Page 87 - The Geology and Ore Deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico - Bulletin 10

86 GEOLOGY AND ORE DEPOSITS OF SIERRA CO., N. M.
PYE LODE
The Pye lode is supposed to be the original location of Harry
Pye, the discoverer of the district. The lode extends southward
from Hagen's Peak, which is about a mile south of the Treasury
mine. Radiating from the north, east and south sides of this
peak are a number of other veins quite similar to the Pye lode.
Near the peak the lode contains some gold and silver associated
with pyrite, and to the south for several miles occasional pockets
of ore have been found, but on the whole the vein has not proved
as productive as some of the others in the district. One reason
for this perhaps is that the vein is so isolated that only extremely
high grade ore paid to mine, so that nowhere has much more
than surface prospecting been done on it.
BALD EAGLE MINE
The Bald Eagle property is located in the extreme southern end of the Apache mining district, and is on both the north and south sides of Monument Creek. North of the creek considerable stoping has been done close to the surface in a prominent quartz vein that outcrops boldly along the top of a low hill. In these stopes, known as the Minnie (Bald Eagle No. 4 and No. 4 Exten- sion) stopes, high-grade ore carrying chloride and bromide of silver with free gold and carbonates of copper has been mined in important amounts, and these stopes are still standing open from the surface down to a moderate depth. South of these stopes the Sheep Creek fault, one of the transverse faults of the district, has offset and shattered the vein, so that its trend is lost in crossing the canyon. To the south, however, prominent veins continue with southeast and with south trends in the andesite. The south- erly veins are characterized by a fair amount of quartz gangue and a slight tendency toward higher gold and silver content than in the southeasterly trending veins. In both systems the princi- pal minerals are galena, some sphalerite and pyrite, occasional chalcoyprite, and associated gold and silver. In the upper zones, cerusite, anglesite, azurite, malachite and silver chloride are present in limonite-stained masses of vein rock. In general the hanging-wall of the veins is well defined, but the body of the vein is a brecciated mass of andesite in which filling and replace- ment by silica and the ore minerals has occurred. The crushed zone fades out gradually, and the footwall is not well defined in the veins of southeast trend, but perhaps a little more in evidence in the north-south veins. Calcite is a more prominent gangue mineral in the southeast-trending veins.
The ores carry from 6 to 45 per cent lead, and from 3 to 8 per cent zinc, while silver varies from one to several ounces and gold from 0.02 to 0.20 ounce per ton. The veins are of good width, averaging 4 to 7 feet, with a high-grade streak from 18 inches to 21/2 feet.
The mine has been opened by about 400 feet of shaft work,