Yavapai Mine (Arizona Copper Co. group [in part]), Clifton, Greenlee County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Yavapai Mine (Arizona Copper Co. group [in part])	Mine
Clifton	Town
Greenlee County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

A former surface and underground Cu-Zn mine located in the S½NE¼N½SE¼ sec. 16, T4S, R29E, W of the Longfellow Mine, just E of the West Yankie lode, 5½ miles from Clifton (direction ?), on private land. One patented claim overlapped in center by the Montezuma claim of the Detroit Copper Mining Co. This claim occupied a triangular area equal to half a claim. Closed 1932. Past owners included the Arizona Copper Co. Ltd. Owned and operated by the Phelps Dodge Corp., Morenci Branch (As Part Of Morenci Open Pit). Incorporated into the southern half of the Morenci open pit.

Mineralization is an irregular ore body hosted in the Longfellow Limestone. The ore zone is 30.48 meters wide. Disseminated pyrite in sericitized porphyry is either partly or wholly replaced by chalcocite. Limestones contain vertical seams of pyrite. Associated rock unit is the Morenci Granite Porphyry. Ore control is confinement to porphyry dikes that probably originate from the main maps of Copper Mountain Porphyry. Ore concentration is secondary enrichment of porphyry dikes and replacement of pyrite by chalcocite in descending sulfate solutions. Alteration is altered to intergrowths of epidote, garnet, pyroxene, magnetite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. Extensive surface oxidation to depths of 100 feet. The porphyry is greatly altered to sericite and quartz with disseminated pyrite. The rocks are extremely fresh and hard at depths of 100 feet or more. Dikes are probably a continuation of the north dike of the Longfellow Mine.

Area structures include dikes containing parallel seams of chalcocite and pyrite. The dikes outcrop to widths of 30 feet but are locally pinched below the 183 foot mine level. It is a complex system of branching porphyry dikes enclosing irregular masses of altered limestone. It is difficult to connect the bodies exposed on various levels of the mines in the area.

Tectonic component is dispersed fractured zones associated with the complex Copper Mountain Fault system.

Workings totalled 914.4 meters long and 86.26 meters deep. Developments included about 3000 feet of drifts and winzes; the 283 foot deep Yavapai shaft with levels at 118 feet and 183 feet below the collar, and extending in all principal directions; the Yavapai tunnel 18 feet above the shaft level; several stopes pn a line between the Yavapai and West Yankie Mines; Yavapai, Clay, and Petaluma Mines are conencted by tunnels.

Production data included in the Longfellow Metcalf Mine. The Longfellow Metcalf also includes the Mammoth, Longfellow, Metcalf, Detroit, Coronado, Joy and Humboldt Mines of the Arizona Copper Co. Ltd. By 1905 the Yavapai Mine had produced 40,000 tons of first class ore and 80,000 tons of concentrating grade.

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10048273

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References