‡Ref.: Ransome, F.L. (1922) Ore deposits of the Sierrita Mountains, Pima County, Arizona, in Contributions to Economic Geology (Short Papers and Preliminary Reports), 1921 - Part I.--Metals and Nonmetals except Fuels: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 725J, p. 424.
Tenney, J.B. (1928), The Mineral Industries of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 125: 90.
Mayuga, M.N. (1942) The Geology and Ore Deposits of the Helmet Peak Area, Pima County, Arizona, PhD thesis, University of Arizona.
Galbraith, F.W. (1947), Minerals of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 153: 27.
Wilson, E.D., et al (1950), Arizona zinc & lead deposits, Part I, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 156: 49.
Cooper, J.R. (1960) Some geologic features of the Pima mining district, Pima County, Arizona: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1112-C, p. 63-103, 1 sheet, scale 1:31,680.
Keith, Stanton B. (1974), Arizona Bureau of Geology & Mineral Technology, Geological Survey Branch Bull. 189, Index of Mining Properties in Pima County, Arizona: 137 (Table 4).
Niemuth, N.J. & K.A. Phillips (1992), Copper Oxide Resources, Arizona Department of Mines & Mineral Resources Open File Report 92-10: 13 (Table 1).
USGS Twin Buttes Quadrangle topo map.
MRDS database Dep. ID #10039581, MRDS ID #M050369; and, Dep. ID #10259253, MAS ID #0040190367.
A former small underground Pb-Ag-Zn-Cu-Au mine group located in SE ¼ sec. 10, the SW ¼ sec. 11, and North-central sec. 15, T.17S., R.12E. (Twin Buttes 15 minute topo map), 1 mile S of San Xavier on private land. The Helmet Peak claims are immediately south of the Olivette and Swastika. Little historical information is available. Produced 1885 (1880's to 1890's)-1955. Owned at times, or in part, by the Sunrise Mining Co., the Prosperity Smelting & Mining Co.; Helmet Peak Mining & Milling Co.; and the Great Northern Exploration Co., Inc.
Mineralization is complex, partly oxidized silver-lead-zinc-copper minerals in irregular pockets, lenses and pods along fracture zones in brecciated, altered, Cretaceous andesite volcanics and clastic sediments (K-altered, brecciated andesite tuff, flow, breccia and minor conglomerate) within the San Xavier thrust fault block. The orebodies occur as irregular replacements within a northeastward-trending zone of brecciation several hundred feet long by about 250 feet wide. This area consists of brecciated andesite in which hydrothermal alteration has formed chlorite, epidote, and some serpentine. Granite crops out 3,000 feet NW of the mine and probably underlies the workings at some unknown depth. Abundant faults and shears. The ore body is 91.44 meters long, 76.2 meters wide and 182.88 meters to bottom.
Workings include shaft operations. Workings include 2 shafts & drift work (1928) to a depth of 182.88 meters. Development ultimately involved several vertical safts of which the deepest, No. 1 on the Camden claim, reached 600 feet, and No. 2, on the Elsie claim was 400 feet deep. More than 3,500 feet of drifting is reported to have been done between these two shafts. Considerable oxidized lead and zinc ore is reported to have been mined from near the surface. Worked sporadically from the late 1880's to 1955. Produced an estimated and reported total of some 1,000 tons of ore averaging about 7% Pb, 7 oz. Ag/T, 1% Zn, 0.5% Cu and minor Au. Most high-grade ore was mined prior to 1900.
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