Mineral Park mine

Last updated

Mineral Park mine
Location
USA Arizona location map.svg
Schlaegel und Eisen nach DIN 21800.svg
Mineral Park mine
Mohave County, Arizona
CountryUnited States
Coordinates 35°21′55″N114°08′33″W / 35.36528°N 114.14250°W / 35.36528; -114.14250
Production
Products Copper
Mineral Park mine from the air, 2008 Mineral Park mine AZ 2008.jpg
Mineral Park mine from the air, 2008

The Mineral Park mine is a large open pit copper mine located in the Cerbat Mountains 14 miles northwest of Kingman, Arizona, in the southwestern United States. A 2013 report said that Mineral Park has an estimated reserves of 389 million tonnes of ore grading 0.14% copper and 31 million oz of silver. [1]

Contents

Large scale copper mining began in the old Mineral Park district in 1963 when Duval Corporation began the open pit operation. Cypress Mines (later Cyprus Amax Minerals acquired Duval's copper mines in 1986 and sold Mineral Park in 1997. The mine was acquired by Mercator Mineral Park Holdings of British Columbia in 2003. In December 2014 the mine closed as the company filed for bankruptcy. [2] On January 20, 2015, it was reported that Origin Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Waterton Global Resources who also own Elko Mining Group and Carlin Resources LLC in Nevada, had purchased the property. [3]

Turquoise mining

Turquoise mined at this location is known as "Kingman Turquoise."

This mine was worked for turquoise by Native Americans before European contact. Archaeological evidence includes "Hohokam hammers, dating back to 600 a.d." and the Navajo hammers. "In the late 1880s to the early 1900s, Mineral Park was mined by the Aztec Turquoise Co., the Los Angeles Gem Co., Arizona Turquoise Co., Southwest Turquoise Co. and Mineral Park Turquoise Co." Since the 1970s, turquoise has been mined by members of the Colbaugh family. [4]

Mineral Park

Mineral Park, Arizona
Coordinates: 35°22′15″N114°09′11″W / 35.37083°N 114.15306°W / 35.37083; -114.15306
Country United States
State Arizona
County Mohave
Founded1871
Elevation
[5]
4,252 ft (1,296 m)
Time zone UTC-7 (MST (no DST))
Post Office Opened:December 23, 1872
Post Office Closed:June 15, 1912

Mineral Park was a mining town, now a ghost town in the Mineral Park valley of the Cerbat Mountains in Mohave County, Arizona. [6] Its ruins and cemetery are now located within the property of the mine. [7] Mining in the area began in 1871 and a camp was established soon after. The mines produced primarily silver, gold, copper, lead and zinc. The post office was opened December 23, 1872. It grew to be the largest town in the county and became the county seat in 1873. It had the county courthouse and jail, stores, hotels, saloons, shops, doctors, lawyers, assay offices and two stagecoach stations. [8] The town published a newspaper, the Mohave County Miner.

In 1887 it lost the county seat to the railroad town of Kingman in an election. Some of the population and the newspaper moved and mining began to slacken with the price of silver. The post office closed on April 30, 1893. It reopened in September 1894, but closed for the last time in 1912. [9] :113 Mining revived in the area since the 1960s, but the town never did.

As of 2015, a cemetery, a few ruins and foundations remain within the property of the new mine.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cerbat Mountains</span> Landform in Mohave County, Arizona

The Cerbat Mountains is a mountain range in Mohave County in northwest Arizona immediately north of Kingman. The Cerbat Mountains and the White Hills (Arizona) adjacent north, are the dividing ranges between the Detrital Valley west, and the Hualapai Valley east.

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Cerbat is a ghost town just west of the Cerbat Mountains in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. Mining in the area began in the late 1860s and a camp was established soon after. Cerbat was built in a canyon 38 miles (61 km) from Hardyville. The town was prosperous and contained several mining and public buildings, along with cabins for over 100 settlers, as well as a school, a doctor's office and a lawyer's office. In the 1870s the town was connected by dirt road to Fort Rock, Camp Hualapai and Prescott. Cerbat was the third seat of Mohave County until 1877 when Mineral Park took the title.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">William G. Blakely</span> American politician (1829–1920)

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References

  1. "Mercator's Arizona reserves, resources decrease, confirms long mine life". miningweekly.com. 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  2. Arizona copper mine laying off hundreds of workers, The Arizona Republic, 12/31/2014
  3. Judge approves $10 million sale of Mineral Park Mine, Havsunews.com, January 21, 2015
  4. "Kingman Turquoise Mine Information". Turquoise-Museum.com. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  5. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Mineral Park
  6. Eidel, J.J.; Frost, J.E.; Clippinger, D.M. (1968). Ridge, John (ed.). Copper-Molybdenum Mineralization at Mineral Park, Mohave County, Arizona, in Ore deposits of the United States, 1933–1967. New York: The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum engineers, Inc. pp. 1258–1281.
  7. Varney, Philip (1980). "Mohave Ghosts". Arizona's Best Ghost Towns. Flagstaff: Northland Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN   0873582179. LCCN   79-91724.
  8. Mineral Park – Mohave County Bicentennial Commission – 1976, historical marker, located 14 miles northwest of Kingman on US 93 in Mohave County, Arizona [ permanent dead link ]
  9. John and Lillian Theobald, Arizona Territory Post Offices & Postmasters, The Arizona Historical Foundation, Phoenix, 1961.