The copper districts in the United States (exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii) are shown on the accompanying map. In compiling the map, the estimated total quantity of copper present before mining was used to assign districts to size categories, and both production and reserves are included without distinction as to the status of exploitation. Four categories have been distinguished: deposits that contain 50+ to 1,000 tons; 1,000 to 50,000 tons; 50,000 to 1 million tons; and over 1 million tons of copper respectively. In many of the smaller deposits copper occurs with other metals, as gold, silver; lead, or zinc, that may be quantitatively and economically more important than the contained copper. Thus, for example, a deposit that contains large values in gold or zinc may contain only a small amount of copper and is shown on this map as a small copper deposit. Five principal morphologic types of deposits have been distinguished on the map by letter symbols. These are disseminated, replacement, vein, massive sulfide, and native copper deposits (see Explanation). They are not strictly genetic types, however, for the disseminated deposits, the massive sulfide deposits, and many of the vein deposits were formed largely or entirely by replacement processes. The symbols show either individual mines or the approximate centers of districts. Some of the more prominent districts are identified by name on the map, and all with over 1,000 tons of copper are numbered to correspond to the Locality Index. As mining district names do not always correspond to locality names, and a name established through common usage may not be the legal name of the mining district, several names are given in the index for some localities. The index is arranged alphabetically by States. Both published and unpublished data were used, and at least one reference is given for each locality if reports on it have been published.

Mineral Investigations Resource Map↗

USGS1961

Copper in the United States

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Open-File Report↗

USGS1954

Geologic maps of the Shasta copper-zinc district, Shasta County, California

No abstract available.

California↗

USGS1951

Preliminary report on the Apex and Paymaster mines, Washington County, Utah

The Apex and Paymaster mines in the Tutsagubet mining district, 25 miles southwest of St. George, Utah, are at an elevation of about 5,000 feet in the Beaver Dam Mountains. The ore was deposited in a steeply dipping fault zone which cuts a thick series of gently dipping limestones of Pennsylvanian age with minor interbedded shales and sandstones. The ore now consists primarily of copper oxides, but is reported to contain small quantities of lead and sine oxides. Complete oxidation extends to the 1,400 level of the Apex mine, the deepest level in this mine. Lead oxides are reported to have been more plentiful in the workings near surface, but the stoped area is now caved to the 1,330 level. The ore bodies probably formed largely as a filling in the fault fissure, and in crushed zones along the fault, with only minor replacement extending for short distances along the bedding. The sulfides oxidized essentially in place and migration of the oxidized copper ores is believed to be limited to a few feet. Additional exploration below the known ore shoots in the Apex and Paymaster mines and along the fissure between the two mines may disclose new ore bodies.

Open-File Report↗