Geology and Production History of the Mitchell Butte Uranuim-Vanadium Mine, Navajo County, Arizona

The Mitchell Mesa Mine was developed on the rim of an isolated mesa within the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in Navajo County, Arizona. This park, established by the Tribal Council on July 11, 1958, is composed of 29,817 acres of spectacular red rock mesas, buttes, monoliths and spires. At the time it was created, mining was not prohibited within the park. Mitchell Mesa is named for a prospector, who, together with his partner Merrick, were killed in this area in 1880. The prospectors, looking for a rich silver mine, had repeatedly disregarded warnings not to trespass in the valley. Both men were shot near Mitchell Butte, but Merrick lived long enough to make his way to the butte that bear his name (Baars and others, 1973). Due to the difficult access to the top of the mesa, the ore deposit was not exploited until 1962, 1965-1966. Since this was late in the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's (ABC) ore-procurement program (1947~1970) very little information was developed about this small mine. Recently, some information was located in the AEC files stored at the Department of Energy's Grand Junction Projects Office in Grand Junction, Colorado. This report summarizes what is known about the Mitchell Mesa uranium-vanadium mine.Documents in the AZGS Documents Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact azgs-info@email.arizona.edu)