Arizona republican., 1898-05-22
HUBERNITE IN ARIZONA.

Prof. W. P. Blake, director of the school of mines of the territorial uni yersity, has recently visited the Dra- goon mountains to inspect a find of valuable mineral. He has 0een inter viewed by the Tucson Star in refer ence to it, and made the following statements:
 "Yes, it is an important discovery; so important and generally interesting to steel producers in this and other countries that I went at once to in spect the locality and made special report upon it to the governor, as ter ritorial geologist, and hope to issue n bulletin on the subject from the echool of mines. The mineral is the variety of wolframite called huber nite,' it being combination of tung- sten and manganese, with only little iron oxide The quality is excellent. There are no noxious impurities. It is mixed with white quartz from which it can be readily separated by ore dressing machinery and other methods. It is very heavy; nearly seven and half times as heavy as an equal bulk of water It is a comparatively rare mineral but occurs in Cornwall, in Germany and lately has been imported from Australia The occurrence of wolframite in Arizona was announced in the report of the Arizona school of mines for the year 1896 but no ship ments have been made from here. A few years ago a vein of hubernite was opened in New Mexico near Separ sta tion, and shipment was made from Deming to Philadelphia but the local ity was soon exhausted. There has since been an urgent demand for the mineral from Philadelphia and from England. The manufacturers of steel take a great interest in any discov- cry of the mineral and are willing to pay a good price for it when it is pure and high grade it should contain at least 10 per cent of tungstic acid, and therefore must of necessity be well purified and freed from all quartz and gangue, which cannot be done with out machinery.
 ''The mill at the school of mines is well suited to this work and if favor able terms for freight and carting can be made it is possible that the own CTS of the claims will accept my of fer to dress the ore for them. At pres ent they are engaged in collecting to- gether few tons from the croppings to make trial shipment. After which the owners, Messrs. CornelisOn and Smith, will proceed to develop their claims by sinking shafts.
 "The ore occurs in veins of quartz from a few inches to a few feet in thickness, traversing a coarse grained granite in the foothills of the Dragoon mountains at Russellville about six miles north of Dragoon Summit sta tion on the S. F. railroad in Cochfse county. It is thus conveniently placed for exploration and shipment. A wagon can be driven to the ledges.
 'tAs this mineral does not decom- pose by weathering, a considerable quantity is found amongst the debris of the croppings. Large masses can be picked up around the ledges A speci- men of this kind, weighing fifteen and a half pounds was presented to me by MT. Walker of Russellville and Is de- posted in the mineral collection of the school of mines. I also brought in a seventy-five pound mass of quartz, penetrated by large prismatic masses of hubernite. This is from the claim know as the Black Beauty Over a dozen claims have been taken up in one group.
 This ore is, of course, not in one continuous body. It occurs in punches at intervals in the quartz. The quan- tity has got to be determined by sink ing shafts and by cutting exploring pits and trenches. The value at the market ranges from $60 to S100 per ton.
 ''It is pleasing to be able to add this valuable mineral to the list of rare and