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Mines Map
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Mine Descriptions |
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Empire Mining District | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This district is in Pima county. The Empire district, named from the Empire Mountains, about which it centers, lies in the northeastern part of the Patagonia quadrangle, east of the Helvetia district, in the eastern part of Pima County. It extends from Davidson canyon eastwards to Cienaga Creek, 7 miles distant (Pl. I, in pocket). The district contains 6 mining camps - the California, Montana, Lavery, Total Wreck, Copper or Hilton, and Prospect. The dominant topographical feature in the district consists of the Empire Mountains, which form an outlier of the Santa Rita Range. The mountains trend northeastwards through the district, have a length of about 7 miles and a width of about 4 miles, and rise to a maximum elevation of 5,360 feet, or about 500 feet above the surrounding surface. Structurally they consist mainly of a southeastward-dipping monocline of the Paleozoic limestone and quartzite in descending order, underlain by intrusive granite and flanked, overlapped, and surrounded by the Mesozoic sediments (Plts. II and III. in pocket) described under “Geology,” with patches of rhyolite in Davidson Canyon on the west. The topography is generally rough. Nearly all the mineral deposits of the district occur in association with the contact of the Paleozoic limestone with the granite or other intrusive rocks. The granite, which seems to be genetically related to the deposits, is in general a medium-grained biotitie-bearing rock and contains some hornblende. The deposits are nearly all argentiferous lead and copper bearing ores. They were first discovered in the late seventies. Since early in the eighties, besides the production of the Total Wreck mine, occassional small shipments of ore have been made from sundry small mines almost annually. The principal veins produce silver, lead, and copper ore. The principal camps, all small, are the California camp at Andrade’s ranch, on the northwest; the Toal Wreck, on the east; and the Copper camp, at Hilton’s ranch, toward the south. They are reached by wagon road from Pantano, the nearest railroad station on the northwest, from which they are repectively 6, 7, and 8½ miles distant2.
Location17 - 18 S. 17 E. 5 Mineral ProductsPb, Zn, Cu, Ag, Au, Mo, W-, V-. 6 Geology1. Replacement deposits of partially oxidized lead, zinc, copper mineralizations in Permian limestone and shale and in Cretaceous sedimentary formations, localized largely in badly faulted and overthrusted blocks and associated with strong faults and fissures. Some rhyolitic and dioritic dikes. 2. Contact metamorphic depodits of copper, tungsten, and minor lead and molybdenum along the contact of Paleozoic limestone and Laramide intrusive. 3. Weak base metal sulfides along fissures veins in Laramide intrusive and Paleozoic quartzite5. Type of Operation and ProductionNumerous mines and prospects, mostly relatively shallow. Worked sporadically from about 1880 and through 1964, producing some 34,500 tons of ore containing about 172 tons of copper, 8,335 tons of lead, 258 tons of zinc, 740 ounces of gold, 206,400 ounces of silver and 78 tons of molybdenum.5
Click on a blue mine name to navigate to the mine report. References
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