The Butte, Veins (Anaconda) is a copper, silver, and gold mine located in Silver Bow county, Montana.
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
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Butte, Veins (Anaconda) MRDS details
Site Name
Primary: Butte, Veins (Anaconda)
Commodity
Primary: Copper
Primary: Silver
Primary: Gold
Secondary: Bismuth
Secondary: Cadmium
Secondary: Manganese
Secondary: Zinc
Secondary: Selenium
Secondary: Lead
Tertiary: Tellurium
Location
State: Montana
County: Silver Bow
District: Butte
Land Status
Not available
Holdings
Not available
Workings
Not available
Ownership
Not available
Production
Year: 1975
Time Period: 1880-1975
Mined: 249583000.00 mt
Material type: ore
Deposit
Record Type: Deposit
Operation Category: Past Producer
Deposit Type: Vein, Polymetallic, Porphyry Cu-Mo related
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Year First Production: 1880
Year Last Production: 2000
Discovery Year: 1875
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Physiography
General Physiographic Area: Rocky Mountain System
Physiographic Province: Northern Rocky Mountains
Mineral Deposit Model
Model Name: Polymetallic veins
Orebody
Not available
Structure
Type: L
Structure: Northeast striking normal faults
Alterations
Not available
Rocks
Name: Quartz Monzonite
Role: Associated
Age Type: Associated Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous
Name: Quartz Monzonite
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Cretaceous
Analytical Data
Not available
Materials
Not available
Comments
Comment (Deposit): Quartz-Molybdenite Veins, "S" Veins Which Are Transitional To Main Stage Veins Which Are The Anaconda, Blue, And Steward Systems. In The Anaconda System The Veins Strike About N65-80e And Dip Steeply S In The Outer Part Of The District. In The Central Part They Strike N75-80w And Dip Steeply N To S. Except For The En-Echelon Gaps, The Major Veins Of This System Contained The Best Vein Ore In The District. The Blue System Veins Strike NW And Are Best Developed In The Central Part Of The District. Within A Core Zone At Depth They Occur To The Exclusion Of Veins Of The Anaconda System. In The Outer Parts Of The District The Blue System Veins Are Rare And The Anaconda Veins Are Dominant. The Blue System Veins Are Barren Near The Surface And Improve With Depth. In The S Part Of The District They Surpass The Anaconda System On The Deeper Levels As Producers. The Hanging Wall Steward System Strikes E-W To N75e And Dips 30-50s. These Veins Improve With Depth. These Were The Copper Vein Systems. The Other Class Of Ore Is The Siliceous Silver. The Copper Ores Contain A Little Silver; The Ag Ores Rarely Contain Cu; Both Cu And Ag Ores Contain Little Au, And The High-Grade Ag Ore Contain Important Amounts Of Au. The Ag-Bearing Area Is Much Larger Than The Cu-Bearing Area, Which Laps Around On The N And W. In This Large Area The Veins Occur In Six Different Clusters. The Lexington Group Strikes N75e To S65e. Rainbow Group Which Include The Valdemere System, NE Cross Veins And The Rainbow Lode. The Northern Or Wabash Group Are Shallow And Are Not Profitable. The Missoula Gulch Group Border The Copper Veins. The Western Or Aplite Group, The Veins Are In Aplite. The Southern And Eastern Groups Also Have Manganese With The Ag. Guilbert And Park (1986) Related Butte To Cordilleran Vein Deposits. Perry (1932) Classified Butte As Fissure-Filling And Replacement Vein.
Comment (Geology): Rusk And Others (2000) define several stages of mineralization.
Comment (Deposit): Veins: East-West Striking Anaconda Veins, Northwest-Striking Blue Fault Veins, The Anaconda Veins Strike N60-70e In The Western Part Of The District, Dip Steeply North To The North But Overturn With Increasing Depth To Dip South Below The 2,800 Ft Level, They Converge To The West And Downward, And The Dips Flatten Out At The Deeper Levels. To The East, The Anaconda Veins? Strike Changes To The East And The Southeast. The Anaconda Veins Then Disappear In The Central Zone And Re-Appear Several Thousand Feet Eastward. Most Of The Vein Ore Mined In Butte Came From The Anaconda Veins. The Blue Fault Veins Offset The Anaconda Veins In A Left-Lateral Sense. They Dip Steeply South (With Some Local North Dips) In The North Part Of The District And Diminish To As Little As 45 Degrees In The South Part. Mineralization Began In The Anaconda Veins And Then The Blue Veins Became Available For Mineralization. Ore Shoots On The Anaconda Veins Are In The Dialational Zone Where The Veins Change Strike Because Of Offset By The Blue Faults. Horsetail Zones ?Break Off? Of The Anaconda Veins In The Eastern Part Of The District. These Are Small Veinlets That ?Finger Out? According To Perry, Into A Spray At Nearly Right Angles To The Main Vein. Sometimes They Are The Terminus Of The Vein.
Comment (Deposit): Ore Materials-CHALCOCITE (COPPER GLANCE), BORNITE (PEACOCK COPPER), ENARGITE, CHALCOPYRITE, COVELLITE (INDIGO COPPER), TENNANTITE, TETRAHEDRITE (GRAY COPPER), MANGANESE OXIDE, PYROLUSITE, PSILOMELANE, GALENA, SPHALERITE (ZINC BLENDE), NATIVE SILVER, ACANTHITE (ARGENTITE), STEPHANITE, RUBY SILVERS, DIGINITE, CUPRITE, MALACHITE, AZURITE, NATIVE GOLD, MOLYBDENITE, NATIVE COPPER, RHODOCHROSITE
Comment (Deposit): SEE "Montana Resources", Deposit ID 10173000 for full description of the Butte Deposit
Comment (Reserve-Resource): Resource includes demonstrated and inferred resources in shallow silver, copper, and lead-zinc veins, and disseminated zinc, and metals in dump material. Resources calculated for 5 claim blocks with an aggregate area of 2,342 acres.
References
Reference (Production): Miller, R.N., 1973, Guidebook for the Butte field meeting of the Society of Economic Geologists, Butte, MT: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Butte, MT, August 18?21, 1973.
Reference (Deposit): SEE "Montana Resources", Deposit ID 10173000 for full Butte Deposit, references
Reference (Deposit): Rusk, B.G., Reed, M.H., Dilles, J.H., and Bodnar, R.J., 2000, Magmatic fluid evolution from an ancient magmatic-hydrothermal system: The porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit, Butte, MT: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 32, no. 7, p. 399.
Pages: 399
Reference (Deposit): Rusk, B. and Reed, M., 2002, Scanning electron microscope-cathodoluminescence analysis of quartz reveals complex growth histories in veins from the Butte Porphyry Copper deposit, Montana: Geology, v. 30, pp. 727-730.
Reference (Production): USBM Minerals Yearbook 1973-75
Reference (Production): Anaconda 1973-75 SEC Form 10K
Reference (Reserve-Resource): Long, 1992
Reference (Reserve-Resource): Montana Mining Properties Inc., Mineral Asset Summary @ http://members.aol.com/MontanaMining/
URL: http://members.aol.com/MontanaMining/
Principal Gold Districts of Montana
In Montana, 54 mining districts have each have produced more than 10,000 ounces of gold. The largest producers are Butte, Helena, Marysville, and Virginia City, each having produced more than one million ounces. Twenty seven other districts are each credited with between 100,000 and one million ounces of gold production. Read more: Principal Gold Districts of Montana.
