Mohave County miner., 1918-02-02

Study Of the manganese resources
 of the western United States by the l United States Geological Survey De- pertinent of the Interior, has yielded
 information concerning many deposits
 of manganese ore in Arizona about
 which little has hitherto been known,
 and has shown that large deposits oc-
 cur under widely different geologic conditions, in both igneous and sedi-
 mentary rocks.
 In the summer of 1917 E. L. Jones,
 Jr., a geologist of the Geological Sur
 vey, examined most of the deposits in
 Arizona except those in the Bisbee
 and Tombstone districts. He visited several deposits in the Big Horn mountains ard in the northern part of
 Maricopa county, and one deposit in
 Yavapai county, in an outlying spur of the Harcuvar mountains a few miles north of the MaricOpa county
 line. The ores from the Big Horn mountains are hauled 15 miles and those from the Harcuvar deposit 9 miles to the railroad. To September 1, 1917, approximately 500 tons of 40 per cent manganese ore had been ship ped from all these deposits to the No ble Electric Steel Co.,, Heroult, Cal, the Berkshire Iron Works, Sheridan, Pa, and the F. H. Balbee Co.,, of Chi cago. These deposits have been worked only a short time and the workings are limited to their known productive parts. The deepest shaft has been sunk only 40 feet, for most of the work consists of open cuts. The meager work done indicates a reserve of 2OOO to 5000 tons of ore containing about 35 per cent of manganese and 10 per cent of silica.
 The deposits in the Big Horn noun tains are at the north end of the range and extend from east to west in a zone about 4 miles long. The claims that have shipped ore comprise those of the Manganese Development company, those under lease and bond to the Mobile Electric Steel company, the Wheeler claims, and the Giblin claims. The ore is enclosed in a red andesite containing flages of biotite. This andesite is part of a series of lava flows, of probably Tertiary age. The ore occurs in small veins and as the cementing substances in andesite breccia. The veins and brecciated zones vary in course from north near ly to east, and are from foot toI 15 feet wide. In the deposit worked by the Noble Electric Steel company, the andesite fragments of the breccia are from one-fourth inch to foot in diameter, and the manganese oxide filling is generally less than 2 inches thick. In places, however, veins of fairly pure manganese oxides attain a width of foot, but in order td ob tain a shipping product containing 40 per cent of manganese from most of these deposits, hand sorting and screening of the vein material are nee essary. Most of the ore is soft and consists of small needle-like crystals of manganite, but some of it consists of hard crusts of psilOmelane.
 The opening of these manganese de posits may lead to the opening of oth- CTS in the more remote parts of Ari- zona, several of which are known, and others will be found in places where the geologic conditions are similar to those here described. The present high price of manganese ora Dermits the profitable working of comparatively small and remote de- posits.
 The deposits were located in 1917 by Graham, Carr and Benderwald, but up to September, 1917, were entirely undeveloped. The property is under the management of w. J. Graham, of Phoenix, Arizona. At the time the deposits were visited a minimum estl- mate of 5O,OO0 tons of manganese ore