Maid of Sunshine Mine, Turquoise District (Courtland-Gleeson District), Dragoon Mts, Cochise Co., Arizona, USA

• Display
  • Standard
  • Detailed
  • By Strunz Category
  • By Dana Category
• Photos
  • Mineral Photos (56)
  • - Full View (28)
  • - Photomicrograph (8)
  • - Stacked Photomicrograph (20)
  • Site Photos (3)
  • - Modern Site Photo (3)
  • Add Photo
• Maps
  • Map Pages
  • Nearest Localities
• Search
  • Mineral Search
  • Search Google
  • Link to USGS

‡Ref.: Wilson, E.D. (1927) Geology and ore deposits of the Courtland-Gleeson region, Arizona: Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin 123, 79 p.: 56-58.

Galbraith, F.W. & D.J. Brennan (1959), Minerals of Arizona: 27, 53.

Keith, Stanton B. (1973), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 187, Index of Mining Properties in Cochise County, Arizona: 83 (Table 4).

Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd. ed.: 105, 125, 144, 146, 198, 278, 285, 376, 391, 425.

Frost, et al (2004).

Grant, Raymond W., Bideaux, R.A., and Williams, S.A. (2006) Minerals Added to the Arizona List 1995-2005: 4.

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

Arizona Bureau of Mines files.

MRDS database Dep. ID file #10048114, MRDS ID M800134; and, Dep. ID #10137187, MAS ID #0040030648.

A former small underground Cu-Ag-Au mine located in the SW ¼ sec. 16, T.19S., R.25E, ½ mile SE of Turquoise Mountain, on private land. Produced 1913-1929. Owned/operated, or in part, by the Leadville Mining Co., Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. and the Phelps Dodge Corp.

Mineralization is oxidized copper ores in an irregular blanket-like deposit, average of 15 feet thick, in thrust fault breccia between Bolsa Quartzite above and Carboniferous Abrigo limestone below. Ore concentration was oxidation.

Local structures include the overthrust of Bolsa Quartzite over Paleozoic rocks. Post-thrust faults strike from N-S to NW-SE and dip from 50 to 70 degrees E. These faults broke the thrust plane into irregular steps. Post-thrust faulting was later than mineralization. In some areas, Abrigo Limestone underlies the Bolsa Quartzite in the overlying plate. The thickness of the overthrust material is about 100 feet.

Workings include a shaft and an incline and total 3,212.59 meters in length and 121.92 meters in depth. The workings adjoin the Germania and Mary drifts on the 145 foot, 200 foot, 215 foot, 229 foot, 275 foot, and 311 foot levels. The incline is 150 feet to the surface.

Several thousand tons of ore were produced from 1898 to 1915, some 15,000 tons in 1918 and 1919, and about 12,000 tons from 1923 to 1929.

Mineral List

Allophane Aurichalcite Azurite Braunite Brochantite Calcite Chalcoalumite Chalcophanite

Chlorargyrite Chrysocolla Copper Covellite Crednerite Cuprite Cyanotrichite Glaucocerinite

Goethite Gypsum Libethenite 'Limonite' Linarite Malachite Opal Pyrite

Quartz Rosasite Smithsonite Spangolite Talc Tenorite Woodwardite

31 entries listed. 30 valid minerals.