Four Metals Mine, Red Hill, Providencia Canyon, Patagonia Mining District, Patagonia Mountains, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Four Metals Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Red Hill	Hill
Providencia Canyon	Canyon
Patagonia Mining District	Mining District
Patagonia Mountains	Mountain Range
Santa Cruz County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

A former small underground Cu-Ag-Au-Pb-Zn-Mo-Sb-W mine located on 35 (33 ?) unpatented claims in West-central sec. 29, T.23S., R.16E. Near Providencia Canyon on the south flank of Red Hill, 1 mile (1.61 km) east of the Proto Mine; in the head of Providencia Canyon on its north side, on the south edge of Guajolote Flat, at an elevation of about 5,400 feet (ca. 1,646 m), on National Forest land. It is 3 miles (ca. 5 km) NW of Washington and 2.5 miles (ca. 4 km) SW of Mowry. Discovered in the 1860s or earlier by pioneers. Produced 1937-1941. Owned at times, or in part, by Mr. George Gross (xxxx-1904); and the Four Metals Mining Co. (1904-xxxx); Coronado Mines Inc.; the Kino Copper Co.; and, the West Range Co. (Subsidiary Of Noranda Mines Inc.). Additional names apply: Guajolote lode; Bacon; Gualota; Quajolote.

Mineralization consists of deposits of copper-bearing ores (sulfides and copper carbonates) near the surface in a banded quartz vein cutting the mineralized intrusive Laramide quartz monzonite.
A strong fault zone is located nearby. The deposits occur in the form of subordinate veins, lenses, stringers, and seams in the fissures, joints, sheeting planes, and other fractures in the rock; also to a large extent as metasomatic replacement deposits in the body of the rock itself, notably in the walls of the fissures and fractures, where solid bodies or pockets of relatively pure metallic minerals are of common occurrence. The ore zone is a breccia pipe 1.83 meters wide. The principal gangue mineral is quartz, which is only sparingly present.

The deposit occurs in a stocklike body of the younger quartz monzonite or 'porphyry,' which forms Four Metals Hill and intrudes the older quartz monzonite. The intrusive quartz monzonite is the usual reddish-gray granitoid rock. It is granular and medium-grained and is composed mainly of oligoclase and orthoclase in about equal amounts, with considerable biotite, magnetite, some hornblende, and quartz. It is intruded in the south fault zone of the Guajolote block, where it, together with some adjoining older quartz monzonite, has since been profoundly sheeted, shattered, crushed, and mineralized. It is sliced by a dominant east-west vertical sheeting about parallel with the fault scarp. Underground it is shattered and traversed by fissures, seams, and fractures trending in almost every direction; these are largely filled by pyrite and chalcopyrite to such an extent that the rock mass as a whole forms a sort of breccia cemented by the iron content. The resulting breccia pipe is 1200 feet (ca. 366 m) by 900 feet (ca. 274 m), plunging SSW. It is stained a brilliant red on the weathered surface. Alteration is potassic, phyllic and argillic.

Mineralization is mostly low-grade.

Tectonic elements are the Guajolote Block. The inferred Guajolote Fault lies to the east of the deposit and trends NW, downthrow to the east.

Workings total over 3,000 feet (ca. 914 m) of openings, including extensive tunnel operations, achieving a depth of 149.35 meters. The Red Hill 712 feet (ca. 217 m) lower crosscut tunnel was driven in 1907. There is a 185 feet (ca. 56 m) tunnel on the 5,360 feet (ca. 1,634 m) level; a 600 feet (ca. 183 m) tunnel on the 5,400 feet (ca. 1,646 m) level; a 750 feet (ca. 229 m) adit on the 5,260 feet (ca. 1,603 m) level; a 1,187 feet (ca. 362 m) adit on the 5,090 feet (ca. 1,551 m) level; and a 140 feet (ca. 43 m) high raise between the 5,260 feet (ca. 1,603 m) and the 5,400 feet (ca. 1,646 m) levels. Only a few tons of picked ore were shipped, which ran about 7% Cu, 40 oz. Ag/t and 0.1 oz. Au/t. A breccia pipe has been developed on 3 levels and was drilled by the West Range Co., which proved 3 million tons of 0.82% Cu ore.

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10037102

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References