Mineral Hill District Information
Report on the District from 1881
This district is in the foothills of the Pinal mountains, about fifteen miles north-east of Florence. The formation of the district is granite. The Gila valley furnishes both wood and water. The ore is smelting, the veins huge, and of a good grade. They carry native gold and silver. The Alice shows a ledge from 6 to 10 feet wide, carbonates and galena. Assays from this vein give $80 per ton. There is a 60-foot shaft and 180-foot tunnel on the properly. The Pacific is a ledge from 8 to 20 feet wide. It is opened by four shafts, the deepest being 60 feet. Ore from this mine has assayed $100 per ton. The Le Roy is a 6- foot vein, going from 40 to 50 ounces per ton. It has a shaft 100 feet, and a tunnel of 150 feet. The Chocia is an immense vein, from 6 to 30 feet in width, portions of it assaying 50 ounces per ton, silver. A shaft 50 feet has been sunk on the property. The lodes of this district offer many advantages for a successful mining enterprise, and a prosperous camp is certain to spring up here (Hamilton, p. 60).
Report on the District from 1883
The Specie Paying mine is driving a new tunnel, all in ore, 100 feet below the highest outcropping. There is no waste material, all being good pay mineral, which assays $42 per ton. The ledge on the Cholla is 32 feet wide, on the Wedge 50 feet, and May, 6 feet wide. There is a shaft 75 feet on the Cholla, and it shows horn silver and high-grade galena. A drift from the bottom shaft disclosed a body of high-grade galena. Some of the ore went as high as $2,504 in silver. The Mark Twain, situated 2 miles farther north, has a 50-foot ledge. There is a large open cut on the mine, and a shaft from bottom of cut, 18 feet deep. The ore goes from $40 to $175, with from 40 to 70 per cent. lead. The only development is on foot wall. It is an iron-cap ledge, and can be traced for 8 miles. What this district most needs are a custom mill and reduction works. Such an enterprise could be made very profitable. There is ore in abundance, of every variety, and at this time no less than 500 tons per diem could be supplied from the various mines (Production of the Precious Metals in the United States p. 325).
The Bebee— Work on this well-known mining ground will be started soon after the 1st of January, 1883. The tunnel on the mine is 70 feet long, pointing towards the shaft, calculated to strike it at 250 feet depth. The ore is galena bearing silver. The ledge is 14.5 feet wide. The Truckee is the northern extension of the Bebee. It has a 40-foot shaft, same class of mineral as Bebee. Vein and ledge similar. Work on the Hollis mine shows a great improvement. The vein is 4i feet wide between good walls of syenite and porphyry. Assays run from $204 to $500 per ton. It is free-milling ore with horn silver. The shaft is now 35 feet in depth. The Hollis is the southern extension of the Bebee mine, 7 miles southerly from Pinal (Production of the Precious Metals in the United States p. 326).
Report on the District from 1884
The Specie Paying mine is the chief mine of the district. It is about seven years since its discovery. The descent from the mine to the mill is of excellent grade, where they are now building a wagon-road. The mine has several shafts and inclines. At Cottonwood they have water from artesian wells sufficient for a 5-stamp mill, which is now being built. On the Alice mine the owners have made a deep open cut in the ledge at the north end of the claim and opened up a fine body of sulphuret and chloride ore of good grade, which is said to be rich. The Lelo sends its ore to the Windsor mill for reduction. The Lost Prize, formerly known as the Union West, has changed hands and will be developed. On the News Letter, work is being done on the main shaft, which is about 100 feet deep. A drift will be run northerly on the vein, which is porphyry and quartz. The vein is 3 feet wide at the bottom; the pay streak 1 foot wide. Samples from the latter assay $400. The ore is of the same character of chloride as that found on the Josephine ledge, and contains a considerable quantity of native silver. A discovery has recently been made near the Josephine. While sinking an assessment shaft Mr. Alexander Wolverton is said to have struck a pay streak, some of which will assay $1,500 per ton in silver and 70 per cent. copper. The vein in which this ore occurs is over 3 feet wide, and in sinking 10 feet, ten sacks full of rich ore were taken out (Production of the Precious Metals in the United States p.88).
Report on the District from 1885
The Specie Paying mine is looking well. The incline, which connects with the main tunnel at a depth of 110 feet; is all in ore from the surface down. This alone opens a large amount of stoping ground, to say nothing of the ore-bodies in the tunnel. In fact there is now sufficient ore in sight to keep the mill running for a long time, and it may be said that the development of the mine has hardly commenced. The ore is delivered from the dump to the ore bin by a double self-acting tramway.
The 5 stamps of the mill drop at the rate of 95 revolutions per minute on unassorted ore from the incline, and reduce to pulp from 12 to 14 tons every twenty-four hours. The ore works up to 85 per cent., and gives a good average. In addition to their own mine the company has obtained a nine months’ working bond on the Alice, the north extension of the Specie Paying, which it is developing. Three shafts have been started, one on the north cropping, one on the south= and one near the center of the claim. The latter will be a double compartment and the main working shaft. All of them are sinking on the vein, and will be connected by drifts at different depths. This plan of development will open the mine to the best advantage and insure good ventilation.
An open cut has been run along this streak for a distance of 40 feet, and shows are all the way, some of which is very rich, containing black sulphurets and chloride in malleable form. The whole body of ore uncovered will probably average $60 per ton at the mill (Production of the Precious Metals in the United States p.54-55).
References:
Hamilton, P., & Arizona. (1881). The resources of Arizona: Its mineral, farming, and grazing lands, towns, and mining camps. Prescott, Ariz: Director of the Mint. (1883). Report of the Director of the Mint Upon the Statistics of the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States. Bureau of the Mint
Director of the Mint. (1884). Report of the Director of the Mint Upon the Statistics of the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States. Bureau of the Mint
Director of the Mint. (1885). Report of the Director of the Mint Upon the Statistics of the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States. Bureau of the Mint
