A Hg mining area in SE Santa Barbara County.

Three miles of cinnabar mineralization near the present site of Gibraltar Dam occurring in Upper Jurassic serpentines and Upper Cretaceous shales.
Discovered in 1860 and worked sporadically from the late 1800's to the 1930's. Early records suggest that this was the area where Cinnabar was first discovered in California.

The Cinnabar occurs as disseminations, veinlets, and bunches in lenses of silica-carbonate rock and fault gouges at contacts of serpentine, shale, and sandstone of the Great Valley sequence.

Select Mineral List Type

Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities

ⓘ Cinnabar

1 valid mineral.

Detailed Mineral List:

ⓘ Cinnabar

Formula: HgS

Localities:

Los Prietos Mine (Los Pristoe Mine; Horseshore Quicksilver Mine Company; Snow Workings; Juniper Claims), Los Prietos District, Santa Barbara County, California, USA
Gibraltar Mine (Falcon Mine), Los Prietos District, Santa Barbara County, California, USA

Gallery:

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification

Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts
ⓘ	Cinnabar	2.CD.15a	HgS

List of minerals for each chemical element

S	Sulfur
S	ⓘ Cinnabar	HgS
Hg	Mercury
Hg	ⓘ Cinnabar	HgS

Localities in this Region

USA

California
- Santa Barbara County
  - Los Prietos District
    - Gibraltar Mine (Falcon Mine)
    - Los Prietos Mine (Los Pristoe Mine; Horseshore Quicksilver Mine Company; Snow Workings; Juniper Claims)

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

North AmericaContinent

Coast MountainsMountain Range

North America Plate

California BorderlandAccretionary Complex
Franciscan DomainDomain
Southern California Borderland BasinsBasin

Pacific PlateTectonic Plate

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References

Bradley, W.W. (1918), Quicksilver resources of California, with a section on metallurgy and ore dressing: California Mining Bureau. Bulletin 78: 150-153

Everhart, Donald Lough (1950b), Quicksilver deposits of the Cachuma district, Santa Barbara County, California: California Journal of Mines and Geology: 46: 509-532

Egenhoff, Elizabeth Lee (1953) De Argento Vito: Historic documents on quicksilver and its recovery in California prior to 1860. California Journal of Mines and Geology, 49, special supplement: 81

Pemberton, H. Earl (1983) Minerals of California. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc.pp.122-123

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