Tiptop Mine, Tiptop Mine group (Tiptop Camp prospects/mines), Tiptop Mountain, Helvetia, Helvetia-Rosemont Mining District, Pima County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Tiptop Mine	Mine
Tiptop Mine group (Tiptop Camp prospects/mines)	- not defined -
Tiptop Mountain	Mountain
Helvetia	Town (Former)
Helvetia-Rosemont Mining District	Mining District
Pima County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

‡Ref.: Stevens, J.H. (1904) The Copper Handbook, Vol. IV.

Stevens, J.H. (1905) The Copper Handbook, Vol. V.

Stevens, J.H. (1906 [1907 ?]) The Copper Handbook, Vol. VI.

Schrader, F.C. & J.M. Hill (1915), Mineral deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains, Arizona, USGS Bull. 582: 92, 120-123.

Elsing, M.J. and Heineman, E.S. (1936) Arizona Metal Production, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin 140.

Creasey, S.C. and Quick (1955), USGS Bull. 1027-F, Copper Deposits of a Part of the Helvetia Mining District, Pima County, Arizona: 315, 320.

Arizona Bureau of Mines field notes (1971), vol. 1, no. 2.

Drewes, H.D. (1971) Geologic map of the Sahuarita quadrangle, southeast of Tucson, Pima County, Arizona: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map I-613, 1 sheet, scale 1:48,000.

Keith, Stanton B. (1974), Arizona Bureau of Geology & Mineral Technology, Geological Survey Branch Bull. 189, Index of Mining Properties in Pima County, Arizona: 129 (Table 4).

MRDS database Dep. ID file #10039490, MRDS ID #M050159.

A Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag-Au-Mo mine located in sec. 14 and in the NE ¼ sec. 15, T.18S., R.15E., ¾ mile north of Helvetia and 28 miles SE of Tucson on private land. Most easterly and the largest mine of the group. Discovered and located about 1898. Produced 1899-1956. Owned at times, or in part, by the Tip Top Copper Co.; American Smelting & Refining Co. (ASARCO); ANAMAX Mining Co., Chamrod; Forbes; Mattingly; Sierra Mining & Ranching Co.; Tip Top Mining Co.; and the D. & P. Mining Co. This is not the famous Tip Top mine, but rather, another mine of the same name in a differnet district and county.

Mineralization is irregular pockets, stringers, and pyrometasomatic replacement orebodies, mostly oxidized, with copper minerals, often associated with quartz stringers and seams in shattered, faulted, silicified, and silicated Paleozoic limestone close to a contact with underlying Paleozoic Bolsa Quartzite in a thrust-faulted klippe. The dip generally seems to be southeasterly, into the mountain, while the contact dips to the south, or to the southwest at a lower level. The limestone is principally the dark variety and is usually very siliceous. Dikes of aplite, quartz diorite, and quartz monzonite cut the granite and other rocks nearby, and what appears to be altered aplite occurs in the mine. An associated rock unit is granodiorite at 54 ± 2 MY; and, granodiorite at 1450 ± 10 MY.

The ore in the lower portion of the mine consists of copper sulphides; in the upper part it is mostly copper carbonates.

Cores assayed 0.01-0.014% Mo.

Local structures include thrust and normal faulting, fracture zones, homoclinal. Regional trends include tilting and broad open folds in the south and extensive faulting in the north.

Workings include shallow shafts, tunnels and open cuts. A large winze exists on the lower level. It is developed by more than 4,000 feet of underground work, distributed principally on 2 levels spaced 100 feet apart vertically. Some of the stopes are large. Produced intermittently from the late 1890's to 1936. Production was over 27,000 tons of ore averaging about 5% Cu and 0.4 oz. Ag/T.; 1,000,000 pounds of Cu, $4,000 of Ag (period values)(1904-1926).

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10039490

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