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Helvetia Mining District | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In recent mining activities and production the Helvetia district ranks among the first in the area. It lies in the north-central part of the Patagonia quadrangle, in the eastern part of Pima county, comprising a northeast-southwest area about 12 miles long and 7 miles wide, or about 90 square miles. It contains the north end of the Santa Rita mountains, which here rise to about 6,000 feet in elevation and in or near whose axis most of the mines are situated. It extends from Box Canyon in the south to and beyond the Cuprite camp in the head of Pantano Wash on the north and from the west base of the Santa Rita mountains to Davidson Canyon on the east. The principal camp is Helvetia, located southwest of the center of the district. At the time of visit this camp had a population of 300 people, mostly Mexicans in the employ of the Helvetia Copper Co. It has good wagon-road, stage, and mail connections with Vail, the nearest station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, 18 miles to the north, and with Tucson, 28 miles to the northwest. The other camps, mostly small, are Rosemont, 4 miles southeast of Helvetia on the eastern slope of the range; Tiptop, about 1½ miles north; Blue Jay, 2 miles northeast; Proctor and Deering, in Box Canyon on the south; Beuhman, Cuprite, Pauline, and metallic, on the north; Helena and Scholefield, on the east, and Ridley, a small camp a mile west of Helvetia. They are mostly connected with one another by wagon roads, and good trails cross the range. The topography is mostly rough, and in the heart of the range it is rugged. On the west the drainage issues toward the Santa Cruz through steep-sides broad washes and arroyos which in or near the mountains have steep gradients - in the latitude of Helvetia about 1,400 feet to the mile - and some of which emerge from deep canyons. The eastern part of the district is drained through streams with gentler gradients, about 300 feet to the mile, eastward into Davidson Canyon and Cienega Creek. The geology in places is complex. As described on pages 44 - 45, a narrow but almost continuous belt of the sedimentary Paleozoic rocks is upturned, folded, and faulter and rests upon the intrusive granite or its allied rocks on the west and is overlain by Mesozoic sediments or younger accumulations on the east. The succession and generak relations of the rocks are shown in Plate III, section A - B.
LocationNorth end, Santa Rita Mountains 17 - 18S 15-16E5 Mineral ProductsCu, Pb, Zn, Ag, Au, W-, Mo-, Limestone, Marble5 Geology1. Irregular, partially oxidized, pyrometasomatic replacement copper deposits with subordinate and spotty lead, zinc, tungsten and molybdenum mineralization in thrust-faulted, sheared and altered Paleozoic limestone and quartzite, and in Cretaceous limy beds. Controlled by structures or bedding planes in contact with or close to Laramide quartz latite porphyry stocks and dikes. Locally the intrusive contains disseminated copper mineralization.. 2. Spotty and irregular, partly oxidized, base metal sulfides with some scheelite along quartz-shear zones or breccia zones in Precambian and Laramide granitic intrusives. 3. Paleozoic limestones, locally metamorphosed to marble5. Types of Operations and ProductionFifty or more small to medium size mines and prospects have been opened or worked since the early 1880's. Total estimated and reported production through 1972 would be some 430,000 tons of ore containing about 17,500 tons of copper, 350,000 ounces of silver, 680 tons of zinc, 260 tons of lead and a minor amount of gold, molybdenum and tungsten. An indefinite amount of limestone and marble have been produced. 5 References
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