Matthews-Whiteside Mine, Zuni Mountains Mining District, Zuni Mountains, Cibola County, New Mexico, USAi
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Matthews-Whiteside Mine | Mine (Inactive) |
| Zuni Mountains Mining District | Mining District |
| Zuni Mountains | Mountain Range |
| Cibola County | County |
| New Mexico | State |
| USA | Country |
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
35° 12' 2'' North , 108° 9' 2'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Mine (Inactive) - last checked 2025
Köppen climate type:
Nearest Settlements:
| Place | Population | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Bluewater Acres | 206 (2017) | 7.0km |
| Bluewater Village | 628 (2017) | 15.5km |
| Thoreau | 1,865 (2011) | 23.4km |
| Milan | 3,250 (2017) | 23.9km |
| San Rafael | 933 (2011) | 26.3km |
Other/historical names associated with this locality:
Matthew-Whiteside Mine
The Matthews-Whiteside mine was located on Copper Hill in the Zuni Mts. about 5 1/2 miles SW of Bluewater Lake and 3 ½ miles NW of Mt. Sedgwick.
David B. Whiteside, a rancher and miner from Galena, Missouri took a stake in the Matthews-Whiteside mine and moved to nearby Copperton with his wife Lucy in 1905. Lucy became a well know resident and served as a midwife traveling the area helping to deliver babies and treating patients.
The mine was visited by F.C. Schrader in 1905 and is mentioned in “The Ore Deposits of New Mexico” by Waldemar Lindgren, Louis Graton and Charles H. Gordon. He wrote:
“Assay samples collected by the writer from the shear-zone yielded from 3.16 to 6 per cent of copper. The sample that yielded 3.16 per cent was taken at a depth of 40 feet (the present bottom of the workings) across the whole Matthews-Whiteside ore body in the Copper Hill district. The ore consists essentially of malachite in the altered granitoid gneiss and has a know extent of 120 feet along the cropping and a width of 30 feet. The malachite also occurs finely disseminated in the inclosing wall or country rock which has been tunneled laterally to the extent of about 100 feet from the ore body and is reported to yield about 2 per cent of copper.”
The exact location of the Matthews-Whiteside mine on Copper Hill is not known today since the historic mines on Copper Hill were mostly destroyed by bulldozing explorations in the late 1950’s.
The description given by Schrader is not typical of the copper deposits at Copper Hill. The deposits are mostly “blue and green carbonates” replacing fossil wood in the “Red Beds” that lie upon pre-Cambrian rocks. This description suggests that the mine was located on the outer edges of Copper Hill where granite and gneiss are in contact with the sedimentary “Red Beds.”
Select Mineral List Type
Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsGallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Quartz | 4.DA.05 | SiO2 |
| Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates | |||
| ⓘ | Malachite | 5.BA.10 | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| Unclassified | |||
| ⓘ | 'Limonite' | - | |
List of minerals for each chemical element
| H | Hydrogen | |
|---|---|---|
| H | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| C | Carbon | |
| C | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| O | Oxygen | |
| O | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| O | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| Si | Silicon | |
| Si | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| Cu | Copper | |
| Cu | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
Other Databases
| Link to USGS MRDS: | 10150230 |
|---|
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
North AmericaContinent
North America PlateTectonic Plate
- Baca BasinBasin
- Colorado PlateauShield
- Mazatzal DomainDomain
USA
- Colorado PlateauPlateau
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