Latitude: 31°55'40"N
Longitude: 110°42'34"W
‡Ref.: Schrader, F.C. & J.M. Hill (1915), Mineral deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains, Arizona, USGS Bull. 582: 92, 134-136.
Galbraith, F.W. (1947), Minerals of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 153: 24.
Creasey, S.C. (1973) Field Examination, Cuprite Mine.
Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 302.
MRDS database Dep. ID file #10039611, MRDS ID #M050490.
A former small underground Cu-Ag-Pb-Zn-Au-Mo mine located at the extreme north end of the Santa Rita Mountains, 7 miles NE of Helvetia and 8 miles south of Vail, at the east base of Beuhman Hill, a dome-shaped hill that rises 500 feet above the surrounding surface. Discovered by Louis Ezekiel in 1899.
The mine is on open ground near the head of a southern tributary of Pantano Wash, at an elevation of 4,050 feet. It was discovered in 1899 by Louis Ezekiel and was owned by him and F.W. Fish, of Tucson (circa 1915).
The mine is on the west edge of a north-south mineralized zone, locally called the Black Horse ledge. It is principally in altered silicated limetone on or near its contact with underlying quartzite. Granite and aplite have been introduced near by and are probably present in the mine. The quartzite is provisionally referred to the Cambrian, but may be as young as Carboniferous.
The granite as exposed in the properties to the north of the mine is a medium-grained eugranitic monzonitic rock, composed of orthoclase and albite-oligoclase in about equal amounts, quartz, and biotite, with apatite and titanite as accessories.
The quartzite is cuperiferous, as is also the granite.
The mine is on 2 veins or ledges at or near their point of intersection, principally in or near the altered mineralized garnetiferous limestone. One vein dips about 30ºN. and the other 43ºSE. The latter is larger and stronger. It more nearly parallels the contact and extends upon the Wedge claim, to the north. The ore mineral is almost wholly relatively pure chalcopyrite, but the east-west ledge contains, besides the usual copper carbonates and sulphides, a considerable mixture of iron and some molybdenite, the latter mineral occurring in small kidneys disseminated through the ore. Alteration includes silication and pyritization.
Local structures include tear faults striking N45E and N35W-35SW. Thrust faulted and fractured block adjacent intrusive.
Workings include 4 shafts, the deepest of which is 120 feet, drifts, and crosscuts, principally developed on the 60 and 100 levels, aggregating about 700 feet of workings. Production to about 1915 was about 2,000 tons of good-grade copper ore.
Mineral List
16 entries listed. 14 valid minerals.
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