Latitude: 33°57'26"N
Longitude: 111°23'52"W
A former surface and underground Hg-Cu mine located on 20 patented claims in secs. 15 & 16 T7N, R8E and T7N, R9E, on Slate Creek, on the E slope of the Mazatzal Mountains, on National Forest land. Claims extend into secs. 11-15. Discovered by Wesley Goswick. Started 1925 and worked intermittently until the end of 1955. Owned by Mercury Mines of America; and, the Arizona Quicksilver Corp. of Phoenix. Operated by the Uranium Enterprises, Inc.
Mineralization is two or three parallel lodes. hosted in metamorphosed formations of the Alder group of Precambrian Yavapai series. The ore zone is 121.92 meters long, strikes N80E and dips 60-75N. Cinnabar occurs in quartz veins as well as disseminated in phyllite. Tiny veinlets of pure cinnabar occur. The host rocks consist of gray and maroon slates and phyllites, some of which are gradational into or are interbedded with, grit and conglomerate and quartzite beds. The beds strike N60-80E and dip steeply North or are nearly vertical. The slates and phyllites are conspicuously foliated about pan to the bedding. Associated rock units include diroite and rhyolite. A few dikes, both felsic and mafic, are exposed in the area.
Mercury ore occurs in the phyllites and is closely associated with conspicuous zones of bleaching and alteration in which the phyllite has been converted to sericite schist, seemingly by processes associated with ore deposition. Schistosity is well-developed and rock contains well defined cleavage planes. Cinnabar occurs in seams and blades parallel to schistosity. The area is faulted by thrusts and by Tertiary normal faults. Ore occurs as small, narrow, lenticular bodies most of which strike ENE, stand nearly vertical and rake steeply West. Orebodies are irregular in shape and few have definate walls.
Workings include Hill B, Hill C, workings 1 and the Indian workings. They total 1219.2 meters in length and 91.44 meters in depth. The workings are comprised of open cuts, a 730 foot adit, a 150 foot crosscut, a 130 foot tunnel (1927 workings). In 1958, the main mine had 7 levels down to 300 feet, elongated in a N80E direction. The second working area, called workings 1, is 100 feet deep on 3 levels. Detailed mine maps are in USGS Bull 1042-R. Estimated production is 2,100 flasks of Hg. Under Uranium Enterprises Inc, the Ord Mine produced 6.8 pounds of Hg per ton. Bailey stated confusion existed with production figures between Ord & Sunflower groups. The last operations were in 1954.
Assay data: 1.04% Hg, 17.12% Hg, 5.0% Hg, 0.93% Hg., 0.37% Hg, 0.38% Hg. Possibly some very small amounts of copper.
References
Lausen, C. & E. Gardner (1927), Quicksilver Resources of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 122: 98-102.
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Report 172-480 (1953), Gila County Preliminary Reconnaissance Report: 26.
Faick, J.N. (1958), Geology of the Ord mine, Mazatzal Mountains Quicksilver district, Arizona, USGS Bull. 1042-R: 685, 695.
Beckman, R.T. & W.H. Kerns (1965), Mercury in Arizona, in Mercury potential of the United States, US Bureau of Mines Information Circular 8252: 66.
Engineering & Mining Journal (1965): 166(7).
USGS & Arizona Bureau of Mines, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (1969), Mineral and Water Resources of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 180: 228.
Arizona Department of Transportation Hiway Map (1975): 3.
Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 293, 390.
Bailey, E.H., USGS, personal files.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Mining District Sheet 128.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Ord Mercury Mine file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Amity Mining and Exploration Co. Inc. file.
Arizona Department of Mineral Resources New Projects file.
MRDS database Dep. ID #10103779, MRDS ID #M055116; and Dep. ID #10282495, MAS ID #0040070529.
Mineral List
13 entries listed. 9 valid minerals.
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