Sunnyside & Volcano Mines (Sunnyside Mine group; Volcano-Sunnyside Mine; Sunnyside Mine), Alum Gulch, Harshaw Mining District, Patagonia Mountains, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Sunnyside & Volcano Mines (Sunnyside Mine group; Volcano-Sunnyside Mine; Sunnyside Mine)	Group of Mines
Alum Gulch	Gulch
Harshaw Mining District	Mining District
Patagonia Mountains	Mountain Range
Santa Cruz County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

A former small surface and underground Cu-Ag-Pb-Zn-Au-As mine on a group of 8 unpatented claims (Sunnyside, Volcano, Climax, Horseshoe, Farrell, Union Leader, Lucky Strike, and Old Man) located in east-central (SW¼SE¼) sec. 6, and in the center E½NE¼ sec. 7, T.23S., R.16E. (protracted) (Lochiel 15 minute topo map), 1¼ miles SW of the January Mine and 2½ miles west of Harshaw, on the upper part of Alum Gulch, just N of the Thunder and Standard Mine group, at an elevation of about 5,800 feet, on National Forest land. Located in 1897 by R. Farrell. Produced 1897-1954. Owned/operated at times, or in part, by Farrell (1897- ); L.D. Ricketts of Cananea (early 1912- ); Lenon & Vasquez; the Santa Cruz Copper Co.; Lee Farrell and A. Olander; J.W. Wingfield; Cananea Copper Co.; and, Strong & Harris. Diamond Drilling was under contract to the Metler Brothers Drilling Co. The Volcano Mine is the principal mine of the group.

The deposits are contained mainly in a NW-trending mineralized shear zone about 200 feet (60.9 meters) wide in granite porphyry, which trends N.50ºW. across the claims, and dips 70SW. This zone consists of belts of sheared and silicified country rock containing copper carbonates and minor tenorite and sulfides along a fault cutting the Laramide rhyolite conglomerate and porphyry. Monzonite (?) porphyry intrudes Mt. Wrightson Formation and is locally much al tered to quartz, sericite, kaolinite, alunite, pyrite and tourmaline. Minor gold occurs in malachite ore. A small pocket of black oxidized copper ore was encountered at a depth of 80 feet. Sulfide ores might exist below the oxidation zone, but mining has not penetrated to that depth.

To a depth of 40 feet the mineralized zone is composed largely of quartz carrying considerable copper carbonates, but below this depth the shaft passes through soft, earthy material containing a few small masses of siliceous rock and a larger amount of iron oxide than is seen at the surface. In all, surface ozidation is over 80 feet in depth. An associated rock unit is the Mt. Wrightson Formation.

Tectonic elements include the Thunder Mine Fault Block.

Workings are several shallow shafts to about 90 feet (36.5 meters) of depth (the inclined Volcano shaft [about 30 feet, dipping to the SW] and the Sunnyside shaft [90 feet]), and open cuts. Various stopes and drifts; shallow open cuts. The Volcano claim workings also include a 50-foot deep vertical shaft, a 550 foot long adit with crosscuts totaling 350 feet in length, a 77 foot raise from the adit up to the vertical shaft bottom. Diamond drilling, conducted on the property in 1954, reached a depth of 608 feet on the incline. Worked in the late 1890's and sporadically through 1953. Some 1,600 tons of picked ore averaged about 8% Cu, 1.6 oz. Ag/T, and minor Pb, Zn, and Au.

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10048335

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