Humbug Mines

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

Name: Humbug Mines  

State:  Arizona

County:  Yavapai

Elevation: 2,598 Feet (792 Meters)

Commodity: Gold, Silver

Lat, Long: 34.04667, -112.30611

Map: View on Google Maps

Satelite View

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Satelite image of the Humbug Mines

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


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