Latitude: 31°26'12"N
Longitude: 109°54'20"W
A former medium-output surface Cu-Au-Ag-V-Bi-Cd mine located in the NW ¼ sec. 15, and the NE ¼ sec. 16, T.23S., R.24E (Bisbee 7.5 minute topo map), approximately ½ mile NW of Lowell, on private land. At the present time it is assumed that the mine is now part of, and was subhumed by, the Lavendar pit. Owned and operated by the Phelps Dodge Corp.
Mineralization is copper sulfides (enriched chalcocite), oxides, and carbonates in irregular masses in brecciated and altered granite porphyry (Sacramento Hill Stock), contact breccia, and in relatively unaltered Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone cut by a porphyry dike. Ore control was nearby dikes and sills and faulting and associated brecciation. The replacement is perfect along the beds, as certain cherty bands are left untouched in the midst of the ore. Ore bodies are mainly in the Hardscrabble claim of the Sacramento Mine. The ore bodies are in direct contact with the Sacramento Dike (Sacramento Stock) on both sides and are replacement of Escabrosa Limestone. Ore concentration was bornite replacing pyrite. Alteration was gossan with Mn and Fe oxides induced by hydrothermal metamorphism. An associated rock unit is the Sacramento Hill Stock.
Local structures include common pre-mineralization faulting and tilting. Main fault directions are N10W to N40E and S30W to N50W.
Workings are a huge open pit operation and underground openings to a depth of 457.2 meters. Several hundred thousand tons of ore were produced up to about 1920. About 8.3 million tons of ore were produced from 1920 to 1929.
References
Ransome, F.L. (1904), The geology and ore deposits of the Bisbee quadrangle, Arizona, USGS PP 21.
Guild, F.N. (1910), The mineralogy of Arizona, The Chemical Publishing Co., Easton, PA.
Bonillas, Y.S., Tenny, and Feuchere (1917), Geology of the Warren mining district: A.I.M.E. Transactions, Vol. 55: 326-327, 329-330, 337, 340, 350.
Trischka, C., et al (1929), Boxwork siderite, Economic Geology: 24: 677-686.
Schwartz, G.M. & C.F. Park, Jr. (1932), A microscopic study of ores from the Campbell mine, Bisbee, Arizona, Economic Geology: 27: 39-51.
Schwartz, G.M. (1934), Paragenesis of the oxidized ores of copper, Economic Geology: 29: 55-75.
Trischka, C. (1938), Bisbee district, in Some Arizona ore deposits, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 145: 40.
Schwartz, G.M. (1939), Significance of bornite-chalcocite microtextures, Economic Geology: 34: 399-418.
Grout, F.E. (1946), Microscopic characters of vein carbonates, Economic Geology: 41: 475-502.
Bain, G.W. (1952), The age of the 'Lower Cretaceous' from Bisbee, Arizona, uraninite, Economic Geology 47: 305-315.
Hutton, C.O. (1957), Sengierite from Bisbee, Arizona, American Mineralogist: 42: 408-411.
Burnham, C.W. (1959), Metallogenic provinces of the southwestern US and northern Mexico: New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Bull. 65: 31.
Cooper, J.R. (1962) Bismuth in the United States, exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii: U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Investigations Resource Map MR-22, 19 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:3,168,000.
Williams, S.A. & B. Khin (1971), Chalcoalumite from Bisbee, Arizona, Mineralogical Record: 2: 126-127.
Keith, Stanton B. (1973), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 187, Index of Mining Properties in Cochise County, AZ: 89 (Table 4).
Niemuth, N.J. & K.A. Phillips (1992), Copper Oxide Resources, Arizona Department of Mines & Mineral Resources Open File Report 92-10: 6 (Table 1).
Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 162, 231.
Arizona Bureau of Mines files.
MRDS database Dep. ID file #10046235, MRDS ID #M241099; and, Dep. ID #10282725, MAS ID #0040030318.
Mineral List
16 entries listed. 14 valid minerals.
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