Arizona Geological Society
2024 Speaker Series
Tuesday, 3 September 2024 | 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Location: Hexagon Mining Division Office
40 East Congress Street, Suite 150, Tucson, Arizona 85701
Parking: On the street or parking garage (Old Pueblo Parking)
Social Hour with Sandwiches from Beyond Bread (5:30-6:30 PM), Presentation (6:35 PM)
For those planning to attend the event, please register by 6:00 PM on Sunday, September 1, 2024
For those unable to attend, here is a
MS Teams URL for Remote Viewing
Remote Broadcast begins at 6:35 PM
Streaming URL Link
The Arizona Geological Society also thanks Hexagon
for generously providing the venue and drinks
Cactus Mine Update
From Taxpayer Liability to a Top 10
US Copper Producer
Travis Snider and Adam Hawkins
Arizona Sonoran Copper Company
Background - The Cactus Project is comprised of three deposits and one Stockpile within a 5.5 km mine trend, including the past producing Sacaton Mine, the deposits now known as Cactus East and Cactus West, in addition to the Parks/Salyer deposit, SW along the mine trend.
The Cactus and Parks/Salyer deposits are portions of a large porphyry copper system that has been dismembered and displaced by Tertiary extensional faulting. Porphyry copper deposits form in areas of shallow magmatism within subduction-related tectonic environments (Berger et al., 2008).
Graphics courtesy of the Arizona Sonoran Copper Company
GEOLOGY & DEPOSIT. Major host rocks are Precambrian Oracle Granite and Laramide monzonite porphyry and quartz monzonite porphyry. The porphyries intruded the older rocks to form mixed breccias; monolithic breccias and occur as large masses, poorly defined dike-like masses; and thin well-defined but discontinuous dikes. The deposit is structurally complex with intense fracturing, faulting, and both pre-mineral and post-mineral brecciation. It is bounded on the east and west sides by normal faults.
Graphics courtesy of the Arizona Sonoran Copper Company
Chalcocite and covellite are the only supergene sulfides recognized. The chalcocite blanket in the mineralized zone is irregular in thickness, grade, and continuity. The thickness of leached capping varies from less than 100 ft (30 m) to over 650 ft (198 m), with the thicker intercepts on the north side. Substantial quantities of oxidized copper minerals are found erratically distributed through the capping. Chrysocolla, brochantite, and malachite are the most common oxidized copper minerals. In upper portions of the capping, chrysocolla predominates, while brochantite and malachite predominate in the lower portions.
Speakers:
Travis Snider (l) (VP Sustainability & External Relations)
and Adam Hawkins (r) (Communities & Local Media inquiries)
Hexagon Mining Division Office - 40 East Congress Street,
Suite 150, Tucson, Arizona 85701
