Latitude: 32°58'41"N
Longitude: 110°20'22"W
A former surface and underground Pb-Zn-Cu-Ag-Au-Mn mine located at the head of Williamson Canyon, about 2½ road miles NE of Aravaipa and ½ mile in air line west of the Iron Cap Mine. Owned by the Athletic Mining Co. (1942- ). Operated by the Athletic Mining Co. and the Far Mining Enterprises. Also known as/designated: Patented claims MS 1040.
Mineralization is a vein deposit hosted in the Horse Mountain silicic lava and tuff and the Horquilla Limestone and shale. Mineral-bearing veins are in porphyritic dacite or quartz porphyry dike along the fault zone. Sone brecciation occurred. Ore control was the fault at the contact of the limestone/shale and volcanics. Concentration was fissure filling and alteration was oxidation.
In the NW part of the Head Center claim, rhyolite porphyry has intruded Carboniferous limestone with irregular to sill-like contacts which have been complicated by faulting.
The Head Center vein strikes eastward and dips 32º-45ºN. In the tunnel it occurs in a brecciated fault zone of complexly faulted limestone and porphyry 10 or ore feet wide, and appears to widen extensively where both walls are limestone. From the Head Center portal the zone is traceable for some 500 feet SE and for an unknown distance westward. Its irregular trend on the surface is partly due to topography and partly to variations of the fault zone. Here the ore is largely oxidized, but sulfides are reached in the winze at a depth of 30 feet on the dip below the tunnel. Secondary copper minerals are of some importance.
Some residual sulphides occur near the surface, but in general oxidation has been thorough to a depth of about 30 feet below the adit and continues downward throughout all the workings; in general, from 70 to 80% of all the lead and zinc minerals occur in non-sulphide form.
Area structures include the Head Center Fault and block faulting trending NNW. Regional trends: minor Pre-Cretaceous E- and NE-trending folds and major Post-Cretaceous NNW-trending faults.
The workings consist of a drift tunnel (adit) about 210 feet long from which 150 feet of lateral work has been done, a 130 foot winze from the drift tunnel, and 33 feet of drift from the bottom of the winze, plus an inclined shaft 400 feet deep with workings on 5 levels below the adit; and an open cut. Small tonnages of ore were shipped in 1939 and earlier. Production listed under the Head Center Mine shows production years as 1956, 1957, 1969 and 1970 in the USBM and ABGMT file data. Simons (1964), says that there was production before 1956, but shows no record of this production. Assay shows 38% Pb, 1-29% Zn, 0-6% Cu, 1-8 oz/ton Ag, and 0.1 oz/ton Au.
References
Ross, C.P. (1925a), Geology and ore deposits of the Aravaipa and Stanley mining districts, Graham County, Arizona, USGS Bull. 763.
Elsing and Heineman (1936) Arizona Metal Production. Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin 140: 93.
Denton, T.C. (1947), Aravaipa lead-zinc deposits, Graham County, Arizona, U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigation 4007: 4-5.
Galbraith, F.W. (1947), Minerals of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 153: 17.
Mining World (1948): 10(7) (Jun, 1948): 64.
Wilson, E.D., et al (1950), Arizona zinc and lead deposits, part I, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 156: 58-59.
Simons, F.S. & E. Munson (1963), Johannsenite from the Aravaipa mining district, Arizona, American Mineralogist: 48: 1154-1158.
Simons, F.S. (1964), Geology of the Klondyke quadrangle, Graham and Pinal Counties, Arizona, USGS PP 461: 133.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Mining Claims Lead File #86176 (Jul, 1980).
Wilson, W.E. (1988), The Iron Cap Mine, Mineralogical Record: 19: 81-87.
Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 228, 374.
USGS Cobre Grande Mountain Quadrangle map.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Head Center file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Brushy group file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources FAR Mining Enterprises file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources U file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Aravaipa District Lead-Zinc Deposits file.
MRDS database Dep. ID #10039449, MRDS ID #M050095; and Dep. ID #10282747, MAS ID #0040090168.
Mineral List
5 entries listed. 5 valid minerals.
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