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Live Oak pit (Keystone; Joe Bush; Ox Hide; Thornton; Red Hill; Cyprus Miami), Inspiration Mine, Miami-Inspiration deposit, Inspiration, Miami-Inspiration District, Globe-Miami District, Gila Co., Arizona, USA

Chalcedony
Live Oak pit, Inspiration Mine, Miami-Inspiration deposit, Inspiration, Miami-Inspiration District, Globe-Miami District, Gila Co., Arizona, USA

Photo: Rob Lavinsky
Latitude: 33°24'17"N
Longitude: 110°54'26"W
A former surface and underground Cu-Mo-Au-Ag-Pb-Zn-PGE (Rhenium) mine located in secs. 23-26 & 35, T1N, R14E; and in secs. 19 & 30, T1N, R15E, N of Miami, 6 miles WNW of Globe, on private land. Discoverd 1872. First produced 1910. Miami and Inspiration are part of the same orebody, though owned by different companies. Miami is E of Inspiration. Former operators include the Inspiration Copper Co. (1908) on the Joe Bush, Scorpio and Bulldog shafts and Woodson, Columbia, Taylor Clipper, and Bulldog adits; Live Oak Development Co., consolidated in 1912 to form the Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co.; Keystone Copper Co. (1915); Miami Copper Co.; and the Tennessee. Owned and operated by the Cyprus Copper Co. (1991).

Located at the western part of the mineralized area at Inspiration near Miami. The Live Oak Copper Mining and Smelting Co. was organized in 1898 to develop a group of four claims owned by J.J. Marshall. Operations were resumed in 1905 and continued until 1907. Since 1909, the history of this property is concerned with the exploration and development of the Miami-Inspiration orebody.

Mineralization is a copper porphyry deposit hosted in the Precambrian Pinal Schist. The ore zone is 3657.6 meters long, 762 meters wide, 274 meters thick, strikes N55E, dips N and plunges SW. The supergene enriched zone averages 200 feet thick. Higher grade mineralization occurs as bands along the Miami and Pinto faults between the Joe Bush and Bulldog faults. Molybdenite was the last stage of hypogene mineralization. Rhenium occurs in the molybdenite. Ore control involved schistosity (N50E, dipping steeply SE) which controlled intrusion of the Schultze Granite and hydrothermal solutions that deposited primary sulfide minerals. Alteration included silicification, sericitization, biotization, hydration, argillization, and orthoclazation. An associated rock unit is quartz monzonite.

Mineralization also involves the copper silicate Live Oak vein. All outcrops of this vein has long since been obliterated by caving operations of the Inspiration Mine. The vein occupied a fissure in the sill-like body of granite porphyry facies of the Schultze granite that overlies the schist in the western segment of the Miami-Inspiration disseminated copper deposit. The chrysocolla was undoubtedly deposited by supergene solutions that collected in the fissures and contained copper leached from the surrounding rock.

Area structures include an E-trending fault zone through the shaft parallel to the Barney Fault 300 feet NW. The low-angle Bulldog Fault and the Miami Fault both cut the area into distinct pieces.

Workings included the original 160 foot deep shaft sunk by Marshall, the old Miami underground workings; open pit. The workings overall are 762 meters long, 914.4 meters wide and 304.8 meters deep. This deposit is credited with production of 2,890,000 pounds of Cu. Miami East was under development (1980) with planned production of 2000 t/day. In 1989, Miami was an open pit Cu oxide mine with heap and dump leaching, as well as solvent extraction.

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities
Azurite ?
Biotite
Bornite
Brochantite
Chalcocite
Chalcopyrite
 Chrysocolla
'Chrysoprase'
Covellite
Cuprite
Galena
Gold
 Lindgrenite
Malachite
Molybdenite
Muscovite
var: Sericite
Orthoclase
Powellite
 Pyrite
Quartz
var: Chalcedony


21 entries listed. 17 valid minerals.

Localities in this Region

USA
  • Arizona
    • Gila Co.
      • Globe-Miami District
        • Miami-Inspiration District
          • Inspiration
            • Miami-Inspiration deposit

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References

Ransome, F.L. (1903) Geology of the Globe Copper District, Arizona, USGS PP 12: 160-161.

University of Arizona Bull. 41 (1916-17), Mineralogy of Useful Minerals in Arizona: 29.

Arizona Mining Journal (1919) November, 1919: 43.

Ransome, F.L. (1919), The copper deposits of Ray and Miami, Arizona, USGS PP 115: 96.

Arizona Mining Journal (1922) February 1, 1922: 16.

Elsing and Heineman (1936) Arizona Metal Production. Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin 140.

Wells, R.C. (1937), Analysis of rocks and minerals from the laboratory of the USGS, 1914-36, USGS Bull. 878: 92-125.

Short and Wilson (1938), Some Arizona Ore Deposits, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 145: 66-72.

Galbraith, F.W. & D.J. Brennan (1959), Minerals of Arizona: 82, 85.

MacFall, 1951. Gem Hunter's Guide, 1st ed.

Peterson, N.P. (1962), Geology and ore deposits of the Globe-Miami district, Arizona, USGS PP 342: 77, 80, 137.

Simmons and Reed (1962) Arizona Geological Society 13th. Field Conference – Mogollon Rim.

Olmstead, H.W., and Johnson, D.W. (1966) Inspiration geology, in Titley, S.R., and Hicks, C.L., eds., Geology of the porphyry copper deposits, southwestern North America: Tucson, University of Arizona Press: 143-150.

Peirce, H.W. (1969), Gem Materials, in USGS & Arizona Bureau of Mines & US Bureau of Reclamation, Mineral and Water Resources of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 180 (USGS Bull.871): 359.

Arizona Department of Mines & Mineral Resources (1989), Directory of active mines in Arizona, incorporating sand and gravel operations 1989-1990, Arizona Department of Mines & Mineral Resources Directory 36, 14 pp.

Peirce, H. Wesley (1990), Arizona Geological Survey Industrial Minerals card file.

Phillips, K.A., Beard, R.R., Niemuth, N.J., and Bain, D.R. (1991) Active Mines in Arizona – 1992: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources Directory 39, 20 pp.

Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd.ed.: 172, 278.

Arizona Department of Mineral Resources Consolidated Copper Co. file.

MRDS database Dep. ID file #10027438, MRDS ID #M003084; and Dep. ID #10112449, MAS ID #0040070500; and Dep. ID #10209726, MAS ID #0040070063; Dep. ID #10258500, MAS ID #0040070573; and Dep. ID #10282520, MAS ID #0040070463; and Dep. ID #10186051, MRDS ID #D000316, MAS ID #0040070008.

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