Wisconsin Mine

Alternate Names

Buckthorn

Mining District and Mines

Greaterville District

USBM: Historical: Shallow shafts and tunnel. Adit 50 ft. long with stope to surface, and several shafts (about 20 feet deep) and surface prospects.¹

Historical: The Wisconsin mine is 1.2 miles northwest of Greaterville, on an iron-stained quartz vein 1 foot wide, in granite near overlying siliceous shale and dolomitic beds on the east. The vein dips 45° SW. It is opened by a number of shallow shafts and contains, from the surface down, pyrite and galena, which at a depth of about 30 feet becomes plentiful and carry workable quantities of silver and a little gold. Some of the surface ore is said to have run $5 to the ton in gold and silver.²

A former small underground Ag-Cu-Pb-Au mine located in East-central sec. 14, T.19S., R.15E., 1.2 miles NW of Greaterville, and 37 miles SE of Tucson. Produced 1880-1937. Owned by Pallanes. Operated by J.B. Daugherty.³

Location

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):31° 47' 0'' North , 110° 46' 27'' West⁴

E. cent. sec. 14, T. 19 S., R. 15 E.¹

31.78374N, -110.77485W¹

Mineral Products

USBM: samples 131 - 135. Ag 5 - 250 ppm, Au <5 - 706 ppb, Cr 390 - 780 ppm, Cu 85 - 1,020 ppm, Pb 248 - 7856 ppm. Also SR131 Mn 8035 ppm, SR132 Sb 633 ppm, SR134 751 ppm¹.

Chalcopyrite, Galena, Gold, Pyrite.³

Geology

Fissure and stockwork quartz vein. Vein is massive to splaying stringers of quartz, heavily iron oxide stained with chalcopyrite, pyrite and galena ¹.

Mineralization is a tabular ore body with partially oxidized sulfides with free gold in an oxidized zone in an iron-stained quartz vein cutting Precambrian granodiorite near overlying siliceous shale and dolomitic beds on the east. The vein is 0.3 meters wide, strikes NW-SE and dips 45ºSW. An associated rock unit is Precambrian granodiorite at 1450 ± 10 MY.

Local structures include thrust and normal faulting, fracture zones, homoclinal. Regional trends include tilting and broad open folds in the south and extensive faulting in the north³.

Type of Operation and Production

Workings include several shallow shafts, an incline and a tunnel. Worked in the late 1880's and 1936-1937, producing a small tonnage of Au, Ag, Pb & Cu ore.³

References

1. Mineral Appraisal of Coronado National Forest, Part 12, Santa Rita Mountains Unit, MLA11-94 (1994). SR 591-609
   http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/nid1813/usbm_mla_011-94.pdf
2. Mining in the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains of Arizona, U.S. Department of Interior, 1915. Republished 2014 by Kerby Jackson.
3. mindat.org
4. USGS Mineral Resources Data System - possibly using NAD72 (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/map-commodity.html#home)