Mine Report

Bonanza Mine


Mining District and Mines

Tyndall District- western slope of southern part of Santa Rita Mountains1

Devil’s Cash Box group, Veta Grande; Orosco, Alabama Queen Mg. Co.,O’Neil & Candelaria, Ellefson1.

Devil’s Cash Box - toward the outer edge of the Montosa-Caliente belt of Paleozoic sediments there is a monoclinal north-south foothill hogback ridge capped by limestone dipping 40° - 60° W. into the Santa Cruz Valley. The ridge extends from a point near Agua Caliente to Montosa Basin, being about a mile long, and is separated from the slope of the main ridge by a narrow piedmont valley. From the mineral deposits found in it at various points it is know as the Devil’s Cash Box. It was not examined in this work. Among the producing properties it is said to contain are the Orosco and Sheehy-O’Donnell. The Orosco, owned by J. M. Orosco, is said to have shipped some very rich silver-lead ore.2

Location

T: 20S; R: 14E; Sec: Ce. 191

GPS: 40.0094N, 77.3980W3

Mineral Products

Pb, Ag, Cu, Zn, Au1

Geology

Largely oxidized, irregular replacement lenses of argentiferous galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and sphalerite in Permian limestone along a fault contact with Cretaceous arkose, in a folded and faulted synclinal thrust block. Some high grade zinc carbonate ore.1

Type of Operation and Production

Shaft and adit operations. Worked intermittently from early 1900’s through 1961, producing some 300 tons of ore averaging about 8% Pb, 8 oz Ag/t, 3% Cu, and minor Au.1


References

  1. Index of Mining Properties in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, by Staton B. Keith, Bulletin 191, Arizona Geological Survey, 1975. Page 84.
    1. Schrader, 1915, p. 185.
    2. ABM file data.
  2. Mining in the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains of Arizona, U.S. Department of Interior, 1915. Republished 2014 by Kerby Jackson.
  3. Mike Bertram, 11/23/2021.