Austerlitz Mine group (Arginrock; Addition claim), Ruby, Oro Blanco Mining District (Ruby Mining District), Oro Blanco Mountains, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Austerlitz Mine group (Arginrock; Addition claim)	- not defined -
Ruby	Town (Former)
Oro Blanco Mining District (Ruby Mining District)	Mining District
Oro Blanco Mountains	Mountain Range
Santa Cruz County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

‡Ref.: Milton, M.C. (1913) The Oro Blanco district of Arizona: Engineering and Mining Journal: 96(21): 1005-1007.

Wilson, E.D., Cunningham, J.B., and Butler, G.M. (1934), Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining (revised 1967), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 137: 190.

Knight, L.H., Jr. (1970) Structure and mineralization of the Oro Blanco mining district, Santa Cruz County, Arizona: Tucson, University of Arizona, Ph.D. dissertation, 172 p., 7 sheets, scales 1:1,200, 1:6,000, 1:16,000, 1:24,000, 1:60,000, 1:62,500, and 1:358,000.

Yeend, Warren (1973).

Keith, Stanton B. (1975), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 191, Index of Mining Properties in Santa Cruz County Arizona: 62 (Table 4).

Arizona Bureau of Mines file data.

MRDS database Dep. ID file #10039540, MRDS ID #M050243; and, Dep. ID #10113207, MAS ID #0040230032.

A former small surface and underground Au-Ag-Cu-Pb-Zn mine located in East-central sec. 36, T.22S., R.10E, about 2¾ miles NW of Ruby, and about ¾ miles S of Oro Blanco, on National Forest land. Discovered 1865. Produced 1912-1914, 1940's-1963. Operated by the Platoro Corp. (1963). Past operators include the Oro Blanco Mining Co. (1949); Arthur Noon (1916, 1922, 1942); F.B. Canez (1939-41); Ford Woodworth (1913); Mitchell and Sellburg (1936); Thompson; Barkley; and the Border Mines Co.

Mineralization is quartz-fissure veins with spotty and generally weak auriferous and argentiferous sulfides and silicified lens-like bodies of auriferous quartz veinlets and stringers. The ore zone is 3.66 meters wide, strikes NW and dips 6-31NE. Wall rocks are Jurassic welded tuff in fault contact with Cretaceous sediments. Associated Tertiary intrusive quartz monzonite dikes. Weak wall rock alteration included silicification (quartz-sericite-pyrolitic). Oxidation and supergene enrichment produced limited, rich, near surface ore. Host rock units are the Oro Blanco Formation, the Cobre Ridge Tuff, and the Sidewinder Quartz Monzonite. Structure control is unknown but caused intense crackling and brecciation of tuff and replacement by quartz. Control also by the contact of the Cobre Ridge Tuff and the Oro Blanco Formation. Local structures include block faulting and N65°E-striking, 40° to 80°N dipping faults offset.

Information in the MRDS file is given for the Crawford ore shoot - the most productive silicified zone. Oxidation and supergene enrichment produced limited, rich, near surface ore. The Austerlitz Mine has 2 types of mineralization: 1) quartz sulfide veins; and, 2) silicified zones - mineralization occurred before the intrusion of the Side Winder dikes, which totally surround the mineralized area. The silicified zones are a myriad of thin white quartz veinlets and stringers with pyrite in silicified tuff.

Workings included 3 shafts (2 refilled) with 2 levels, and tunnel operations with about 800 feet of adits and 1 shaft off of the vein at 125 feet (39.62 meters) deep. Total length of workings is 609.6 meters. Worked intermittently from the 1890's to 1963 and produced some 3,800 tons of ore averaging about 0.5 oz. Au/T, 12 oz. Ag/T, 1% Cu, and minor Pb and Zn. Samples from the Crawford Stope: 55 samples averaged - .083 oz/ton Au; 6.04 oz/ton Ag (from a private report). Production - from a blind oreshoot (Crawford stope) discovered in 1912; 2 carloads of oxidized ore from the Barckley stope; and, a few tons for tests as smelter flux.

Development 1
Geology 1 GEOL.DESC:
Location 1 INFO FROM LAND.ST :(1979)
Production 1
Workings 1

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10039540

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