Black Warrior Mine, Black Copper pit (Black Copper section; Black Copper group; Warrior group), Webster Gulch, Inspiration Mine, Miami-Inspiration deposit, Inspiration, Miami-Inspiration Mining District, Globe-Miami Mining District, Gila County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Black Warrior Mine	Mine
Black Copper pit (Black Copper section; Black Copper group; Warrior group)	- not defined -
Webster Gulch	- not defined -
Inspiration Mine	- not defined -
Miami-Inspiration deposit	- not defined -
Inspiration	- not defined -
Miami-Inspiration Mining District	- not defined -
Globe-Miami Mining District	Mining District
Gila County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

A former underground Cu-Ag-Mn mine located in S side of Webster Gulch, 2 miles ESE of Camelback Mountain, 100 meters N of the Inspiration townsite. Produced 1895-1919. Claims extend into S½ sec. 14. The USBM section location is incorrect. The Geneva Mine is at the East end of the workings, near the intersection of the Warrior Fault Zone with the Miami Fault. Inspiration Copper bought all holdings in 1920. Previous operators included Warrior Development Company; Southwestern Leasing and Development; and, Fiske and Snell. Additional names which apply to this locality: Warrior Copper Co.; Geneva Mine.

Mineralization is various tabular deposits hosted in the Pinal Schist and in tuffaceous conglomerate, with average widths from 15 to 30 feet. Ore control was the fault zone in associated breccia and in hanging wall tuffaceous Whitetail Conglomerate. This deposit is located along the Warrior fault zone. Mineralization is associated with Early Tertiary Schultze Granite intrusives throughout the district.

The ore occurred in tuffaceous conglomerate on the hanging wall side of a fault that strikes east and dips steeply southward. The fault, which has no more than 50 feet of displacement, drops the tuffaceous beds into contact with schist on the north, or footwall, side.

The tuffaceous conglomerate is about 50 feet thick and rests on an uneven erosion surface of shattered Pinal schist. It is overlain by the black vitrophyre at the base of the massive dacite sheet.

Ramsome (1903, pp. 153-156) described the ore as resulting from metasomatic replacement of dacite tuff by chrysocolla in which all gradations may be traced from solid chrysocolla resulting from almost complete replacement to tuff showing mere traces of copper minerals or none at all. The orebody was a flat, blanket-like mass lying at or near the base of the tuffaceous beds.

Mine maps indicate that the ore occurred in a narrow, down-dropped block of tuffaceous conglomerate and dacite breccia between two parallel fractures of the Warrior fault zone. The best ore occurred in the lower part of this narrow graben, which is of tuffaceous conglomerate 15 to 30 feet wide that has been dropped about 50 feet between walls of schist. The base of the orebody was the irregular surface of the schist on which the conglomerate had been deposited. Upward, the grade of the ore decreases gradually, the ore pinching out 60 to 130 feet above the base of the conglomerate. In the upper part of the orebody, dacite forms the hanging wall on the south side, and schist the footwall. This interval probably represents a normal contact along which the dacite abuts a steep cliff on the old land surface possibly formed by the fault scarp.

Workings include tunnels driven in an E-W direction; the longest being over 100 feet. Shorter levels are at 40 and 80 feet above the main level and 50 and 130 feet below the main level. ABGMT-USBM production data includes the Geneva Mine.

Other Databases

Link to USGS MRDS:	10046322

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References