New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

Quartz has played a role in the various civilizations that have lived in Arizona over the millennia and has been more important than gold or silver. Starting with such utilitarian applications of agate and amethyst for arrowheads and other implements and quartz crystals for medicinal and ornamental purposes, the use of quartz is evident in prehistoric excavations. In the past 100 years or so, quartz and its various forms have been preserved for lapidary and specimen beauty.

It is worth noting the significant agate, fire agate, jasper and petrified wood localities in the state but this paper will deal mainly with the crystallized quartz locales.

Although Arizona’s copper and lead minerals generally overshadow everything else, Arizona possesses fine quartz localities and some of them are unique or nearly so. A few result from the mining for copper and other metals and many are surface localities, mainly discovered by rockhounds and mineral collectors. The Four Peaks amethyst mine produces world-class faceting amethyst and the locale is almost visible from all of Phoenix. This discussion will include Arizona’s copper mines, smaller underground mines, and a number of the surface localities.

Although Ajo had lots of quartz and silica in the orebody and a suite of copper silicate minerals, including shattuckite, ajoite and papagoite, virtually no specimen quartz is known from there. The mines of Bisbee are much the same situation except for the occasional pocket of amethyst or amethystine quartz crystals, sometimes associated with white bladed calcite. All of the drusy quartz on malachite or chrysocolla specimens I have seen labeled from Bisbee are from the Live Oak mine in Miami.

Drusy quartz crystals covering chrysocolla are known from several Arizona copper mines, starting with the Old Dominion in Globe, the Live Oak in Miami, the Ray mine and Bagdad. As an aside, areas in and around the Bagdad mine have produced quartz crystal clusters and Japan-Law twins. A few specimens were recovered in Morenci in the 1990s but very few. The Twin Buttes mine south of Tucson and even the Mammoth-St. Anthony mine has produced some attractive quartz on chrysocolla specimens. There are also some small but important localities, including the Blue Angel prospect in western Arizona, that have produced good specimens. The material can make for attractive specimens as well as being used in jewelry.

Chrysocolla in quartz (chalcedony) or gem silica was first noted by Ransome at the Old Dominion but it is the material from the Live Oak mine, both underground and open-pit, which made Arizona world famous for this beautiful gem material. Gem silica has also come from the Ray mine and Bagdad. Some of the Ray material was quite attractive when it first came out of the ground but as it lost water, it became more opaque, some of the material turned more white than blue.

A thorough discussion of Arizona’s quartz localities has to include the Holland Mine and the various surface deposits in and around Washington Camp and Duquesne. The Holland Mine has produced Japan-Law twins up to 10" on a side and individual doubly-terminated crystals to 14" long. Some of Arizona’s best amethyst scepters have been found around the Santo Niño mine. Numerous pockets of normal quartz crystals and groups of Japan-Law twins have been encountered throughout the area. Most of the twins are frosted white but an occasional pocket has produced lustrous, clear heart-shaped twins.

Quartzsite, Arizona is named after its quartz locality at Crystal Hill, not the metamorphic rock. Years ago, Rock Currier decided to make up tee-shirts for sale at his booth at the Quartzsite show. They became gifts when it was pointed out to Rock his error in assuming the town was named after the rock, not the nearby quartz crystal locality. Crystal Hill has produced clear and lustrous quartz crystals up to 10" long and in clusters to 12" across. Some of the crystals have included chlorite and schorl, and a few have cut fine cats-eye gemstones. The locality is now a state park and only hand digging is allowed. South and slightly west of Quartzsite is the Crystal Gallery/Veta Grande/Big Bertha/Purple Cow Ledge claim. Since the 1950s it has produced high quality hematite crystals up to 3 inches across standing on white quartz and associated quartz crystals. The quartz crystals, with and without hematite, are also quite interesting. Some of the crystals exhibit curving of up to 30 degrees. Arizona’s best faden quartz comes from this locality.

Date Creek Ranch, between Wickenburg and Kingman, has produced colorless, amethyst and smoky quartz crystals and clusters for decades. It is entirely a surface accessible locality although a few years ago collectors went in with a back-hoe and dug out a number of specimens.

The Fat Jack mine just outside of Crown King is also known for its colorless, amethyst and smoky quartz crystals and scepters. Stolzite crystals are also found here, with a few being very bright yellow and occurring on quartz crystals. Over the past 20 to 25 years, pockets have been sporadic and the claim has been owned by a half dozen different people. The claim is now held by members of the Mineralogical Society of Arizona.

The Huachuca Mountains south of Sierra Vista have several areas for collecting quartz. Starting with the Wakefield mine, which produced clusters of clear, lustrous crystals to various surface pits, rock crystal, amethyst and smoky quartz can still be collected here. There are a series of hiking trails throughout the mountains with lots of hummingbirds and other wildlife if one cannot find any of the quartz crystal locales. The Hamburg mine produced Japan-Law twins with associated malachite or yellow calcite.

For decades, deer hunters, rockhounds and people hiking the hills and lower slopes of the Mongollon Rim country from Payson to Tonto Village and Diamond Point have picked up the sparkly and clear “Payson or Arizona Diamonds.” These crystals occur in vugs in limestone, similar similar to the famous Herkimer diamonds of New York. In the mid-1990s there was a lot of collecting activity in the area, which prompted the Forest Service to withdraw 7,000 acres from mineral entry and set it aside for recreational collecting. While most of the crystals found here appear to be colorless, a lot of the crystals actually exhibit a slight to noticeable amethyst color to them.

There are two notable quartz specimen areas in Graham County. The first is around Stanley Butte south of San Carlos Lake. This was part of the Mineral Strip area that was deeded back to the San Carlos Apache Tribe almost 50 years ago. From 1950 to 1980, the area was open to collectors and is probably best known for its andradite crystals. Quartz crystals up to 12" were collected in association with andradite and a number of pockets were excavated. Clear crystals with a tan chalcedony coating, amethyst and colorless crystals associated with andradite all come from this area. Probably the best include a pocket dug in 1984 with clear, slender quartz crystals on green andradite coated matrix. This region is no longer open to collecting.

The second area is the Santa Teresa Mountains in Graham County which is a locality discovered during World War II days to a more recent incarnation in the past 10 to 15 years. During World War II the northern end of the range was prospected for optical grade quartz crystals for the war effort. Fred Rhodes had a smoky quartz crystal with small epidote crystals scattered across the surface in his collection. This prompted Tony Potucek and others to explore the area 15 to 20 years ago. In the past 10 years several collectors have been hiking into the south end of the mountain range and collected a number of cavities in the granite, which have produced quartz, fluorite, hematite, beryl and ilmenite.

Because of its resistance to weathering it is one of the few minerals in Arizona that fine specimens can still be collected from near the surface. There is still plenty of quartz to be collected. It is just a matter of getting out and doing the exploration.

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