Oxbow Mine (Oxbow claim; Golden Wreath claim; Golden Wreath Mine; Osborn prospect), Oxbow Gulch, Moore Mountain area, Oxbow Estates area, Payson District (Green Valley District), Gila Co., Arizona, USA

A former surface and underground Cu-Au-Ag-Mo-Pb-V-Fluorspar mine located in the SE¼NW¼ sec. 32, T10N, R10E, at the head of Oxbow Gulch, about 1 mile E of Moore Mountain, about 0.8 miles W of the top of Oxbow Hill, and about 1½ miles SSW of Oxbow Estates, 7 miles S of Payson, on National Forest land. The property consists of 18 claims, (2 patented: the Oxbow and Golden Wreath). Discovered by Al Sieber, William Moore and St. John in 1875. Produced 1916-1936. Previous owners and operators include: the Atlantis Mining Company (1917); J.P. Walker; W.E. McCules; A.M. Packard; P.J., C.W. and P.H. Harrison; and Alva Buckley (1941). Owned by Mr. Pete Saccuci (1973). Operated by Mr. Clay Thorne (1980).

Mineralization is a vein of considerable with with a linear shaped ore body hosted in Payson Diorite. The ore zone is 609.6 meters long, 1.83 meters wide, 160.93 meters thick, strikes N-S and dips 45-85W. The fissure vein runs N-S for much of its length but turns toward the east at its northern and southern ends. The vein shows 5 ore shoots, and numerous cross veinlets. There are also placer deposits on the property. Vein widths vary from 18 inches to 6 feet. Orange-yellow scales on a fracture plane associated with cuprodescloizite. Ore control was the curving fissure (Oxbow-shaped fault fissure) zone, NE-trending dikes, intrusions and faulting. Associated rock units include rhyolite and granite.

Area structures include Tertiary sediments approximately 1 mile south of the mine. The local diorite has a uniform texture, is coarse-grained, and is cut by a complex set of dikes and fault fissures. (See Conway's thesis (1976) for the regional geology).

Workings include a 528 foot tunnel cutting the vein along its full length, a two-compartment shaft down 200 feet, with 40 feet of drifts, and a 40 foot tunnel. The main tunnel contains 3 raises connecting it to the surface and 3 winzes of 110, 45 and 145 feet. There are also numerous pits and trenches on the surface.

References:
Arizona Mining Journal (1920) May, 1920: 56-58.

Lausen, C. & E.D. Wilson (1925), Gold and copper deposits near Payson, Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 120: 7, 31, 37-41.

Lausen C. and Wilson, E.D. (1927) Arizona Mining Journal: 10(19): 5-7, 12-14.

Wilson, E.D., et al (1934), AZ Bur. Mines Bull. 137: 183-184.

Galbraith, F.W. (1941) Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 149: 65.

Galbraith, F.W. & D.J. Brennan (1959), Minerals of Arizona: 70, 84, 96.

Van Alstine, R.E. and Moore, R.T. (1969) Fluorspar, in Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 180 (USGS Bull. 871): 351.

Johnson, M.G. (1972), Placer gold deposits of Arizona, USGS Bull. 1355: 9.

Conway, C.M. (1976) Petrology, Structure, and Evolution of a Precambrian Volcanic and Plutonic complex, Tonto Basin, Gila County, Arizona, California Institute of Technology PhD thesis.

Elevatorski, E.A. (1978), Arizona Industrial Minerals, Arizona Department of Mineral Resources, Minerals Report No. 2: 30.

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.

Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd.ed.: 201, 205, 223.

U.S. Bureau of Mines - Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mining Technology file data.

USGS Payson South Quadrangle map.

Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Oxbow Mine file.

MRDS database Dep. ID #10046305, MRDS ID #M241207; and Dep. ID #10233866, MAS ID #0040070535.