Lake Superior and Arizona Mine (L.S. & A. Mine; Gold Eagle Mine; Golden Eagle Mine; Superior and Arizona Mine; Vivian shaft; Monarch vein; Queen Creek-Magma Mine; Superior Manganese Mine), Superior, Pioneer District, Pinal Mts, Pinal Co., Arizona, USA
Latitude: 33°18'7"N
Longitude: 111°5'48"W
A former underground Au-Ag-Cu-Mn-Pb mine located in the S½ sec. 35/36, T1S, R12E (Superior 7.5 minute topo map), on the eastern edge of Superior between the Queen Creek and the Magma Mine, near the mouth of the Queen Creek Canyon, on National Forest land. Discovered 1875. Owned by the Lake Superior and Arizona Mining Co. (1902- ); and, the Magma Copper Co. (1920- ). Produced 104 to 1935. Discovered 1885 and produced 1902-1957. Property extends into sec. 35.
Mineralization is in Cambrian Troy Quartzite and Devonian Martin Limestone which strike Northward and dip about 30ºE. The vein occurs within the zone of a strike fault that has brecciated the quartzite-limestone (Troy quartzite) contact and the lower beds of the limestone. There are 7 faults in the area trending E-W. The ore bodies are tabular, strike N, dip 30E, at 6.1 meters thick and 1.83 meters wide.
Five significant gold oreshoots were discovered by crosscutting along traverse fissures for a few feet toward the hanging wall, within a horizontal distance of 3,000 feet. These average 4 feet wide by 15 feet long. The most persistent extends to the bottom of the mine. Ore consists mainly of hematite, limonite & fine-grained, grayish to greenish-yellow quartz of epithermal aspect. All ore mined was oxidized.
The orebody is said to replace limestone near the contact with underlying Cambrian quartzite. At this horizon bodies of siliceous manganese ore crop out on the surface from the creek level to the crest of the ridge. Northward from the ridge toward the Magma Mine, there is little manganese in the limestone beds except where eastward-trending fissures cut the bedding. Here small lenses of highly siliceous manganiferous material occur along the bedding planes and in the fissures.
Workings consist of a few thousand feet of tunnels & a 1,400 foot deep/long incline (at 26ºE.), that connects with 8 levels of drifts. Most drifting is on the 2nd., or Carlton tunnel, level which extends southward for some 2,000 feet & opens into Queen Creek Canyon. Gophering.
Assay data: 0.2 oz Au per ton from old workings (Vivian shaft).
References
Jones, E.L., Jr. & F.L. Ransome (1920), Deposits of manganese ore in Arizona, USGS Bull. 710-D: 163.
Arizona Mining Journal (1922) July, 1922: 35.
Wilson, E.D., Cunningham, J.B., and Butler, G.M. (1934), Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining. Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 137: 169-170.
Elsing and Heineman (1939) USGS Bull. 140: 99.
Short, M.N., Galbraith, F.W., Harshman, E.N., Kuhn, T.H., and Wilson, E.D. (1943) Geology and Ore Deposits of the Superior Mining area, Arizona. Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin 151: 135-139.
Farnham, L.L., Stewart, L.A., and Delong, C.W. (1961), Manganese deposits of eastern Arizona, US Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7990: 124, 126, 134-136.
Wilson, E.D., Cunningham, J.B., and Butler, G.M. (1934), Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining (revised 1967), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 137: 169-170.
Niemuth, N.J. & K.A. Phillips (1992), Copper Oxide Resources, Arizona Department of Mines & Mineral Resources Open File Report 92-10: 14 (Table 1).
Sawyer, M.B., Gurmendi, A.C., Daley, M.R., and Howell, S.B. (1992) Principal Deposits of Strategic and Critical Minerals in Arizona, U.S. Bureau of Mines Special Publication, 334 pp.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources L.S. and A. mine file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Magma Copper Co. Miscellaneous #1 file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources U file.
USGS Superior Quadrangle map.
MRDS database Dep. ID #10026788, MRDS ID #M000244; and Dep. ID #10048313, MRDS ID #M899880; and Dep. ID #10210810, MAS ID #0040210596.
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