Ellsworth District – La Paz County, Arizona
Drive to within 50' of the primary portal.
High clearance 2wd
Contact us for exact coordinates.

The General Patton mine is located in the Little Harquahala Mtns. The Rio Del Monte Gold Mine is just over a mile away, but the cuts here were part of the Rio Del Monte claim block up into the 1960s. The Rio Del Monte produced native gold from veins in quartz from 1890 to 1910. It was closed due to low metals pricing. The Rio Del Monte reopened in 1945 and defined at least 8 different gold ore bodies which were never fully worked or actualized. Gold Values average 1/2 to 3/4 ounce of Gold per ton at the Rio. The General Patton Mine will likely be between 1.5-2 ounces gold per ton. There is good silver value in the mine but silver is infamously difficult and expensive to process. Excellent access to the primary portals and main mine camp. It is possible to bring out a small camper or RV. Room enough for 4-5 vehicles. There are a total of 3 shafts and 2 adits located on the claim. The adits and shafts on the west side of the hill were infinately more interesting with more quartz and visible ores to work.

The geology of the southwestern part of the Harquahala Mountains and much of the Ellsworth district is similar to that in the study area, but the rocks are more extensively fractured and altered than in the study area. Also, the largest mines in the district, the Bonanza and Socorro, are localized along relatively flat structures, not the commonly noted northwest-trending, high-angle dikes and veins of the study area.[1]

This portion of the range consists of small, sharply eroded mountains flanked by desert plains. Bancroft states that the following succession of rocks is present: Coarse-grained basal granite, exposed north of the Golden Eagle mine; quartzitic grits; limestone and shale; thin conglomerate; and shale and limestone with some dolomite and conglomerate. These rocks are more or less metamorphosed and complexly faulted. Darton has shown that the limestones, in part at least, are of Carboniferous age.[2]

There is no specific history of the General Patton Mine with the exception of naming which dates back to the early 1980s when the claim was relocated after Rio Del Monte Gold closed up its doors and abandoned all of their unpatented mining claims. Prior to the name of General Patton, it was known as the Lucky Strike #14 and property of Rio Del Monte Gold

General Patton Mine is an amalgamation of shafts and adit cuts working what was known as the Cowman Vein, an extension from the Rio Del Monte patented Property. The adits are short, each less than 100' each. The shafts only 15-25' each. None of the workings are interconnected with the exception of the shafts and adits that are close to each other. The mines show similar patterns with iron staining in the quartz being a good indicator of the presence of native gold in small veinlets and stringers. Quartz can be crushed or heated to release gold deposits.

Federally Registered Mining Claim ID: AMC 440531