Latitude: 33°7'59"N
Longitude: 109°20'48"W
A former underground Cu-Au-Ag-Mn-Zn-garnet mine located in the SE¼NW¼ sec. 34, T3S, T29E, in King Gulch, 1 mile NE of Shannon Mountain, 6 miles NNW of Clifton, on private land. This property is comprised of 2 patented claims (Antietam and Leo C.). Discovered 1875 by Charles M. and Baylor Shannon. Produced 1902 until 1918. Past owners included the Detroit Copper Mining Co. of Arizona; and, the New England and Clifton Copper Mines Co. Past operators included P.F. Crowley. Owned by the Phelps Dodge Corp., Morenci Branch.
Mineralization is an irregular ore body hosted in the Modoc Limestone, Morenci Shale and the Longfellow Limestone and associated with Morenci Granite Porphyry and Precambrian granite basement. Adjacent to Morenci Quartz Monzonite intrusion. The ore zone is 1609.3 meters long, 12.19 meters wide, with a depth to top of 0 meters, striking N-S and dipping vertically. Ore control was N-S-trending fissure vein in the granite basement. Ore concentration was surface leaching and oxidation of ores in contact-metamorphic limestone, metasomatic replacement. Surface alteration was extensive to unknown depths. Some of the largest ore bodies were originally calcareous sediments altered through leaching and oxidation with an unknown vertical extent. The ores consist chiefly of chalcopyrite and pyrite in altered granite. The vein continues northward onto the Boulder claim (property formerly of the Arizona Copper Co. Ltd.) and southward onto the old Shannon Copper Co. property.
The porphyry in the area is fragmented by masses of quartzite, limestone, and shale. NE-trending narrow porphyry dikes in the vicinity Veins in the region consist of many very sharply defined fissure planes striking NNE. Local tectonics include block faulting NW of the Copper King Massif with downthrow of about 1000 feet.
Workings are 15.24 meters deep. Developments included a 2-compartment shaft to a depth of 140 feet; and, a tramline from the mine to the Shannon railway. Analytical data: 4% Cu, $8 Au/ton, 5 oz. Ag/ton (date unknown).
References
Kunz, G.F. (1885), On remarkable copper minerals from Arizona, Annals of the New York Academy of Science: 3: 275-278.
Farrington, O.C. (1891), On crystallized azurite from Arizona, American Journal of Science: 41: 300-307.
Lindgren, W. & W.F. Hillebrand (1904), Minerals from the Clifton-Morenci district, Arizona, American Journal of Science: 18: 448-460.
Lindgren, W. (1905), The copper deposits of the Clifton-Morenci district, Arizona, USGS PP 43: 354.
Stevens, P. (1911) The Copper Handbook: vol. 10: 1285, New England and Clifton Copper Co.
Weed, W.H. (1914) The Copper Handbook: vol. 11: 318, Detroit Copper Mining Co. of Arizona.
University of Arizona Bull. 41 (1916-17), Mineralogy of Useful Minerals in Arizona: 23, 25.
Schwartz, G.M. (1934), Paragenesis of the oxidized ores of copper, Economic Geology: 29: 55-75.
Galbraith, F.W. & D.J. Brennan (1959), Minerals of Arizona: 55, 101;
Bideaux, R.A. (1973), The collector (on azurite), Mineralogical Record: 4: 34-35.
Bennett (1975) Geology and Origin of the Breccias in the Morenci-Metcalf District, Greenlee County, Arizona, MS thesis, University of Arizona, 153 pp.
Phillips, K.A. (1987), Arizona Industrial Minerals, 2nd. Edition, Arizona Department of Mines & Minerals Mineral Report 4, 185 pp.
Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 125, 248, 372.
U.S. Bureau of Mines - Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mining Technology file data.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Mining District Sheet #840.
MRDS database Dep. ID #10026951, MRDS ID #M001269; and Dep. ID #1008880, MRDS ID #M800161.
Mineral List
22 entries listed. 19 valid minerals.
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