The Geology, Leasing, and Production History of the Martin Uranium-Vanadium Mine, Apache County, Arizona

The Martin mine was developed on one of the initial discoveries of uranium-vanadium minerals in the Carrizo Mountains of northwestern Arizona and northeastern New Mexico. The host rock for these ore deposits is the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation of Late Jurassic age. The mineralized exposures on the original Martin claim were some of those mined for their radium content in 1920. In 1942-1943, the Martin mine was developed behind these outcrops and at least 1,500 tons of vanadium ore was produced for the federal government's Metals Reserve program. In 1944, the Martin mine was one of several areas in the Carrizo Mountains acquired by the federal government for its uranium resources. In 1948, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) contracted with Yanadium Corporation of America (YCA) to mine the MaIiin mine. Using Navajo contractors, 1,481 tons of uranium-vanadium ore was produced by clean up mining and mining of an ore body discovered by drilling. Exploration drilling behind the Martin mine, on George Simpson's mining permit found additional orebodies, which produced 1,697 tons of uranium-vanadium ore. This ore was accessed through the Martin mine. Included with this report are some unpublished field notes on geologic mapping in the Martin mine, which were made by AEC geologists in 1956. These notes and drawings were located in the files of the U.S. Department of Energy, Grand Junction, Colorado and are being donated to the Arizona Geological Survey.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)