The Tecoma Mine is on the Nevada-Utah border, 12 miles northeast of Montello, Nevada, in Box Elder County, Utah. Access from Montella is by unpaved road and is accessible year round.
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Geology and History
The ore deposits appear as replacements and fracture fillings in limestone and dolomite. The replacements are usually located along faults and pipes formed by the intersections of faults and fractures. A large body of igneous rock crops out east of the deposits and a smaller body crops out one-half mile north of Regulator Canyon on the west side of the Pilot Range. These igneous bodies may have been responsible for the mineralization, but only non-commercial metal occurrences have been found adjacent to the contacts. Mineralogically, the deposits are of two types, those dominating in copper minerals and those dominating in lead, silver and zinc.
Minerals include smithsonite, hemimorphite; and in lesser quantities, limonitic anglesite, wulfenite, barite, pyrite, galena, spahalerite and native silver.
The Tecoma Hill and Copper Mountain workings have provided at least 90% of the district’s production. These are located on a badly faulted horst with boundary faults that trend west by northwest and cut across the range at right angles.
The Tecoma Mine was originally discovered around 1864 and became the basis for the organization of the Lucin Mining District on September 2, 1872. The American Tecoma Company, or the Tecoma Mining Company, owned eight patented claims that formed the basis of the Tecoma Mine. In 1872, the mine was sold to Howland & Aspinwall of New York. The latter owners extracted several thousand tons of ore averaging about 35 ounces of silver per ton and 45% lead. Two well-defined surface ore bodies were mined to supply this ore. The mine operated until 1875 or 1876. In the lower parts of the ore bodies, considerable amounts of wulfenite was discovered.
Of the several mines on the Tecoma property, the Henry Mine had the greatest production. Its workings are partly open, especially the Henry Tunnel. Large quantities of limonite still remain in the mine along with the remnants of former lead-silver-zinc ore bodies.
