Katherine Mine (Catherine Mine), Union Pass Mining District (Katherine Mining District), Oatman Mining District, Black Mountains, Mohave County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Katherine Mine (Catherine Mine)	Mine
Union Pass Mining District (Katherine Mining District)	Mining District
Oatman Mining District	Mining District
Black Mountains	Mountain Range
Mohave County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

CATHERINE MINE.

The Catherine mine is about 1¾ miles east of the river and about 450 feet above it, on an open, gravel-covered slope about three fourths of a mile from the hills to the south at an elevation of 950 feet. The mine was discovered by S. C. Baggs in September, 1900, and soon afterward some development work was done in taking out surface ores, mostly in the 60-foot incline. It was operated by the New Comstock Mining Company, under whose management it is said to have produced about 2,000 tons of ore, which was milled in the Sheep Trail mill at Pyramid. In 1904 the present owner, the Arizona-Pyramid Gold Mining Company, acquired the property, together with the mill at the river, and at once began more extensive development work. It installed a 22-horsepower gasoline hoist, compressor, and fan ventilator, deepened the shaft, and was soon mining and milling systematically. The source of power used is fuel oil freighted from Kingman.

The mine is developed principally by a shaft 225 feet in depth, several hundred feet of drifts and crosscuts, and about 20,000 cubic feet of surface work. The principal equipments are the Sheep Trail mill at the river and the gasoline hoist already mentioned, together with shops, offices, buildings, etc. The camp is at the river, where an ample water supply is available for all purposes.

The country rock is red, coarse pre-Cambrian gneiss or pressed granite and consists essentially of orthoclase, quartz, biotite, and microcline. The vein or lode containing the deposits strikes N. 64° E. At the mine it is about 75 feet in width at the surface, but gradually narrows downward to 50 and 40 feet on the 100-foot and 200-foot levels, respectively. By reason of the overlying gravels, the vein is exposed for a length of only 150 feet. However, it is in alignment with and is probably a continuation of the Pyramid vein, which, beyond the edge of the gravel sheet, extends southwestward for a distance of several miles, a portion of it lying beyond the river about where the Homestake mill is located. The occurrence of similar ore in alignment on the northeast suggests that the vein may have an
extent of nearly 5 miles. In the mine the vein is faulted in places and the fault planes are slickensided.

The vein consists mainly of quartz, mostly replacing calcite; the ore on the whole resembles that of the Gold Road mine, and consists of fine-grained quartz and adularia. Much of the quartz is of the bladed or hackly form characteristic of replacement after calcite. A microscopic section of the ore shows quartz with comb structure deposited on a mass of granular quartz and adularia containing residual calcite. There are also grains of a black mineral which is probably argentite.

The croppings, which are in part prominent, consist of dark-brown or black iron and manganese stained quartz. Some of the ore is irregularly banded and cut by close sheeting striking N. 20° E. and dipping about 50° NW.

The greater portion of the ore is of low grade, ranging in value from $6 to $7 in gold and silver to the ton, but toward the north side the vein contains a streak of high-grade ore said to run from 4 to 5 ounces of gold and from 200 to 400 ounces of silver to the ton.

The ore is treated at the Sheep Trail mill at Pyramid. It is believed that under economical conditions the ore can be mined and milled at a cost of about $3 a ton. About 5,000 tons of ore have been milled.