Leefe Mine

The Leefe Mine is a phosphorus-phosphates mine located in Lincoln county, Wyoming.

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

Satelite View

MRDS mine locations are often very general, and in some cases are incorrect. Some mine remains have been covered or removed by modern industrial activity or by development of things like housing. The satellite view offers a quick glimpse as to whether the MRDS location corresponds to visible mine remains.

Site Name

Primary: Leefe Mine
Secondary: Leefe Operations
Secondary: Beckwith Hills
Secondary: San Francisco Chemical Company
Secondary: San Francisco Chemical Company #1
Secondary: San Francisco Chemical Company #2
Secondary: San Francisco Chemical Company #3
Secondary: San Francisco Chemical Company #4
Secondary: San Francisco Chemical Company #5
Secondary: North 40 Pit
Secondary: St. George Mine Area Reclamation
Secondary: North Forty Mine Area Reclamation
Secondary: SMC site

Commodity

Primary: Phosphorus-Phosphates
Tertiary: Uranium

Location

State: Wyoming
County: Lincoln
District: Western Phosphate

Land Status

Land ownership: Mixed
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

Type: Federal Lease
Type: Patented

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Owner Name: San Francisco Chemical Company
Info Year: 1966

Owner Name: Stauffer Chemical Co.
Home Office: Star Route, Randolph, UT 84064
Years: 1980 -

Owner Name: Stauffer Chemical Co.

Owner Name: U.S. Government
Home Office: Dist Of Columbia
Info Year: 1979

Owner Name: Stauffer Chemical Co.
Home Office: Connecticut
Info Year: 1979

Production

Not available

Deposit

Record Type: Deposit
Operation Category: Past Producer
Operation Type: Surface-Underground
Mining Method: Open Pit
Milling Method: Washing
Year First Production: 1908
Year Last Production: 1978
Discovery Year: 1905
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y

Physiography

General Physiographic Area: Rocky Mountain System
Physiographic Province: Middle Rocky Mountains

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Phosphate, upwelling type

Orebody

Name: [from 10106207 (W031617)]

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Not available

Rocks

Name: Shale
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Permian
Age Old: Late Permian

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Not available

Comments

Comment (Deposit): THICKNESS DIVDIED AMONG 4 BEDS; 6, 5, 6.3, AND 1.8 FEET RESPECTIVELY.

Comment (Development): PHOSPHATE PROCESSING PLANT ACTIVE (1980)

Comment (Location): AT LEEFE, WYOMING

Comment (Workings): WYOMING MAP, 1979, SHOWS STRIPPING OPERATIONS ABANDONED.

Comment (General): May duplicate 10106207, Leefe Operatons (old MRDS # W031617), but that record gives first production year as 1947, lists Stauffer Chmeical as the owner beginning in 1980, and suggests that the ore body is only 5.82 m thick.

Comment (Production): Former Leefe Operations 10106207 (W031617) says the first year of production was 1947. [cited in Osterwald and others, Bull. 50, p. 144].

Comment (Ownership): Ownership Records 3 and 4 are from merged and delted record 10106207 (W031617).

Comment (Deposit): MINING MAGAZINE REMOVED LEEFE FROM ITS MAJOR MINE LIST FOR 1982.

Comment (Deposit): Leefe Mine 10135404 (MAS 0560230046) appears to have been incorrectly coded as Beryllium. There is no mention of any Be in this region. Original location was given as N-42-50-1 W-110-53-0. Appears to be erroneous also. The only information about this site is USBM PROD TABS OWNER-OP-STAUFFER CHEMICAL. The only references are EMJ INT DIRECTORY OF MINIng [incomplete reference]and Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bull. 50 [revised ed.], p. 144-145.

Comment (Location): San Francisco Chemical Company #1: 21N, 120W, Sec. 10, SWSE. San Francisco Chemical Company #2: 21N, 120W, Sec. 15, NWNE. San Francisco Chemical Company #3: 21N, 120W, Sec. 02, E2NW. San Francisco Chemical Company #4: 22N, 120W. Also in 21N, R120W. San Francisco Chemical Company #5: 22N, 120W.

Comment (Deposit): "MESA MET-NONMET MINE FILE REF OWN/OP STAUFFER CHEMICAL C" is complete reference for "ROTH 40 PIT" at NAD 27, N41-49-43, W111-0-43 (no PLSS given). No other information for old MAS 0560230013 in newMRDS 10278624.

Comment (Identification): "ROTH 40 PIT" (Dee deposit comment 4) appears to be a typo. Probably meant "North 40 Pit"

Comment (General): Wilson and Heran (USGS) visited this site on 6-aug-2010. The site has long been abandoned and reclaimed. All the open pits and dumps have been graded and revegetated (with various degrees of success). Some of the more "major" roads shown on the topo are accessible, most are not. Decades old notices of reclamation projects are posted at the southern end (St. George Mine Area Reclamation) and north of Twin Creek (North Forty Mine Area Reclamation).

Comment (Workings): http://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/194/1/178.pdf mentions samples from both Leefe open pit mine and Leefe underground mine.

Comment (Workings): 5 subsites for San Francisco Chemical Company #1-#5 are combined into this single entry. There is no specific information in those 5 records to warrant individual records. All but #4 seem to be describing mine symbols on the map, but are so non-specific as to be useless records. #4 is apparently incorrectly located, perhaps in the center of T22N. Randomly moved it to mine symbol in NW of NW of Sec. 2. No indication anywhere that the numbers 1-5 are significant or that those are actual names of those sites. Perhaps they were put in the database to differentiate between unknown sites. #4 was formerly at 41-52-40-N, 111-0-43-W, or more than 1 1/2 mi north of the end of the mined area. Moved it more than 3 mi south, closer to the stated border of T22N and T21N to the "mine" symbol in the NW of NW of sec. 2, to 41-49-52-N, 111-1-7-W.

Comment (Workings): ABBREVIATION FOR MINING DISTRICT: WEST. PHOSPHATE = WESTERN PHOSPHATE FIELD.

Comment (Reserve-Resource): OTHER NAME:LEEFE MINE. ADDED TO EVALUATION BY IFOC ON 9/4/80, BUT NEVER INCLUDED IN THE EVALUATION.

Comment (Ownership): NO PERCENTAGE OWNERSHIP FIGURES ARE GIVEN BECAUSE THE EXACT FIGURES ARE NOT KNOWN. THE PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS ARE MAINLY LOCATED ON PATENTED CLAIMS CONTROLLED BY THE STAUFFER CHEMICAL COMPANY. IN ADDITION, STAUFFER HOLDS ONE ACTIVE FEDERAL PHOSPHATE LEASE. PART OF THE RE- MAINING OUTCROP IS SUBJECT TO SPECIAL RESTRICTIONS TO PHOSPHATE LEASING BY BLM MANAGEMENT POLICY, AND PART IS OPEN TO FEDERAL LEASING. THERE IS ALSO A SMALL AMOUNT OF OUTCROP ON STATE OF WYOMING LAND THAT IS PRESUMABLY OPEN TO STATE LEASING.

Comment (Deposit): THIS MINERALS AVAILABILITY SYSTEM EVALUATION WAS DONE AS PART OF A 1980 STUDY OF UTAH AND WYOMING PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS BY THE INTERMOUNTAIN FIELD OPERATIONS CENTER, DENVER, COLORADO. DOMAIN - THE EXACT PERCENTAGES OF THE OUTCROP IN EACH DOMAIN CATEGORY ARE NOT KNOWN, BUT THE RELATIVE AMOUNTS OF LAND IN EACH CATEGORY ARE KNOWN. THEY ARE, IN DESCENDING ORDER, PRIVATE LAND (PATENTED CLAIMS), FEDERAL LAND ADMINISTERED BY THE U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, AND STATE OF WYOMING LAND.

Comment (Geology): THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION IS SUBDIVIDED INTO FIVE MEMBERS BY MCKELVEY (Rubey and others, 1975), TWO OF WHICH (THE MEADE PEAK AND RETORT MEMBERS) CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS. IN UTAH AND SOUTHWESTERN WYOMING, THE MEADE PEAK MEMBER, AND IN CENTRAL AND NORTHWESTERN WYOMING, THE RETORT MEMBER CONTAIN THE DEPOSITS OF POTENTIAL INTEREST. THE PARK CITY FORMATION OF UTAH AND CENTRAL WYOMING AND THE SHEDHORN SANDSTONE OF NORTHWESTERN WYOMING ARE STRATIGRAPHIC EQUIVALENTS OF AND INTERTONGUE WITH THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION. THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION AND EQUIVALENT FORMATIONS ARE UNDERLAIN BY EITHER THE TENSLEEP SANDSTONE, WEBER QUARTZITE, WELLS FORMATION, OR DIAMOND CREEK SANDSTONE AND ARE OVERLAIN BY EITHER THE WOODSIDE OR DINWOODY FORMATIONS.

References

Reference (Workings): KING, D. L., 1949, SURFACE STRIP PHOSPHATE MINING AT LEEFE, WYOMING, AND MONTPELIER, IDAHO, IN SYMPOSIUM ON WESTERN PHOSPHATE MINING, SAN FRANCISCO, FEB. 1949: REPR. IN A.I.M.E. MIN. TRANS., V. 184, P. 284-287.

Reference (Deposit): WYOMING NATURAL RESOURCE BOARD, 1969, WYOMING PHOSPHATE, IN REVIEW AND FORECAST - WYOMING MINERAL INDUSTRIES, BOOK III (NON-FUEL MINERALS), REPT. BY CAMERON ENGINEERS, P. 230-276.

Reference (Geology): THOMAS, H. D., 1950, SUMMARY OF THE PALEOZOIC STRATIGRAPHY OF THE GREEN RIVER BASIN, WYOMING, IN WYO. GEOL. ASSOC. 5TH ANN. FIELD CONF. GUIDEBOOK (SW WYO.), P. 17-24.

Reference (Geology): RUBEY, W. W., ORIEL, S. S., AND TRACEY, J. I., JR., 1975, GEOLOGY OF THE SAGE AND KEMMERER 15-MINUTE QUADRANGLES, LINCOLN COUNTY, WYOMING: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROF. PAPER 855, 18 P., 2 PLATES.

Reference (Ownership): SCHUMACHER, O. L., PENSE, R. A., AND DAVIS, R. B., 1979, FEDERAL LAND STATUS IN THE OVERTHRUST BELT OF IDAHO, MONTANA, UTAH, AND WYOMING, 1979: U.S. BUREAU OF MINES SPECIAL REPT. (IN PRESS), TEXT WITH MAPS AND OVERLAYS.

Reference (Geology): U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1954, OGDEN, UTAH; WYOMING, 1-DEGREE BY 2-DEGREE TOPOGRAPHIC MAP: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1:250,000-SCALE MAP, 1 SHEET.

Reference (Workings): KING, D. L., SR., 1967, SAN FRANCISCO CHEMICAL CO., CRAWFORD MOUNTAIN - LEEFE AREA, UTAH AND WYOMING, IN INTERMOUNTAIN ASSOC. OF GEOL. 15TH ANN. FIELD CONF., P. 203-209.

Reference (Workings): COCHRAN, K L., 1950, WYOMING PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY, IN WYO. GEOL. ASSOC. 5TH ANN. FIELD CONF. GUIDEBOOK (SW WYOMING), P. 133-135.

Reference (Geology): RICHARDSON, G. B., 1941, GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE RANDOLPH QUADRANGLE, UTAH - WYOMING: U.S. GEOL. SURVEY BULL. 923, 54 P., PLATE.

Reference (Deposit): Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bull. 50 [revised ed.], p. 143-145.

Reference (Geology): MCKELVEY, V. E., SMITH, L. E., HOPPIN, R. A., AND ARMSTRONG, F. C., 1953, STRATIGRAPHIC SECTIONS OF THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION IN WYOMING: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRC. 210, 35 P.

Reference (Deposit): ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF MINES FOR THE YEAR ENDING 12/31/81.

Reference (Geology): GALE, H. S., AND RICHARDS, R. W., 1910, PHOSPHATES, IN U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULL. 430, P. 457-553.

Reference (Workings): BEALL, J. V., AND MERRITT, P. C., 1966, PHOSPHATE AND POTASH - MINERALS TO FEED THE WORLD: MIN. ENG., OCT. 1966, P. 75-99.

Reference (Ownership): U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, 1978, STATE OF WYOMING LAND STATUS: U.S. BUR. OF LAND MANAGEMENT MAP, 1:500,000 SCALE, 1 SHEET.

Reference (Deposit): MESA MET-NONMET MINE FILE REF OWN/OP STAUFFER CHEMICAL C

Reference (Workings): http://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/194/1/178.pdf (mentions samples from both Leefe open pit mine and Leefe underground mine.) last accessed 7/13/10.
URL: http://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/194/1/178.pdf

Reference (Deposit): Spangenberg, D.R., Carey, E.F., and Takosky, P.M., 1983, Minerals availability commodity directory on phosphate: U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular IC-8926, 678 p.
Pages: p. 392-394.

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