Iron King Mine

Mine Description

A little more than a mile west of the Humboldt smelter, in the open foothills, is the Iron King mine, now owned by the Southwest Metals Company, which also owns the Humboldt smelter. To the officers of that company I am indebted for most of the following information. The deposit, which carries gold and silver, forms a replacement zone in the Yavapai schist, but it differs from the normal copper deposits that are so numerous farther to the south in the same schist. It was Worked about 1906 and 1907. The production in 1907 was 1,253 ounces of gold, 35,491 ounces of silver, and 3,933 pounds of copper.

The deposit is developed by two shafts 750 feet apart and 435 and 225 feet deep. Several thousand tons of ore averaging $8 a ton in gold and silver have been shipped to the neighboring smelter. It is claimed that the ore in sight amounts to 20,000 tons and that the deposit contains much low-grade siliceous material averaging $1 or $2 in gold to the ton. The ore is reported to contain from $6 to $8 in gold and 4 to 23 ounces in silver to the ton. Some diamond drilling has been done; the cores in the ore body contained $8 in gold and 9.60 ounces of silver to the ton, 32 per cent of iron and 14 per cent of insoluble matter. Other parts of the ore body contain as much as 70 per cent of insoluble constituents.

"The deposit forms a series of lenses in part overlapping, in highly schist, which strikes N. 21° E. and dips 75° W. These lenses are 150 to 500 feet long and 5 to 10 feet Wide. The whole mineralized zone is 75 feet Wide.

The water level was found at a depth of 140 feet, and near this level in one ore body there was some enriched copper ore containing 4 to 5 per cent of copper.

“The ore is a steel-­gray flinty schist containing a crushed quartz mosaic of coarser and grain intergrown with some dolomitic carbonate and abundant prisms of bluish-gray tourmaline. The sulphides are disposed in streaks and consist of fine-grained arsenopyrite, pyrite, light-colored sphalerite, and a little Chalcopyrite and galena.”

Text from Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining, Arizona Bureau of Mines. Original 1934, revised 1967

Site Name

Primary: Iron King Mine

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Commodity

Primary: Zinc
Primary: Lead
Secondary: Copper
Secondary: Gold
Secondary: Silver

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Location

State: Arizona
County: Yavapai
District: Big Bug District

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Land Status

Land ownership: National Forest
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.

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Type: Underground

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Ownership

Owner Name: Coronado Minerals
Years: 1991 -

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Production

Year: 1964
Time Period: 1907 - 1964
Description: Cp_Grade: ^3.69 Oz. Ag/Ton
Year: 1964
Time Period: 1907 - 1964
Description: Cp_Grade: ^0.19 % Cu

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Operation Type: Unknown
Year First Production: 1903
Year Last Production: 1968
Discovery Year: 1880
Discovery Method: Ore-Mineral In Place
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: M

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Physiography

General Physiographic Area: Intermontane Plateaus
Physiographic Province: Basin And Range Province
Physiographic Section: Mexican Highland

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Massive sulfide, kuroko

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Orebody

Form: EN ECHELON VEINS/ARCUATE

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Structure

Type: R
Description: Bedding Trends N22e

Type: L
Description: Foliation Trends N22e

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Chloritization, Silicification, Sericitization

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Rocks

Name: Chert
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock Unit
Age Young: Neoproterozoic

Name: Chert
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Neoproterozoic

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Galena
Ore: Sphalerite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Tennantite
Ore: Anglesite
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Ore: Cerargyrite
Ore: Limonite
Gangue: Apatite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Ankerite
Gangue: Calcite
Gangue: Pyrite
Gangue: Sericite
Gangue: Chlorite

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Comments

Comment (Development): 1980-- CONOCO DID A ROCK SAMPLE GEOCHEMICAL STUDY TO LOOK AT ALTERATION. 1982-- JEROME MINING COMPANY AND MCCABE IRON KING MINES DID ALTERATION MAPPING. POST 1982-- SANTA FE WORKED ON STRUCTURE AND LITHOLOGY; DRILLED EXHALATIVE SEDIMENTS AND ALTERATION PACKAGES. CORNADO MINERALS PICKED UP PROPERTY 1991; APRIL, TAILINGS WERE BEING REWORKED. SOUTHWEST METALS, SHATTUCK DENN (1968)

Comment (Reserve-Resource): TAILINGS ORE CONSIDERED TO BE UNRECOVERABLE DUE TO PYRITE ENCAPSULATION/METALLURGICAL PROBLEM AND TO ZN-AS CONTENT.

Comment (Deposit): MASSIVE SULFIDE LENSES IN METARHYOLITE AND META-ANDESITE. THE DEPOSIT IS MADE UP OF 12 EN ECHELON LENSES, UP TO 14 FT IN WIDTH. THE CONTACT BETWEEN LENS AND WALLROCK IS ABRUPT. THE LENSES OCCUR ALONG THE FOOTWALL OF META-ANDESITIC ROCK, IN A SHEARED AND ALTERED ZONE.

Comment (Workings): 7 SHAFTS, WITH LARGE LATERAL WORKINGS, LEVELS AT 100 - FOOT INTERVALS. ORE WAS MILLED BY CYANIDATION AND FLOTATION ON SITE.

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References

Reference (Deposit): ABGMT-USBM FILE DATA.

Reference (Deposit): GILMOUR AND STILL, 1968, IN ORE DEPOSITS OF THE UNITED STATES, GRATON-SALES VOLUME, V. II, P. 1238-1257.

Reference (Deposit): SITE VISIT BY CIMRI STAFF.

Reference (Deposit): NIEMUTH, N.J., 1987, ARIZONA MINERAL DEVELOPMENT 1984-1986: ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES DIRECTORY 29, 46 P.

Reference (Deposit): ANDERSON, C.A., AND BLACET, P.M., 1972, PRECAMBRIAN GEOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN BRADSHAW MOUNTAINS, YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA: U.S.G.S. BULLETIN 1336, P. 72.

Reference (Deposit): KRIEGER, M.H., 1965 , GEOLOGY OF THE PRESCOTT AND PAULDEN QUADRANGLES, ARIZONA: U.S.G.S. PROF. PAPER 467, P. 110 - 111.

Reference (Deposit): SAWYER, M.B., GURMENDI, A.C., DALEY, M.R., AND HOWELL, S.B., 1992, PRINCIPAL DEPOSITS OF STRATEGIC AND CRITICAL MINERALS IN ARIZONA: U.S. BUREAU OF MINES SPECIAL PUBLICATION, 334 P.

Reference (Other Database): CIMRI

Reference (Production): U.S.G.S. BULL. 1336, PAGE 72.

Reference (Reserve-Resource): NIEMUTH, 1987; SAWYER AND OTHERS, 1992.

Reference (Deposit): ANDERSON, C.A. AND CREASEY, S.C., 1958 , GEOLOGY AND ORE DEPOSITS OF THE JEROME AREA, YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA: U.S.G.S. PROF. PAPER 308, P. 155 - 169.

Reference (Deposit): CREASEY, S.C., 1952, GEOLOGY OF THE IRON KING MINE, YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA; ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, VOL. 47, NO. 1.

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Arizona Gold

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