AzuriteCopper Hill Mine, Copper Basin District, Sierra Prieta Mts, Yavapai Co., Arizona, USA
Photo: Adam Harper Latitude: 34°29'26"N
Longitude: 112°35'39"W
‡Ref.: Galbraith, F.W. (1947), Minerals of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 153: 25.
Johnston, W.P. (1955) Copper Basin Deposits. Ph.D. thesis, University of Utah (unpublished).
Johnson, W.P. & J.D. Lowell (1961), Geology and origin of mineralized breccia pipes in Copper Basin, Arizona, Economic Geology: 56: 916-940.
Kirkemo, H., et al (1965), Investigations of Molybdenum Deposits in the Conterminous United States 1942-60, Contributions to Economic Geology, USGS Bull. 1182-E: E16-E18.
Christman, Jerry (1978) Copper Basin District, M.S. thesis, University of Arizona, 78pp. (unpublished).
Hicks, C.J. (1979), Molybdenum occurrences in Arizona, Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Min. Report #3: 25.
Niemuth, N.J. & K.A. Phillips (1992), Copper Oxide Resources, AZ Dept. Mines & Min. Resources Open File Rept. 92-10: 17 (Table 1).
Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd.ed.: 302.
U.S. Bureau of Mines - Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology file data.
USGS Wilhoit Quadrangle map.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Loma Linda Mine file.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Mining District Sheet 268.
MRDS database Dep. ID #10109059, MRDS ID #M003750; and, Dep. ID #10283772, MAS ID #0040250563.
A former underground Cu-Au-Ag-Pb-Zn-Mo mine located on 8 claims, near the center of sec. 20, T.13N., R.3W. (Wilhoit 7.5 minute topo map). Owned by Schemmer and J.E. Erickson, and was under lease to the Copper Basin Molybdenum Co. Produced 1906-1968.
Mineralization is a 300 foot diameter breccia pipe with a pipe-like or vertical cylindrical ore body. It intrudes the prevailing rock, a deeply weathered, coarse-grained, Proterozoic hornblende-quartz diorite intruded by fine-grained biotite-quartz diorite. Aplite dikes are numerous near Quartz Hill and Cross Hill. Rhyolite dikes and plugs intrude the coarse-grained quartz diorite north of Copper Hill, and south of this hill a quartz diorite porphyry dike, 30 to 50 feet wide, intrudes both the coarse- and fine-grained quartz diorite.
Both facies of quartz diorite locally have been brecciated, sericitized, and silicified. The alteration process has produced distinct zones, circular to elliptical in outline, some of which are breccia pipes. These zones are more resistent to erosion, and they form the summit areas of small hills.
The breccia in the altered hornblende-quartz diorite area is cut by low-dipping quartz veins that contain small amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite and molybdenite. Steeply dipping quartz seams cut the breccia and the low-dipping quartz veins, but the displacement is small. Chalcopyrite and molybdenite are more common in the steeply-dipping quartz seams and in vein quartz that cements breccia fragments. Molybdenite occurs in finely-divided veinlets cutting quartz or at the margin of the veins, whereas chalcopyrite is disseminated in the quartz. Seams of brilliant yellow ferrimolybdite occur in the upper workings.
Workings feature a main shaft 300 feet deep. Underground workings include drifts, crosscuts, an old shaft, an adit, and a winze. Much of the underground development was done in 1906. Additional development work was done in 1917-18. Production of Mo ore was some 1,800 tons (1916-1918)
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