Cerbat Mining District, Wallapai Mining District, Cerbat Mountains, Mohave County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Cerbat Mining District	Mining District
Wallapai Mining District	Mining District
Cerbat Mountains	Mountain Range
Mohave County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

The Cerbat district extends southward from the Mineral Park district for about 4½ miles and from the border of Sacramento Valley on the west to the crest of the range on the east, with a maximum width of about 3 miles in the southern part.

Cerbat, the principal camp and post-office, is situated on Cerbat Wash in the foothills at an elevation of about 4,000 feet, 3 miles from the nearest station of the Arizona and Utah Railroad on the west and 14 miles north of Kingman. Its origin dates from the early sixties, when the Golden Gem, Cerbat, Idaho, Twins, Champion, Vanderbilt, Eureka, Flores, Esmeralda, and Columbus mines were discovered or opened. It has always been a producer of high-grade ore and is reported to have produced more than $2,000,000.

A small smelter was operated here in the so-called Indian days, in the middle of the sixties, but for want of proper fluxes, for which tin cans and scrap iron were substituted, the process was not very successful, the lead being turned out in an extremely crude state.

TOPOGRAPHY

The district ranges in elevation from 3,000 feet in the foothills on the west to 5,000 feet on the east. Stockton Hill, on the opposite slope of the range, is reached by trail only.

The southern part of the district is drained mainly by Cerbat Wash, which leads westward across the district into Sacramento Valley. Its principal tributary from the south is Charcoal Canyon, which is several miles long and joins it just below Cerbat.

The northern part of the district is drained principally by Long Wash, which leads northward and westward into Sacramento Valley. The nearest railroad station to this part of the district is Mineral, about 3 miles to the west. Several small depressions which open into Long Wash from the east are known as Union Basin, Todd Basin, arid Lane Springs Basin.

GEOLOGY

The country rock is the pre-Cambrian granite, gneiss, and schist complex. It is intruded by dikes of minette, granite porphyry, diabase, rhyolite, basalt, and other rocks, some of which are associated with workable veins and are too greatly sericitized for determination. The complex is also, flanked on the west by masses of the Tertiary volcanic rocks, principally rhyolite.

Probably the best exposure in the Cerbat Range is in Charcoal Canyon southeast of Cerbat. The canyon cuts across the beds diagonally and exposes most of the pre-Cambrian rocks, including granite, gneiss, pegmatite, schists, and syenite, together with veins and dikes occurring in the complex. The series is cut by faults, some of which now contain ore bodies.

The schistosity strikes north-northeast, with dip mainly westnorthwest, varying from 70° to vertical, and the jointing trends west-northwest, with steep dip to the northeast.

Prominent among the dikes is the well-known "great white dike," so called from the fact that it weathers light buff. It extends throughout the greater part of the canyon and is associated with workable ore deposits. It is 40 feet or more thick. It crosses Cerbat Wash near the mouth of Charcoal Canyon, underlies the Gross ranch to the northwest, and is reported to extend much farther. It is a dark greenish basic rock, which is now altered and sericitized beyond adequate determination. Though profusely jointed and sheared, it seems to be younger than the granite porphyry intrusives with which it comes into contact.

THE DEPOSITS

The ore deposits of this district contain principally gold, silver, and lead. They occur in fissure veins, which in general have a northwesterly trend and a steep northeasterly or southwesterly dip. Those situated north of Cerbat Wash are chiefly gold-bearing; those to the south contain principally silver and lead. The gangue is mainly quartz and the values usually favor the hanging wall. The principal minerals are pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, zinc blende, stibnite, and native gold. Near the surface native silver, horn silver, argentite, and ruby silver appear, but the water level is only about 80 feet deep, and consequently primary sulphide ore comes in at relatively slight depth.

The deposits are opened by about thirty mines, a sketch of some of which follows. The most important mines, nearly all of which are now producing, are the Golden Gem, Vanderbilt, Champion, Oro Plata, Paymaster, New London, Idaho, Cerbat, St. Louis,. Flores, Twins, Columbus, Alpha, Night Hawk, and Rip Van Winkle.