Location: Oro Blanco Mountains north of the United States-Mexico boundry, T. 23 S., Rs. 10 and 11 E. Topographic Maps: Ruby and Oro Blanco 15-minute quadrangles. Click Here For Topographic Map Of The Oro Blanco Placer District trails/topo.aspx?lat=31.41304&lon=-111.24592&s=50&size=s&style=drgsr Access: Take I19 south from Tuscon to 289 west to Oro Blanco. Dirt roads and jeep trails lead south to placer areas. Extent: The Oro Blanco Mountains are named for the fact that the placer gold found in the area is so alloyed with silver that it is silvery white. Placer gold is said to occur in almost every ravine and gulch, on many hill-sides, and on surfaces where the soil is reddish from decomposed pyrite. Alamo Gulch and its neighboring gulches (T. 23 S., R. 10 E., Oro Blanco quadrangle) reportably contained the richest placers; gold recovered from Alamo Gulch was valued at $16 per ounce (at $20.67 per oz). Placers found at the mouth of Warsaw Gulch on California Gulch (also called Oro Blanco Viejo Gulch; sec. 29, T. 23 S., R. 11 E., Ruby quadrangle) contained gold valued at $10 per ounce. Most of the gold ranged in size from flour to small nuggets. Production history: During the past century, most of the placer mining was done with crude implements and with an inadequate water supply. During the 20th century some large-scale placer mining has been attempted; most of these attempts were unsuccessful, however, because of the fine size of the gold. Source: The placer deposits were derived from the gold-quartz veins of the Oro Blanco Mountains. Tips: Get off the main roads and into the tributaries, look for evidence of old workings. Move slowly and dig ALL TARGETS. Always make sure you have a topo map of the area you wish to hunt. Remember to stay off marked claims and please remember to FILL ALL HOLES!! Good hunting.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:18:36 +0000