Fluorine Mine, Cripple Creek Mining District, Teller County, Colorado, USAi

Regional Level Types
Fluorine Mine	Mine
Cripple Creek Mining District	Mining District
Teller County	County
Colorado	State
USA	Country

The Fluorine mine, owned by the Montreal Gold Mining and Milling Company, is situated halfway up the southern slope of Copper Mountain. It is now leased by the Sioux Falls and Cripple Creek Gold Mining Company, who have recently built a 100-ton cyanide mill to treat the ore. The mine is of interest as being the northernmost producer of the camp. The total production could-not be definitely learned, but it is probably near $160,000. The workings consist of several shallow shafts and a tunnel 200 feet in length. The stoping from the tunnel reached nearly to the surface, and the roof has recently caved in, leaving a large open chamber.

The mine is situated practically on the contact of phonolite, breccia,_ and granite. The phonolite overlies the breccia, which in turn lies flatly on the granite. The breccia is not extensive just at this point', however, and ·pinches out in the farthest workings, leaving the phonolite resting on the granite. The different rocks in the mine appear to have contained much pyrite, but are now completely oxidized. The breccia is rather granitic and contains numerous large granite fragments.

Rich pockets were found in the breccia, and were mined out. At the present time practically the whole of the breccia and some of the granite in the mine is being taken out and treated by cyaniding without roasting. The value of the ore now mined ranges from $4 per ton up. In a pit on the eastern part of the claim some rhodochrosite with argentiferous galena and zinc blende was found in spaces of dissolution in the granite.