Plomosa Mining District – La Paz County, Arizona
The trench workings you can walk directly into. The shafts are short and would need rope to repel. The shafts go down 10-20 feet and then end. It may be that the shafts have always been this short or some sloughage has occurred over time.
The road turns to dirt just outside of Bouse. The roads are well maintained but do cross through some very sandy washes. 4WD is recommended only because of the sandy washes.
Contact us for exact coordinates

This is a large and remote site outside of Bouse, Arizona. Surveyors observed that the site was mined for barite with fluorite/fluorine as a byproduct. Oxidized fluorite/fluorine was seen all over the claim site. Barite crystals were noted but not in the abundance of the fluorite. There are various cuts and pits but the main workings are centered on a pair of deep cut stopes that venture deep underground. There is muck and some trash that will need to be cleared before the lower levels can be accessed. There is a well nearby that could be used in order to collect water. This is a desolate desert type landscape so claimant should expect to pack in all food, water, and resources. The minerals found on site are valuable for industrial purposes and are well mapped. The minerals also have high value as specimens for collectors. As such, the mine could be worked on a casual use basis, extracting specimens for sale, or it could be a larger commercial type of site providing barite for industrial purposes.

The Northern Plomosa district is located within the Basin and Range Province of southwestern North America. The physiography and structural geology of this region was shaped largely by Cenozoic extension. Notable regional geologic features in western Arizona include large expanses of foliated high-grade metamorphic rocks of variable and commonly obscure protolith. These rocks were generally originally mapped as Precambrian in age owing to their highly deformed nature and metamorphic grade, but have been reinterpreted in recent years based largely on new geochronologic data (Wright and others, 1986; Bryant and Wooden, 1989). The schists are commonly green in color owing to contained chlorite, and they typically have a gently dipping mylonitic fabric which is strongly and consistently lineated with a northeast trend. The metamorphic rocks are commonly bounded above by a low-angle detachment fault which is oriented grossly parallel to the foliation in the footwall metamorphic rocks, and which places relatively unmetamorphosed upper-plate rocks of various ages, in many cases Tertiary, in contact with the lower plate. The upper-plate rocks are commonly, but not invariably, broken up by numerous normal faults which merge into, or are truncated by the underlying detachment fault. The result is a number of distinct tilt blocks which dip generally southwest into the detachment fault. The detachment fault itself is commonly underlain by a thin (< 1 meter) microbreccia ledge.[1]

From 1957 reports,

Townsend barite property is between Bouse and Planet - pink barite.

Mr. Townsend reports that his barite property is leased and optioned to a Globe Company, Minerals, Inc., which has an iron mine and mill at Globe. Down payment has been made .
Mr. Gemmill reported that 50 holes had been drilled -1/4 mill ion tons developed and they infer over 20,000,000 tons in reserve. 4.2 and 4.3 gravity.[1]

They have been explored and developed by at least 500 linear of opencuts with a maximum depth of 25 ft. several 8 to lO-ft. shafts, and some bulldozer stripping. No work was being done at time of visit. Production is said to have been 2,500 tons of milling ore by National-Lead Co. In 1938.[1]

From 1976

Went to Dan Patch's place. He said Mt. States Dev. Co. hadn't done the drilling that was anticipated on his Black Mt. barite deposit about 4 miles north of Bouse.[1]

Charles Ellis, Phoenix, volunteered the information that he dozed 5 drill locations for Cathay Mining Company near the Southern Cross on Dan Patch's Cu claims. He said they drilled the 5 holes from 100 to 300 feet deep and are returning to drill another 1000 ft. deep. The drill rig they had rented for the first 5 holes broke down.[1]

Dan Patch, owner of the Black Mountain barite and fluorspar property 4 miles north of Bouse, reports that Mountain States Exploration and Development Company drilled 28 holes of various depths on his property.[1]

From 1982,

He said the property has 250,000 tons of barite proven by drilling and an indicated 750,000 tons. He feels the deposit is "semibedded".[1]

A very large and substantial working. There are various cuts on the property. The main workings are centered around two deep cuts near the center of the claim. These cuts have been opened and drilled but there has only been minimal shipping as noted by the large shipping dumps and the broken and wasted tipple at the base of one of the cuts. The mine shows brilliant fluorite that lights up even with minimal UV lighting.

Barite is also a main commodity from the claim. Barite crystals were noted in some small clusters.The assumption is that there are larger deposits farther underground. Barite is used for industrial purposes and also is a valued specimen in large crystal formations for collectors.

Access to the Mine: The trench workings you can walk directly into. The shafts are short and would need rope to repel. The shafts go down 10-20 feet and then end. It may be that the shafts have always been this short or some sloughage has occurred over time.
Tailings Present: 10,000-49,999 tons. Mostly waste rock was seen in the dumps. The waste rock is very dark in color. Could possibly find some fluorite in the tailings.
Entrance: Solid Rock
Mine Cut: Shafts and trenches
Depth / Length: Over 1000' documented
Minerals in the Mine: Fluorite, Barite, Gold, Lead
Foot Traffic in the Mine: None
Last Worked: 1978

Federally Registered Mining Claim ID:AMC442189