The Humbug Mines is a gold and silver mine located in Yavapai county, Arizona at an elevation of 2,598 feet.
About the MRDS Data:
All mine locations were obtained from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System. The locations and other information in this database have not been verified for accuracy. It should be assumed that all mines are on private property.
Mine Info
Elevation: 2,598 Feet (792 Meters)
Commodity: Gold, Silver
Lat, Long: 34.04667, -112.30611
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Mine Description
Situation and history: The holdings of Humbug Gold Mines, Inc., in the southwestern Bradshaw Mountains or Humbug district, consist of approximately 100 claims and include the Fogarty, Queen, Little Annie, Heinie, Lind, and Columbia groups. Humbug camp, at an elevation of 2,600 feet on Humbug Creek, is accessible by 9.5 miles of road which branches eastward from the Castle Hot Springs Highway at a point 22.25 miles from Morristown.
In this area, gold mining was carried on with the aid of arrastres as early as 1880. From 1900 to 1905, C. E. Champie operated a 4-stamp mill at Columbia, on Humbug Creek. Some ore was shipped but, during the early days when Yuma was the nearest shipping point, operations were greatly hampered by the inaccessibility of the district. After 1905, only small-scale, intermittent work was attempted until 1932 when the present operators started active development. According to Mr. Elsing, test shipments of 207 tons of ore, mined from surface cuts and tunnels on numerous veins, averaged approximately 1.5 ounces of gold and 3.5 ounces of silver per ton, together with 3.5 per cent of lead. A 50-ton flotation and table concentrating mill was completed and put into operation early in 1934. In February of that year, about eighty men were employed on the property.
Topography and geology: This ground, which lies within the drainage area of Humbug Creek and its branches, Rockwall and Carpenter creeks, has been eroded into sharp ridges and alternating southward-trending canyons about 800 feet deep. The prevailingly accordant summits of the main ridges appear to represent dissected remnants of the early Tertiary, pre-lava pediment that extends south of Silver Mountain.
Within this area, the principal rocks consist of large bodies of mica schist, surrounded by granite and intruded by numerous dikes of pegmatite and rhyolitic to granitic porphyry. The schist, granite, and pegmatite are regarded as pre-Cambrian in age, and the porphyry as Mesozoic or Tertiary.
The schistosity and the dikes prevailingly strike northeastward. Considerable pre-mineral and post-mineral faulting, principally of northeastward strike, is evident. Post-mineral faults of great magnitude follow some of the main gulches.
Veins: The veins of the Humbug area occur within fault fissures, mainly of northeastward strike and steep northwestward dip. Their filling consists of massive to coarsely crystalline, grayish-white quartz, together with irregular masses, veinlets, and disseminations of fine to coarse-grained pyrite and galena. In places, arsenopyrite is abundant. A notable amount of sphalerite is reported in one vein.
Most of the gold is contained within the iron minerals. The galena is reported to carry a little gold and locally as much as 40 ounces of silver per ton. Some free gold occurs as irregular veinlets and particles within fractures and cavities in the quartz. In the completely oxidized zone, which is generally of shallow, irregular depth, all of the gold is free.
These veins range in width from less than an inch up to 3 feet or more and persist for remarkably long distances along the strike. One of them is traceable on the surface for more than 9,000 feet. The ore shoots, which have been found to range from a few feet to a few hundred feet in length, are reported to contain from 0.25 to 9 or more ounces of gold per ton.
The wall rocks have been extensively altered to coarse sericite. Such alteration, together with the vein structure, texture, and mineralogy, indicates deposition in the mesothermal zone. Not enough work has been done to reveal the structural features that determine their ore shoots. Apparently, the high-grade portions are less than a foot wide, but the altered condition of the country rock permits cheap mining by a lessee system. According to Mr. Orem, the total cost of drifting during preliminary development ranged from $1 to $4 per linear foot.
Text is from Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining - Arizona Bureau of Mines 1967
Humbug Mines MRDS details
Site Name
Primary: Humbug Mines
Commodity
Primary: Gold
Primary: Silver
Tertiary: Lead
Tertiary: Zinc
Tertiary: Arsenic
Location
State: Arizona
County: Yavapai
District: Humbug District
Land Status
Land ownership: Private
Note: the land ownership field only identifies whether the area the mine is in is generally on public lands like Forest Service or BLM land, or if it is in an area that is generally private property. It does not definitively identify property status, nor does it indicate claim status or whether an area is open to prospecting. Always respect private property.
Holdings
Not available
Workings
Not available
Ownership
Not available
Production
Not available
Deposit
Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Operation Type: Unknown
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S
Physiography
General Physiographic Area: Intermontane Plateaus
Physiographic Province: Basin And Range Province
Physiographic Section: Mexican Highland
Mineral Deposit Model
Not available
Orebody
Not available
Structure
Not available
Alterations
Not available
Rocks
Name: Rhyolite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Pliocene
Name: Rhyolite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Neoproterozoic
Analytical Data
Not available
Materials
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Galena
Ore: Sphalerite
Comments
Comment (Deposit): MINES AND CLAIMS LISTED IN REFERENCES, WITH LITTLE OR NO INFORMATION: ACQUISITION, MOUNTAIN CHIEF, OCCIDENT, FOGARTY, QUEEN, LITTLE ANNIE, HEINIE, LIND, AND COLUMBIA. ; INFO.SRC : 1 PUB LIT
Comment (Production): PRODUCTION WAS INTERMITTANT; 1880'S, 1900 TO 1905 , 1913 - 1914 , 1932 TO 1936 .
Comment (Location): LOCATION IS A GROUP LOCATION
References
Reference (Production): U.S.G.S. BULLETIN 782 , P. 179 .
Reference (Deposit): USGS BULL 782, P. 178
Reference (Deposit): WILSON, E.D., 1934 , ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND GOLD MINING: ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES BULLETIN 137 , P. 60
Arizona Gold
"Where to Find Gold in Arizona" looks at the density of modern placer mining claims along with historical gold mining locations and mining district descriptions to determine areas of high gold discovery potential in Arizona. Read more: Where to Find Gold in Arizona.
