CopperCopper Prince Mine, Copper Creek, Copper Creek, Bunker Hill District, Galiuro Mts, Pinal Co., Arizona, USA
Latitude: 32°45'29"N
Longitude: 110°29'11"W
A former underground Cu-W-Mo mine located in the NE¼ sec. 10, T8S, R18E (Oak Grove Canyon 7.5 minute topo map), about 1½ miles WW of Copper Creek ghost town and about ¾ mile N of Copper Creek (stream), on private property. Discovered in 1907 and prospected by the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. in 1907-1909. Owned and operated by Arizona Molybdenum Corp. (1937).
Mineralization is a breccia pipe with a funnel-shaped and elliptical ore body hosted in diorite (on the adit level the pipe is elliptical in plan 280 X 150 feet). The ore zone is 85.34 meters long, 45.72 meters wide, with a depth-to-bottom of 128.02 meters. Ore control was the breccia pipe. Alteration was sericitization of plagioclase and the breccia pipe altered orange near the periphery, white at the center. Associated rock unit is the Copper Creek Granodiorite. Chalcopyrite is the only hypogene mineral. Pyrite is filmed by chalcocite; Cu sulfates occur the on walls of the underground workings. A flat-lying lens 200 feet below surface yielded several thousand tons of almost pure chalcopyrite. Area structures include NNW-trending block faulting and a breccia pipe bounded by curved peripheral faults (several faults strike E-W, N70°W and N10°W. Breccia fragments range from a few to several feet. Many have undergone only slight displacement from original position.
Workings include 1 adit, 1 420 foot deep shaft, several stopes (now inaccessible). 1937 was the only recorded year of production although the deposit was prospected in 1907-1909.
References
Weed, W.H. (1913) Mining and Engineering World: 38: 375-378.
Tenny, J.B. (1927-1929) History of Mining in Arizona, Special Cllection, University of Arizona Library & Arizona Bureau of Mines Library: 333.
Kuhn, T.H. (1941) Pipe deposits of the Copper Creek area. Economic Geology: 36(5): 512-522.
Denton, T.C. (1947) Old Reliable Mine. U.S Bureau of Mines Report of Investigation 4006.
Galbraith, F.W. (1947), Minerals of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 153: 9, 24.
Wilson, E.D., et al (1951), Arizona zinc and lead deposits, part II, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 158: 56-65.
Joralemon, I.B. (1952), Age cannot wither her varieties of geological experience, Economic Geology: 47: 243-259.
Simons, F.S. (1964), Geology of the Klondyke quadrangle, Graham and Pinal Counties, Arizona, USGS PP 461: 158.
Niemuth, N.J. & K.A. Phillips (1992), Copper Oxide Resources, Arizona Department of Mines & Mineral Resources Open File Report 92-10: 14 (Table 1).
Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 161, 167, 186, 302.
USGS Oak Grove Canyon Quadrangle map.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Mining District Sheet 741.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Magma Chief Mine file.
MRDS database Dep. ID #10088596, MRDS ID #M050127; and Dep. ID #10113630, MAS ID #0040210261.
Mineral List
8 entries listed. 6 valid minerals.
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