Azurite

specimen number:
2282076

location:
Sacramento Shaft, Bisbee, Cochise Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Lustrous bladed crystals of azurite coming off matrix. In good condition. Nice thumbnail for this Arizona classic.

The Sacramento shaft, located within the Warren mining district at Bisbee in Cochise County, Arizona, was a primary operational hub for massive copper extraction. Geologically, the shaft tapped into a complex porphyry copper and carbonate replacement system centered around the structural intrusion of the Sacramento Hill quartz porphyry stock into Paleozoic limestones, such as the Escabrosa and Martin formations. Hydrothermal fluids related to this Mesozoic magmatic activity deposited extensive primary copper and iron sulfides, which subsequently underwent profound oxidation and supergene enrichment, creating massive, high-grade bodies of chalcocite, malachite, azurite, and native copper within the adjacent limestone strata. Sinking of the shaft began in 1906 under the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, later controlled by Phelps Dodge Corporation, to consolidate underground haulage from multiple interconnected mines and hoist ore to the surface. It served as a critical nerve center for both underground operations and the eventual adjacent open-pit mining of Sacramento Hill, remaining a major production asset through the height of the district's twentieth-century output until the depletion of accessible high-grade underground reserves led to the total cessation of operations at the shaft in 1975.

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