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702 MINERAL RESOURCES, 1913—PART II.
fractured
zones. A little turquoise of pure light blue was seen, but the majority
had a greenish cast and some was very soft. Specimens on the dumps
showed that the turquoise occurred in seams and veinlets with nodular
development in places.
The
Alabama claims are on the southeast side of the smaller basin. There
are two principal sets of workings, one in the steep hillside on the
south of the draw draining the basin and the other about 250 yards
south-southwest in a low walled hollow, forming part of the basin. The
latter workings are the most important and occur in three
groups about 100 yards apart. The principal ones are in the hollow ancf
consist of an open cut 60 feet long in a northwest direction and 20
feet deep, with several crosscut trenches and pits. Turquoise occurs in
seams and veinlets cutting the rock in all directions. Limo-nite stains
are abundant both in the turquoise veinlets and through the rock. A
deposit of pale bluish (copper) tinted alum had formed in one part of
the open cut. Turquoise of a fine dark-blue color and hard dense
texture was obtained from this working, along with some of poorer
quality. Beautiful matrix could be cut from some of the veinlets
containing intermixed limonite.
Two
small open cu ts and a shaft were made on the hillside about 100 yards
east of south, but turquoise of an inferior grade only was seen around
the workings. In another place about 100 yards north of west of the
main working two shafts had been sunk in an open cut. Turquoise was
found rather plentifully in these openings and a quantity of soft
pale-blue semiturquoise had been thrown on the dumps. There was much
nugget or nodular turquoise here as well as that in veinlets. The
decomposed rock in this prospect is not heavily stained by limonite as
at the other openings.
In
the other group of workings on the south side of the draw, 5 small open
cuts and pits and a shaft over 100 feet deep were made in a height of
75 feet in the hillside. Remnants of prehistoric workings can still be
seen but most of them had been obliterated by modern excavations.
Evidently numerous veinlets of turquoise had been followed in the open
cuts, but apparently little turquoise was obtained from the lower part
of the deep shaft.
The
claim of Luna, Moreno, and Ascarate is across the draw about 150 yards
north of the north workings of the Alabama claims. Sev- : eral
pits and open cuts have been made in the hillside within an area of 75
by 125 feet in a northwest direction. One of the cuts is 50 feet long
and 18 feet in greatest depth, with short tunnels driven from it. The
joints and fracture zones have been heavily stained with limonite. The
turquoise veinlets had been carefully gouged out during the last
operations and little of the mineral had been allowed to go on the
dumps. Turquoise of. good grade is reported to have been found,
however. A deposit of limonite or copper gossan 2 feet thick had been
opened in a prospect about 75 feet west of the turquoise workings.
The
country rock exposed in this smaller basin is dark-gray monzo-nite
porphyry, in some places showing but little decomposition. Around the
turquoise deposits it has been fractured and decomposed to varying
degrees. In some places it is a rather light gray or white, with or
without limonite stains, and as such it is difficult to see any
relation to the fresh rock. In other places it is spo tted gray or
brownish gray and shows in part the texture of the original monzonite
porphyry. In the north working of the Alabama claims much of the
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