Silver Cave Prospect

The Silver Cave prospect, just southeast of the Copper Mountain prospect, is on a silicified east - west 12 foot shear zone or load which dips 70° S, in andesite. The deepest opening is a 40 foot shaft in which no sulphides were found. The only macroscopic minerals are the gangue minerals limonite and quartz, but the deposit is said to carry as high as 4 ounces in gold to the ton.²

The mine is part of the Anaconda group.

Alternate Names

None

Company

John Parks, Anaconda-Arizona Mg. Co., Altamirano, Boulder Mg. Co.⁵

Mining District

Wrightson District

Location

21S 15E, NW¼ Cen. S., Cen. & SW¼ 3 N. Cen. & NE¼ 10⁵

Mineral Products

Ag, Pb, Cu, Zn-, Au- ⁵

Geology

Lensing quartz fissure veins containing calcite and barite, and with shoots, stringers, and seams of argentiferous galena, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, tetrahedrite and pyrite. Veins are often vuggy with mineralization banded or lining vugs. Wall rock is Triassic rhyolite and latite volcanics [Anaconda Group as a whole].⁵

Type of Operation and Production

Tunnel and shaft operations. Worked from early 1870s and intermittently through 1949, producing some 300 tons of ore averaging about 5% Pb, 30 oz. Ag/T, 3% Cu, and minor Au. [Anaconda Group as a whole]⁵

References

1. Mineral Appraisal of Coronado National Forest, Part 12, Santa Rita Mountains Unit, MLA11-94 (1994). SR 591-609
   http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/nid1813/usbm_mla_011-94.pdf
2. Mining in the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains of Arizona, F. C. Schrader, U.S. Department of Interior, 1915. Republished 2014 by Kerby Jackson.
3. Mike Bertram,
4. USGS Mineral Resources Data System - using WGS84 (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/map-commodity.html#home)
5. Index of Mining Properties in Santa Cruz County by Stanton B. Keith, bulletin 1991, Arizona Geological Survey, 1975
6. WesternMiningHistory.com