Davis-Dunkirk Mine

Mine Description

The Davis-Dunkirk mines, held by Davis-Dunkirk Mines, Inc., is on the western slope of the Bradshaw Mountains, near the head of Slate Creek. By road, the main camp, at the mill, is 14 miles from Prescott and 3 miles west of the Senator Highway. As the elevation at the camp is about 6,400 feet and on part of the road over 7,000 feet, communications in winter are sometimes hampered by Snow.

These veins were located in the sixties or early seventies of the past century. Raymond, in 1874, stated that: “Seven and a half tons of ore from the Davis mine near Prescott have been shipped to San Francisco and yielded $618.75 or $88.50 per ton. This vein is only opened by a few holes from 5 to 10 feet deep.”(47) Little other historical data for the mine are available, but its production prior to 1922(48) is said to have been about $200,000. In 1925, the property was obtained by Davis-Dunkirk Mines, Inc., which subsequently built a new camp and a 120-ton flotation mill. Regular operations, employing about twenty men, began in August, 1933, and yielded fifteen cars of concentrates up to January 10, 1934.

Here, the steep-sided canyon of Slate Creek exposes moderately fissile pre-Cambrian schist, intruded by stocks and dikes of granodiorite and diorite and a few dikes of rhyolite-porphyry. The mine workings are mainly in schist which, a short distance farther west, is intruded by a large stock of granodiorite and, on the southeast, by diorite.

The Dunkirk vein occurs within a fault fissure that strikes northeastward and dips nearly vertically southeastward. As seen on the lowest adit level, its thickness ranges from a few inches to about 3 feet. The filling is mainly coarse-grained grayishwhite quartz with abundant pyrite and chalcopyrite. In places, coarsely crystalline pale-pinkish ankerite is the principal gangue. Rather intense sericitization and silicification are apparent in the wall rock. The richer gold and silver ore shoots, as indicated by several old stopes above this adit, tend to be somewhat irregular in form and distribution. The silver content is asserted to be decreasing with depth. At a point approximately 1,400 feet in from the portal, the vein separates into two branches about 45° apart. In January, 1934, ore was being mined from workings at the bottom of a 100-foot winze sunk at this point. According to H. L. Williams, (49) manager of the property, the mill concentrates from this ore averaged about one ounce in gold and 62 ounces in silver per ton.

The left branch of the vein continues northeastward, towards the old Davis mine. Ore from the upper levels of this mine was described by Lindgren (50) as consisting of fine-grained, druzy quartz with sparse pyrite and yellow sphalerite, with abundant grains of proustite and polybasite. He regarded this vein as of the shallow-seated type, but the Dunkirk vein belongs distinctly to the mesothermal type.

Workings on the Davis-Dunkirk property consist of more than 6,000 feet of adits, raises, stopes, and winzes, distributed over about four claim-lengths and with a vertical range of 1,600 feet.

(47) Raymond, R. W., Statistics of mines and mining in the states and territories west of the Rocky Mountains, p. 347. Washington, 1874.

(48)Lindgren, W., work cited, p. 119.

(49)Oral communication.

(50)Work cited, p. 119.

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

Site Name

Primary: Davis-Dunkirk Mine
Secondary: Van Hook, Davis, Murphy, Dunkirk, Poverty, Davis-Dunkirk Mines No. 1
Secondary: Claims Include Dunkirk, West Dunkirk, Kentucky, Judge, Margery, Keno,
Secondary: Retort, Cresent, Indiana, Douglas, General Otis, Captain Lyman

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Commodity

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

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Location

State: Arizona
County: Yavapai
District: Mt. Union District

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Land Status

Not available

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Type: Underground

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Ownership

Owner Name: Van Hook Mining Co. , Casparic , Lookout Copper Co. , Castle Copper Co.
Years: 1918 - 1926

Owner Name: Davis Mine-Clark , Caspari , Davis-Dunkirk Inc. ,Bradshaw Mines, In
Years: 1900 - 1907

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: Vein
Operation Type: Unknown
Year First Production: 1874
Year Last Production: 1961
Discovery Year: 1869
Discovery Method: Ore-Mineral In Place
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: N
Deposit Size: S

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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

Not available

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Orebody

Form: TABULAR

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Structure

Type: R
Description: Foliation In Precambrian Rocks Trends N25e

Type: L
Description: Dikes And Veins Parallel Foliation

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: None To Minor Silicification In Wall Rocks

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Rocks

Name: Meta-Basalt
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock Unit
Age in Years: 1720.000000+-
Dating Method: U-Pb (zircon)
Material Analyzed: Zircon
Age Young: Proterozoic

Name: Meta-Basalt
Role: Associated
Age Type: Host Rock Unit
Age Young: Paleoproterozoic

Name: Meta-Basalt
Role: Associated
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Paleoproterozoic

Name: Amphibolite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock Unit
Age in Years: 1760.000000+-
Dating Method: U-Pb (zircon)
Material Analyzed: Zircon
Age Young: Proterozoic

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Silver
Ore: Proustite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Ore: Polybasite
Ore: Sphalerite
Ore: Argentite
Gangue: Ankerite
Gangue: Quartz
Unknown: Pyrite

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Comments

Comment (Deposit): Discovery Year: 1869 (POVERTY)

Comment (Deposit): TWO MAIN VEINS CALLED THE DAVIS AND THE DUNKIRK. AT MOUTH OF TUNNEL ON THE NEW ERA CLAIM (DAVIS MINE), ONLY ONE VEIN IS PRESENT. THIS VEIN PERSISTS FOR 1400 FT TO THE NE, WHERE IT SPLITS INTO THE NORTHWESTERN SEGMENT, THE DAVIS VEIN, AND THE SOUTHEASTERN SEGMENT, THE DUNKIRK VEIN. DEPOSIT IS VEIN WHICH CUTS PRECAMBRIAN METAVOLCANIC AND METASEDIMENTARY ROCKS.

Comment (Workings): 23 TUNNELS ALONG THE STRIKE OF THE VEIN. 13,000 FT ON VEIN, OVER 8,000 FT OF DRIFTS ON THE VEIN AND 3,000 FT OF RAISES AND SHAFTS. THE PORTALS OF THE TUNNELS VARY IN ELEVATION FROM 6200 TO 7600 FT.

Comment (Geology): RHYOLITE PORPHYRY DIKES OF PROBABLE LCRET-TERT AGE ASSOCIATED WITH VEINS. GOVERNMENT CANYON GRANODIORITE OUTCROPS 0.15 MILES NORTHWEST OF MAIN WORKINGS.

Comment (Deposit): THIS RECORD CONTAINS DATA FROM DUPLICATE RECORD D002838 OF J.W. HASLER WHICH HAS BEEN DELETED FROM MAIN MRDS. ; INFO.SRC : 1 PUB LIT; 2 UNPUB REPT

Comment (Deposit): IN 1918 THE POVERTY, DAVIS, AND DUNKIRK ARE SEPERATE MINES THAT WERE LATER GROUPED TOGETHER. LISTED AS CLAIMS OF THE DAVIS-DUNKIRK AREA, DUNKIRK, WEST DUNKIRK, KENTUCKY JUDGE, MARGERY, KENO, RETORT, CRESENT, INDIANA, DOUGLAS, GENERAL OTIS AND CAPTAIN LYMAN.

Comment (Location): UTM TAKEN TO ADIT IN SECTION 3; ADIT IN SECTION 2 PART OF THE MINE. OLD DAVIS MINE WAS WORKINGS ON NEW ERA CLAIM IN CENTER OF SEC. 3. DUNKIRK MINE WAS WORKINGS ON DUNKIRK CLAIM IN NE PART OF SEC. 3 AND NW PART OF SEC. 2. UTM COORDINATES FOR DAVIS-DUNKIRK ARE TO LOWEST TUNNEL ON DUNKIRK CLAIM IN NORTHEAST PART OF SEC. 2

Comment (Development): MAIN WORKINGS ARE ON THE NEW ERA AND DUNKIRK PATENTED CLAIMS

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References

Reference (Deposit): USBM-ABGMT FILE DATA.

Reference (Deposit): AZ DEPT MIN RES FILE DATA.

Reference (Deposit): ABGMT CLIPPINGS FILE DATA.

Reference (Deposit): USGS BULL 782, P. 119.

Reference (Deposit): YAVAPAI MAGAZINE, 1918 V. VI, NO. 8, P. 6.

Reference (Deposit): USGS GEOLOGIC QUADRANGLE MAP GQ-997.

Reference (Deposit): UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA BULLETIN 137.

Reference (Other Database): CIMRI

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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.