, University of Arizona, M.S. thesis, 55 p.: 25-28.
Van Alstine, R.E. and Moore, R.T. (1969) Fluorspar, in USGS & Arizona Bureau of Mines & U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Mineral and Water Resources of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 180 (USGS Bull.871): 352.
Elevatorski, E.A. (1971), Arizona Fluorspar, Arizona Department of Mineral Resources, U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigation 5651: 10-12.
Keith, Stanton B. (1973), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 187, Index of Mining Properties in Cochise County, Arizona: 91 (Table 4).
Phillips, K.A. (1987), Arizona Industrial Minerals, 2nd. Edition, Arizona Department of Mines & Minerals Mineral Report 4, 185 pp.
Chatman, M.L. (1994) U.S. Bureau of Mines Open File Report Mineral Land Assessment (MLA) 2-94: 13-15.
Arizona Bureau of Mines files.
MRDS database Dep. ID file #10069410, MRDS ID #W006928; and, Dep. ID #10112443, MAS ID #0040030001.
A former small underground Fluorspar mine located in the SE ¼ sec. 26 & the NE ¼ sec. 35, T.18S., R.19E., 24 km SSW of Benson. Produced 1946. Owned by Cooper Shapely, Jr. of Benson. Also owned and operated by Mr. C.L. Whitelock at some unspecified time.
Mineralization is coarse-grained, banded, greenish fluorspar bordered by dense and vuggy quartz walls in a shear-type fissure vein striking N30W and dipping 80S, hosted in Precambrian Pinal Schist. Ore shoots averaging 2.5 feet thick and as much as 25 feet long and 30 feet deep, contain more than 80% CaF2. Fluorspar in fissure veins in quartz-sericite schist that is contoured and sheared, with the schist foliation striking N15E, and dipping 80SE.
Ore control was a fault. 85% effective CaF2 average mine run (Wilson 1950). 75 - 85% CaF2 average and a grab sample from a stockpile assayed 87% CaF2, 2.7% silica and 0.13% Pb.
Local structures include a fault with 900 meters of vertical displacement located 0.8km east of the mine.
Workings include a shaft(s). Levels at 60, 90, 190, 250, and 300 feet, inclined shaft 80 feet, at least 600 feet total workings, including shaft.
At least 20,000 tons of fluorspar were produced from 1946 through 1967. Production period was 1946 - 1952 and 1967. Arizona's most productive fluorspar mine. A minimum of processing (hand sorting, crushing and screening) necessary to make metallurgical grade.
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