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Lavender Pit

Past Producer in Cochise county in Arizona, United States with commodities Copper, Gold, Silver, Zinc, Gemstone
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Public Land Survey System information
  6. Commodities
  7. Materials information
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Host and associated rocks
  10. Nearby scientific data
  11. Geologic structures
  12. Ore body information
  13. Controls for ore emplacement
  14. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  15. Mining district
  16. Land status
  17. Ownership information
  18. Production statistics
  19. Workings at the site
  20. Links to other databases
  21. Bibliographic references
  22. General comments
  23. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10046238
MRDS ID M241102
Record type Deposit
Current site name Lavender Pit
Alternate or previous names Copper Dog, Pearl
Included sites Bisbee

Comments on the site identification

  • **** SEE Copper Queen Deposit ID 10046248
    Sacramento Mine Deposit ID 10046235
    Cochise Deposit ID 10282707

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -109.89898, 31.43264 (WGS84)
Elevation 1524
Relative position NW EDGE OF LOWELL

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Cochise(county)

Arizona(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bisbee(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Douglas(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Douglas(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Whitewater Draw(hydrologic unit)

Rio De Bavispe(hydrologic accounting unit)

Sonora(hydrologic subregion)

Lower Colorado(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Arizona Cochise

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
Gila and Salt River 023S 024E 15,16 NW OF NW (15); SE OF NE (16) Arizona

Comments on the location information

  • NW 1/4 SEC. 15. UTM ACC. UTM TAKEN TO CENTER OF THE PIT.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Copper Primary
Gold Secondary
Silver Secondary
Zinc Critical Secondary
Gemstone Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • LOW-GRADE COPPER ORES. THE TURQUOISE WAS A HARD DEEP BLUE, SOMETIMES FOUND IN A MATRIX OF HARD RED MINERAL (CUPRITE?)

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Bornite Ore
Chalcocite Ore
Cuprite Ore
Gold Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Turquoise Ore
Pyrite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 53
USGS model code 17
Deposit model name Porphyry Cu
Mark3 model number 4

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granite
    Rock unit name Sacramento Hill Stock
    Rock description Sacramento Hill Stock
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Jurassic
    Chronological age 170.5
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Jurassic
    Chronological age 170.5

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Regional
Structure description Pre-Mineralization Faulting And Tilting
Type of structure Local
Structure description Main Fault Directions, N10w To N40e, S30w To N50w, Pre-Mineralization

Ore body information

  • General form BLANKET

Controls for ore emplacement

  • CHALCOCITE BLANKET

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Both
Deposit size Large
Significant Yes
Year of first production 1950
Year of last production 1974

Mining district

District name Warren District

Land status

Ownership category Private

Ownership information

  • Type Owner-Operator
    Owner Phelps Dodge Corp.

Production statistics

  • Year 1973
    Period 1885-1973
    Material KEITH, 1973, ARIZ. BUR. OF MINES BULL. 187.
    Ore mined 171045000mt
    Accuracy Accurate
    Importance Item Commodity Group Amount recovered Grade Recovery percentage
    Primary Copper Copper 2wt-pct

Workings at the site

  • Type of workings Surface
    Length 914.4M
    Overall length 1219.2M
    Overall width 457.2M

Comments on the workings information

  • LARGE OPEN PIT. OVER 15 BENCHES, EACH BENCH 50 FEET HIGH.

Comments on development

  • Lavender pit operated from 1951 to 1974 (GhostTownGallery.com). According to Metals Economic Group there has been no activity at either Sacramento or Lavender pits from 1989 through at least 2002.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit RECORD # W002705 BY DENNIS P. COX HAS BEEN INCORPORATED INTO THIS ONE. ; INFO.SRC : 1 PUB LIT; 2 UNPUB REPT
General The Lavender Pit is a former open pit copper mine near the famous Copper Queen Mine. The Lavender Pit was named in honor of Harrison M. Lavender (1890-1952), who as Vice-President and General Manager of Phelps Dodge Corporation, conceived and carried out this plan for making the previously unprofitable low-grade copper bearing rock of the area into commercial copper ore.
Phelps Dodge Corporation opened the Lavender Pit in 1950, at the site of the earlier, higher-grade Sacramento Hill mine. Production through 1974 totaled 86 million tons of ore averaging about 0.7% copper, or about 600,000 tons of copper produced, with gold and silver as byproducts. About 256 million tons of waste were stripped, but a portion of this was acid-leached for additional copper. Turquoise was also a by-product of this mining activity. Bisbee turquoise, also known as Bisbee Blue, is amongst the finest turquoise found anywhere in the world. Mining operations in the pit ended in 1974. The undeveloped Cochise deposit, located immediately north of the Lavender pit, contains an estimated 190 million tons of rock containing 0.4% acid-soluble copper, which may be mined in the future.
Because of the competent host rock, this pit has much steeper sides than other open pit copper mines in the southwest area. The pit covers an area of 300 acres (1.2 km?), and is 900 feet (274 m) deep. Large tonnages of dump rock are placed around Bisbee, notably north of the residential district of Warren and other parts of the southeastern Mule Mountains area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_Pit
Deposit IN THE SACRAMENTO STOCK. THE DIVIDENT FAULTS "HORSETAILS", ITS STRIKE IS N20E AND DIPS S70, DISPLACEMENT ALONG THE FAULT IS ABOUT 500 FT. THIS FAULT SEPARATES THE SACRAMENTO/LAVENDAR PIT AND THE EXTENTION TO THE EAST (COCHISE PROJECT). CURRENT HIGHWAY FOLLOWS THE DIVIDENT FAULT. LARGE BULK MINEABLE LOW GRADE PORPHYRY COPPER, SUBSTANTIAL SUPERGENE GROUND WATER ENRICHMENT AT BASE OF LEACH CAP.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-NOV-80 Zigler, Jan L. U.S. Geological Survey
Updater 01-JAN-82 Laraba, Peter (Gest, Don E.) Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology
Updater 01-FEB-91 Cox, Dennis P. U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Operator history (post-MRDS)

MRDS records operators as of each record's last update (≤ 2019). Some of the operators listed here have since changed hands or dissolved:

  • Phelps Dodge Corp. — acquired by Subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan (2007)
    Acquired by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold in 2007 in what was then the largest mining-industry deal ever (~US$26 B).

Curated by qvyshift.com from publicly-reported M&A activity (SEC filings, press releases, USGS Mineral Yearbooks). Not authoritative — verify against primary sources before relying on it. The MSHA panel above is the current authoritative source for actively-permitted mines.

External references

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Arizona resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.