Page 83 - The Geology and Ore Deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico - Bulletin 10

82 GEOLOGY AND ORE DEPOSITS OF SIERRA CO., N. M.
others are the Silver Glance, Mountain Chief, Climax and El Paso. Most of these have produced some silver-copper ore. The Dreadnaught mine is said to have produced ore from one shoot, which was 30 feet long and extended from the surface to a depth of 50 feet, and which ran 100 to 240 ounces silver and $5 in gold to the ton and 18 to 25 per cent copper. The ground here is said to be very hard, and hand-mining methods were costly.
CHLORIDE
The mines in the vicinity of Chloride Creek are a short dis-
tance west of the town, where the mineralized belt has been laid
bare by the erosion of the main creek and its tributaries. Chlor-
idei is located at the west border of the Palomas gravel, where it
overlaps the andesite breccia and tuff or is faulted down against
them. West of this belt a faulted block of Abo sandstone has
been exposed, and the creek has cut a narrow winding canyon
through it. West of the sandstone block is another composed of
andesite tuff and breccia, and to the west the creek cuts across
block after block of faulted beds, some of which have been ele-
vated sufficiently to show the underlying Magdalena limestone,
while others have been relatively lowered until only the upper
flows of andesitic material are visible along the creek bed, sur-
mounted by remnants of the later rhyolite tuffs and flows. Cross
faulting has localized Chloride Creek, and from the western bor-
der of the block of Abo sandstone for a distance of 3 miles up the
creek to the west, this fault is mineralized and is known as the
Apache vein. It is a shear zone 3 to 5 feet wide with a strike of
N. 40° W. and an average dip of nearly 80° SW. The zone is
mineralized with small quartz stringers, which fill the main fis-
sure along all fractures and extend out as stringers into the wall-
rock. The primary ore minerals are chalcopyrite, argentite, gold
and pyrite, and these have been altered to copper carbonates, sil-
ver chloride, free gold and limonite in the upper parts of the vein.
NANA MINE
The Nana mine on the Apache vein is on one of the Wall Street group of claims, and has been opened by a tunnel 280 feet long on the vein, which is cut off at the end by one of the main north-south faults of the region. The continuation of the Apache vein has never been sought here, but it is supposed to be offset to the south. The vein averages 3 to 4 feet in width, and for the full width it is said to assay from $4 to $13 per ton in low-grade shoots that may have stoping lengths along the tunnel of 20 feet or more. One high-grade pocket found at the surface assayed $168 per ton, and where it was encountered again in the tunnel, shipments averaged $60 per ton, according to reports.
WHITE MOUNTAIN GROUP
The White Mountain group of four claims is on the Apache vein, or on a vein closely paralleling it, to the southeast of the