Dura Mine (Dura Mine group; International Mine; Old Contest Mine), Mount Benedict, Nogales Mining District (Gold Hill Mining District), Santa Cruz County, Arizona, USAi

Regional Level Types
Dura Mine (Dura Mine group; International Mine; Old Contest Mine)	Mine
Mount Benedict	Mountain
Nogales Mining District (Gold Hill Mining District)	Mining District
Santa Cruz County	County
Arizona	State
USA	Country

‡Ref.: Schrader, F.C. & J.M. Hill (1915), Mineral deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains, Arizona, USGS Bull. 582: 350-351.

Schrader, F.C. (1919), Quicksilver deposits of the Phoenix Mountains, USGS Bull. 690-D: 95-109.

Galbraith, F.W. (1947), Minerals of Arizona, Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 153: 22.

Simons, F.S. (1974) Geologic map and sections of the Nogales and Lochiel quadrangles, Santa Cruz County, Arizona: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-762, 9 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:48,000.

Keith, Stanton B. (1975), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 191, Index of Mining Properties in Santa Cruz County Arizona: 60 (Table 4).

Anthony, J.W., et al (1995), Mineralogy of Arizona, 3rd.ed.: 382.

U.S. Bureau of Mines file data-cluster #30 - Dura Mine group.

U.S. Bureau of Mines field notes, AU9.

Arizona Bureau of Mines card file Santa Cruz County.

MRDS database Dep. ID file #10046334, MRDS ID #M241293; and, Dep. ID #10283466, MAS ID #0040230052.

A former small underground Au-Pb-Ag-Sb-Mo mine located on 3 claims (Dura claim, XXX claim, and the Yankee Girl claim) in the SE ¼ sec. 28 and in the NE¼NE¼ sec. 33, T.23S., R.14E., 4½ miles NNE of Nogales, on a ridge 0.7 miles from the summit (elevation 4565), and on the ESE slope of Mount Benedict, just W of the Uncle Sam Mine, on private land. Owned by Mr. Litchliter (prior to 1915). Owned by J. C. Gleason, of Cortland, AZ (1915). Past operators include both B. Litchliter and J. Gleason.

Mineralization is lensing vein in a shear zone in altered Jurassic quartz monzonite with brecciated and crudely banded quartz, quartz stringers and altered wall rock. Irregular pockets and impregnations of lead and copper primary and secondary ore minerals. Associated with a pyritized lamprophyric dike. The ore zone is 0.61 meters thick, strikes WNW and dips steeply to the N. An associated rock unit is the Quartz Monzonite of Mount Benedict. Ore control was lensing veins in an irregular shear zone. Ore concentration was secondary enrichment. Alteration is minor.

The fault fissure vein strikes WNW in the quartz monzonite and is seemingly the same vein as that of the Uncle Sam Mine. At the surface the vein dips to the south, but in depth, it dips steeply to the north. It is about 2 feet in maximum width. The filling consists of quartz and crushed, altered, and partly silicified country rock, with which is associated a dark dioritic pyrite-bearing dike rock and a little black calcite. The vein is locally brecciated and crudely banded with quartz stringers that contain some ore and together with the ore impregnate and replace the rock.

Local structures include numerous NW-trending aplitic dikes and a major fault trending N-S.

Workings include 2 shafts and a 270 foot tunnel that contains a 40 foot winze and stopes, all totaling about 1,000 feet of work. Worked by Mexicans (XXX claim) as early as the 1840's and intermittently up to the 1900's. Possibly up to 100 tons of picked ore had high values in Au,Pb & Ag. Five percent of ore value is free gold, the remainder is chiefly lead and silver. Some ore shipped carried 60% Pb.

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Link to USGS MRDS:	10046334

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