Gold Bug Mine, Black Mountains, Mohave County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Gold Bug Mine	Mine
Black Mountains	Mountain Range
Mohave County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

The Gold Bug district is situated near the summit of the range, about 3 miles north of the Mocking Bird district, 3 miles south of Eldorado Pass, and 30 miles northwest of Chloride. The only mine is the Gold Bug mine, which is developed by several shafts and drifts to a depth of 300 feet.

The deposits consist chiefly of two main veins situated about 22 feet apart in a doubtful volcanic rock, possibly a minette similar to that at the Mocking Bird mine. The veins dip steeply to the northeast. The ore is rich gold-bearing quartz, with a little silver, and favors the hanging wall, where in part it is associated with a diorite (?) dike. Much ore is said to remain in the mine.

Mr. H. J. Marmein, representing the Gold Bug Mining Company, has kindly given the following historical notes and account of recent development work:

This property consists of several patented claims. The first discovery of gold on these claims was made in 1892 by two Mormon miners, and the exceedingly rich ore taken out at the very beginning of work attracted much attention. In 1893 the property was sold for a large sum and was then worked in a desultory way for two years; during this time about 50 tons of selected ore was shipped, which netted $43,000, or about $860 a ton in car lots, after deducting all transportation and smelter charges. The owner erected a 20-ton Huntington mill on the banks of Colorado River, about 10½ miles from the mine, and 800 tons of the low-grade ore put through this mill, saving only 58 per cent of the assay value, gave returns on the plates of $12,000, or $15 a ton. Owing to lack of capital, the work was discontinued and the mine lay idle until March, 1908, when the present company began working the property.

The old workings consist of 15 shafts and open cuts, about 2,300 feet of underground work all told. The main shaft is now down 300 feet. Two shafts, each about 200 feet distant from the main shaft, on other veins, have been developed to depths of 100 and 140 feet. As a result of operations of 1908 on the 290-foot level, which seems to be nearing the limit of the oxidized zone, it is reported that for the TO feet of drift run the vein has an average width of about 5 feet and on either wall contains an ore streak which attains about 18 inches in maximum width. The ore of this streak averages from a few dollars to several hundred dollars in gold and from $1 to $60 in silver to the ton and shows coarse and free gold.

The quartz gangue of the vein is shattered and the best values occur in its more shattered portions in association with iron oxide in the oxidized zone, and with pyrite and galena and vanadinite at greater depths, where sulphide ore is coming in and the ore bodies and values are becoming more regular.