Mineral Resources of the Wabayuma Peak Wilderness Study Area, Mohave County, Arizona

The Wabayuma Peak Wilderness Study Area (AZ-020-037/043), for which a mineral survey was requested by the U.S. Bureau of land Management, encompasses 40,118 acres in northwestern Arizona. Fieldwork was carried out in 1986-88 by the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey to appraise the identified (known) resources and assess the mineral resource potential (undiscovered) of the wilderness study area. Within the Wabayuma Peak Wilderness Study Area are 14 private parcels of land totaling 1,315 acres. The Wabayuma Peak Wilderness Study Area, including the 14 private parcels of land, is herein referred to as the 'wilderness study area' or the 'study area'. The Boriana, Antler, and Copper World mines lie near the east boundary of the study area. The Boriana mine was a major tungsten-producing mine of the United States during World War II. The Antler and Copper World mines produced relatively small amounts of copper and zinc prior to 1970.

Copper and zinc were mined within 100 ft of the study area at the Antler mine. The Antler mine contains subeconomic resources of 350,000 to 400,000 short tons of copper-zinc ore; a minimum of 2,000 short tons, at grades of 1 to 4 percent copper and 1 to 2 percent zinc, lie within the study area. No other mineral resources were identified within the study area.

Four small tracts in the eastern part and one in the central part of the study area have high resource potential for copper, zinc, and minor lead, silver, and gold in massive sulfide deposits. A large central tract and two eastern tracts have moderate resource potential for the same metals. An eastern and a western tract within the wilderness study area have high resource potential for tungsten, copper, and combinations of beryllium, gold, silver, arsenic, bismuth, molybdenum, tin, indium, thorium, niobium, yttrium, lanthanum, scandium, tantalum, rhenium, lead, zinc, and iron in granite-related tungsten-polymetallic vein deposits. Most of the rest of the study area has moderate resource potential for these metals. A northern tract in the study area has moderate resource potential for gold, copper, and combinations of silver, zinc, lead, tungsten, and molybdenum in polymetallic vein deposits of several types.