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Leefe Mine

Past Producer in Lincoln county in Wyoming, United States with commodities Phosphorus-Phosphates, Uranium
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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. Mineral occurrence model information
  8. Host and associated rocks
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Ore body information
  11. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  12. Mining district
  13. Mineral rights holdings
  14. Land status
  15. Ownership information
  16. Links to other databases
  17. Bibliographic references
  18. General comments
  19. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10133238
MRDS ID W031617
MAS/MILS ID 560230035
Record type Deposit
Current site name Leefe Mine
Alternate or previous names Leefe Operations, Beckwith Hills

Comments on the site identification

  • "ROTH 40 PIT" (Dee deposit comment 4) appears to be a typo. Probably meant "North 40 Pit"

Geographic coordinates

Point of reference Geographic coordinates: Elevation UTM Precision Relative position Point location
Ore Body -111.02194, 41.81056 (WGS84) 5000 25 MILES WEST OF KEMMERER, WYOMING ON HIGHWAY 30 N. Deposit extends at least 4 mi. along NNE trend., Within 2 mi.
(click for info)
Main Entrance -111.02972, 41.80861 (WGS84) 1920 San Francisco Chemical Company #1, 10303674 (MAS 0560230119)
-111.02833, 41.80417 (WGS84) San Francisco Chemical Company #2, 10206215 (MAS 0560230120)
-111.0125, 41.83139 (WGS84) 1951 San Francisco Chemical Company #3, 10133085 (MAS 0560230121)
-111.01139, 41.845 (WGS84) 1963 San Francisco Chemical Company #1, 10303095 (MAS 0560230123)
-111.01194, 41.82861 (WGS84) North 40 Pit from 10278624 (MAS 0560230013)

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Lincoln(county)

Wyoming(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Leefe(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Logan(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Ogden(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Bear(hydrologic unit)

Upper Bear(hydrologic accounting unit)

Bear(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Wyoming Lincoln

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
6th Principal 021 N 120 W 2, 3, 10, 15 Wyoming

Comments on the location information

  • AT LEEFE, WYOMING
  • San Francisco Chemical Company #1: 21N, 120W, Sec. 10, SWSE. San Francisco Chemical Company #2: 21N, 120W, Sec. 15, NWNE. San Francisco Chemical Company #3: 21N, 120W, Sec. 02, E2NW. San Francisco Chemical Company #4: 22N, 120W. Also in 21N, R120W. San Francisco Chemical Company #5: 22N, 120W.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Phosphorus-Phosphates Primary
Uranium Tertiary

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 243
USGS model code 34c
Deposit model name Phosphate, upwelling type

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Clastic Sedimentary Rock > Shale
    Rock unit name Phosphoria Formation
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Late Permian
    Stratigraphic age (oldest) Late Permian

Economic information

Ore body information

  • Name [from 10106207 (W031617)]
    Thickness 60M
    Length 50000M
    Width 6000M
    Depth to top 1000M
    Field Value
    MAS Matrix # 6
    MAS Column # 1
    Type of Orebody #1 SEDIMENTARY
    Shape of Orebody #1 TABULAR
    Primary mode of Origin SEDIMENTATION
    Primary Ore Control LITHOLOGY
    Degree of Wallrock Alter. NONE
    Minimum Depth to Top 30
    Avg. Thick. Unconsol. Mat. 100
    Min. Thick. Unconsol. Mat. 0
    Date of Last Modification 961106
  • Thickness 60M
    Length 50000M
    Width 30000M
    Depth to top 2300M
    Field Value
    MAS Matrix # 7
    MAS Column # 1
    Type of Orebody #1 SEDIMENTARY
    Shape of Orebody #1 TABULAR
    Primary mode of Origin SEDIMENTATION
    Primary Ore Control LITHOLOGY
    Degree of Wallrock Alter. NONE
    Minimum Depth to Top 1524
    Avg. Thick. Unconsol. Mat. 300
    Min. Thick. Unconsol. Mat. 0
    Date of Last Modification 961106
  • Thickness 5.82M

Comments on the geologic information

  • THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION IS SUBDIVIDED INTO FIVE MEMBERS BY MCKELVEY (Rubey and others, 1975), TWO OF WHICH (THE MEADE PEAK AND RETORT MEMBERS) CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS. IN UTAH AND SOUTHWESTERN WYOMING, THE MEADE PEAK MEMBER, AND IN CENTRAL AND NORTHWESTERN WYOMING, THE RETORT MEMBER CONTAIN THE DEPOSITS OF POTENTIAL INTEREST. THE PARK CITY FORMATION OF UTAH AND CENTRAL WYOMING AND THE SHEDHORN SANDSTONE OF NORTHWESTERN WYOMING ARE STRATIGRAPHIC EQUIVALENTS OF AND INTERTONGUE WITH THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION. THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION AND EQUIVALENT FORMATIONS ARE UNDERLAIN BY EITHER THE TENSLEEP SANDSTONE, WEBER QUARTZITE, WELLS FORMATION, OR DIAMOND CREEK SANDSTONE AND ARE OVERLAIN BY EITHER THE WOODSIDE OR DINWOODY FORMATIONS.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Surface-Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Non-metallic
Significant Yes
Discovery year 1905
Mining method Open Pit
Year of first production 1908
Year of last production 1978
Milling method Washing

Mining district

District name Western Phosphate

Mineral rights holdings

Type of mineral rights Patented
Type of mineral rights Federal Lease

Land status

Ownership category Mixed

Ownership information

  • Type Owner
    Owner Stauffer Chemical Co.
    Home office Connecticut
    Year 1979
  • Type Owner
    Owner U.S. Government
    Home office Dist Of Columbia
    Year 1979
  • Type Operator
    Owner Stauffer Chemical Co.
  • Type Owner
    Owner Stauffer Chemical Co.
    Home office Star Route, Randolph, UT 84064
    First year 1980
  • Type Operator
    Owner San Francisco Chemical Company
    Year 1966

Comments on the ownership information

  • NO PERCENTAGE OWNERSHIP FIGURES ARE GIVEN BECAUSE THE EXACT FIGURES ARE NOT KNOWN. THE PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS ARE MAINLY LOCATED ON PATENTED CLAIMS CONTROLLED BY THE STAUFFER CHEMICAL COMPANY. IN ADDITION, STAUFFER HOLDS ONE ACTIVE FEDERAL PHOSPHATE LEASE. PART OF THE RE- MAINING OUTCROP IS SUBJECT TO SPECIAL RESTRICTIONS TO PHOSPHATE LEASING BY BLM MANAGEMENT POLICY, AND PART IS OPEN TO FEDERAL LEASING. THERE IS ALSO A SMALL AMOUNT OF OUTCROP ON STATE OF WYOMING LAND THAT IS PRESUMABLY OPEN TO STATE LEASING.
  • Ownership Records 3 and 4 are from merged and delted record 10106207 (W031617).

Comments on the production information

  • Former Leefe Operations 10106207 (W031617) says the first year of production was 1947. [cited in Osterwald and others, Bull. 50, p. 144].

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • OTHER NAME:LEEFE MINE. ADDED TO EVALUATION BY IFOC ON 9/4/80, BUT NEVER INCLUDED IN THE EVALUATION.

Comments on the workings information

  • ABBREVIATION FOR MINING DISTRICT: WEST. PHOSPHATE = WESTERN PHOSPHATE FIELD.
  • WYOMING MAP, 1979, SHOWS STRIPPING OPERATIONS ABANDONED.
  • 5 subsites for San Francisco Chemical Company #1-#5 are combined into this single entry. There is no specific information in those 5 records to warrant individual records. All but #4 seem to be describing mine symbols on the map, but are so non-specific as to be useless records. #4 is apparently incorrectly located, perhaps in the center of T22N. Randomly moved it to mine symbol in NW of NW of Sec. 2. No indication anywhere that the numbers 1-5 are significant or that those are actual names of those sites. Perhaps they were put in the database to differentiate between unknown sites. #4 was formerly at 41-52-40-N, 111-0-43-W, or more than 1 1/2 mi north of the end of the mined area. Moved it more than 3 mi south, closer to the stated border of T22N and T21N to the "mine" symbol in the NW of NW of sec. 2, to 41-49-52-N, 111-1-7-W.
  • http://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/194/1/178.pdf mentions samples from both Leefe open pit mine and Leefe underground mine.

Comments on development

  • PHOSPHATE PROCESSING PLANT ACTIVE (1980)

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bull. 50 [revised ed.], p. 143-145.

  • Deposit

    ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF MINES FOR THE YEAR ENDING 12/31/81.

  • Deposit

    WYOMING NATURAL RESOURCE BOARD, 1969, WYOMING PHOSPHATE, IN REVIEW AND FORECAST - WYOMING MINERAL INDUSTRIES, BOOK III (NON-FUEL MINERALS), REPT. BY CAMERON ENGINEERS, P. 230-276.

  • Geology

    GALE, H. S., AND RICHARDS, R. W., 1910, PHOSPHATES, IN U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULL. 430, P. 457-553.

  • Deposit

    MESA MET-NONMET MINE FILE REF OWN/OP STAUFFER CHEMICAL C

  • Deposit

    Spangenberg, D.R., Carey, E.F., and Takosky, P.M., 1983, Minerals availability commodity directory on phosphate: U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular IC-8926, 678 p.

  • Geology

    MCKELVEY, V. E., SMITH, L. E., HOPPIN, R. A., AND ARMSTRONG, F. C., 1953, STRATIGRAPHIC SECTIONS OF THE PHOSPHORIA FORMATION IN WYOMING: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRC. 210, 35 P.

  • Geology

    RICHARDSON, G. B., 1941, GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE RANDOLPH QUADRANGLE, UTAH - WYOMING: U.S. GEOL. SURVEY BULL. 923, 54 P., PLATE.

  • Geology

    RUBEY, W. W., ORIEL, S. S., AND TRACEY, J. I., JR., 1975, GEOLOGY OF THE SAGE AND KEMMERER 15-MINUTE QUADRANGLES, LINCOLN COUNTY, WYOMING: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROF. PAPER 855, 18 P., 2 PLATES.

  • Geology

    THOMAS, H. D., 1950, SUMMARY OF THE PALEOZOIC STRATIGRAPHY OF THE GREEN RIVER BASIN, WYOMING, IN WYO. GEOL. ASSOC. 5TH ANN. FIELD CONF. GUIDEBOOK (SW WYO.), P. 17-24.

  • Geology

    U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1954, OGDEN, UTAH; WYOMING, 1-DEGREE BY 2-DEGREE TOPOGRAPHIC MAP: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1:250,000-SCALE MAP, 1 SHEET.

  • Ownership

    SCHUMACHER, O. L., PENSE, R. A., AND DAVIS, R. B., 1979, FEDERAL LAND STATUS IN THE OVERTHRUST BELT OF IDAHO, MONTANA, UTAH, AND WYOMING, 1979: U.S. BUREAU OF MINES SPECIAL REPT. (IN PRESS), TEXT WITH MAPS AND OVERLAYS.

  • Ownership

    U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, 1978, STATE OF WYOMING LAND STATUS: U.S. BUR. OF LAND MANAGEMENT MAP, 1:500,000 SCALE, 1 SHEET.

  • Workings

    BEALL, J. V., AND MERRITT, P. C., 1966, PHOSPHATE AND POTASH - MINERALS TO FEED THE WORLD: MIN. ENG., OCT. 1966, P. 75-99.

  • Workings

    COCHRAN, K L., 1950, WYOMING PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY, IN WYO. GEOL. ASSOC. 5TH ANN. FIELD CONF. GUIDEBOOK (SW WYOMING), P. 133-135.

  • Workings

    KING, D. L., 1949, SURFACE STRIP PHOSPHATE MINING AT LEEFE, WYOMING, AND MONTPELIER, IDAHO, IN SYMPOSIUM ON WESTERN PHOSPHATE MINING, SAN FRANCISCO, FEB. 1949: REPR. IN A.I.M.E. MIN. TRANS., V. 184, P. 284-287.

  • Workings

    KING, D. L., SR., 1967, SAN FRANCISCO CHEMICAL CO., CRAWFORD MOUNTAIN - LEEFE AREA, UTAH AND WYOMING, IN INTERMOUNTAIN ASSOC. OF GEOL. 15TH ANN. FIELD CONF., P. 203-209.

  • Workings

    http://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/194/1/178.pdf (mentions samples from both Leefe open pit mine and Leefe underground mine.) last accessed 7/13/10.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
General Wilson and Heran (USGS) visited this site on 6-aug-2010. The site has long been abandoned and reclaimed. All the open pits and dumps have been graded and revegetated (with various degrees of success). Some of the more "major" roads shown on the topo are accessible, most are not. Decades old notices of reclamation projects are posted at the southern end (St. George Mine Area Reclamation) and north of Twin Creek (North Forty Mine Area Reclamation).
Deposit THIS MINERALS AVAILABILITY SYSTEM EVALUATION WAS DONE AS PART OF A 1980 STUDY OF UTAH AND WYOMING PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS BY THE INTERMOUNTAIN FIELD OPERATIONS CENTER, DENVER, COLORADO. DOMAIN - THE EXACT PERCENTAGES OF THE OUTCROP IN EACH DOMAIN CATEGORY ARE NOT KNOWN, BUT THE RELATIVE AMOUNTS OF LAND IN EACH CATEGORY ARE KNOWN. THEY ARE, IN DESCENDING ORDER, PRIVATE LAND (PATENTED CLAIMS), FEDERAL LAND ADMINISTERED BY THE U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, AND STATE OF WYOMING LAND.
Deposit MINING MAGAZINE REMOVED LEEFE FROM ITS MAJOR MINE LIST FOR 1982.
General May duplicate 10106207, Leefe Operatons (old MRDS # W031617), but that record gives first production year as 1947, lists Stauffer Chmeical as the owner beginning in 1980, and suggests that the ore body is only 5.82 m thick.
Deposit THICKNESS DIVDIED AMONG 4 BEDS; 6, 5, 6.3, AND 1.8 FEET RESPECTIVELY.
General Carlisle Pit, North Forthy Mine, Pahcoon Tailings, and St. George Mine are all listed in the Office of Surface Mining's AMLIS database (Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System).
Deposit "MESA MET-NONMET MINE FILE REF OWN/OP STAUFFER CHEMICAL C" is complete reference for "ROTH 40 PIT" at NAD 27, N41-49-43, W111-0-43 (no PLSS given). No other information for old MAS 0560230013 in newMRDS 10278624.
Deposit Leefe Mine 10135404 (MAS 0560230046) appears to have been incorrectly coded as Beryllium. There is no mention of any Be in this region. Original location was given as N-42-50-1 W-110-53-0. Appears to be erroneous also. The only information about this site is USBM PROD TABS OWNER-OP-STAUFFER CHEMICAL. The only references are EMJ INT DIRECTORY OF MINIng [incomplete reference]and Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bull. 50 [revised ed.], p. 144-145.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 1996-11-06 Td/Pb/Ms U.S. Bureau of Mines
Reporter 1982-01-01 Barari, Rachel A. U.S. Geological Survey
Editor 2009-03-11 Wilson, Anna B. U.S. Geological Survey
Updater 2010-12-15 Causey, J. Douglas U.S. Geological Survey Added Model.

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:

  • Stauffer Chemical Co. — dissolved ~1985
    Acquired by Rhône-Poulenc in 1985; agricultural and industrial chemical businesses dispersed through multiple owners over the following two decades.

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.

Maps centered on this site