Congress Mine, Congress, Martinez Mining District, Date Creek Mountains, Yavapai County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Congress Mine	Mine
Congress	Census-designated Place
Martinez Mining District	Mining District
Date Creek Mountains	Mountain Range
Yavapai County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

A former underground Ag-Au-Cu-Pb-U mine located 3 miles NW of Congress Junction at an altitude of 3,400 feet. Discovered by Dennis May about 1887 and sold to Joseph "Diamond Jo" Reynolds for $65,000, who opened the mine. It closed and reopened March, 1889 and ultimately closed August 1891 (Reynold's death). Reopened again March 1894 to the end of 1910. Land also in sections 13-15 & 23. Also known as/designated: Congress Mine Patented claim 878.

Mineralization is ore in flat lenses and pinch-and-swell bodies. Ore control was faulting, shearing and igneous activity. Ore concentration was oxidation at near surface. No alteration noted.

Host rocks consist essentially of coarse-grained biotite granite, intruded by aplite, pegmatite and greenstone dikes. Mineralization consists of several major veins: Congress vein; Niagara vein; and, the Queen of the Hills vein. These occur within fault fissures which strike generally westward and dip northward.

The Congress fissure occurs largely in a greenstone dike about 15 feet (5 meters) thick. The filling is coarse-textured, massive, grayish-white quartz with irregular masses, bands & disseminations of fine-grained iron sulfide. Ore zones are generally flat lenses near the footwall. The longest of the 650 level was about 1,800 feet long and averaged less than 3 feet thick.

The Niagara vein goes down 2,000 feet and has small amounts of galena and a higher silver content.

Area structures include granite that is massive and unfoliated. Veins parallel andesite dikes which trend E-W to NE and dip at low angles, less than 40 degrees.

Workings include 7 shafts, all sunk on inclines. Three were on the Congress vein: (No. 1 (1,100 feet); No. 2 shaft (1,700 feet); No.3 (4,000 feet). 3 shafts were sunk on the Niagara vein: No. 4 (1,000 feet); No. 5 (2,050 feet); No. 6 (1,800 feet). One shaft was sunk on the Queen and Hills vein to a depth of 200 feet below the tunnel level. These shafts were sunk at an approximate incline of 25º from the horizontal. A 20-stamp mill with Frue-vanner table for concentrating, and later, a 40-stamp mill and additional vanner tables were added.

Production was some 687,542 tons of ore milled yielding 388,477 oz. Au and 345,598 oz. Ag.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References