El Dorado mine, Tonto National Forest, about 32 miles north of the Globe-Miami District, Arizona

The El Dorado mine was a Jaquays Asbestos Corporation underground chrysotile mine in the Tonto National Forest, "about 32 miles north of the Globe-Miami District, Gila County," according to Asbestos, the industry's trade journal.¹ The journal reported in January 1967 that Jaquays had "developed an entirely new orebody in the South El Dorado area of the Chrysotile group of claims formerly owned by Johns-Manville Corporation," and planned to close some higher-cost workings in "the Old El Dorado Mine."³ A 1975 feature in Asbestos said the fiber "occurs in a thin, discontinuous vein of cross-fiber in the lower Mescal dolomitic limestone formation," and that the mine used "highly-selective casual room and pillar methods."² The same article called El Dorado the only one of the company's four mines "presently active," mining "an estimated 45,000 tons per year of ore and waste," from which "about 3,000 tons a year of fiber are recovered" at the company's mill at Globe, and said it worked "six shifts per week, employing some 28 underground production personnel."²

The documents report this mine producing asbestos fiber for sale.¹

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Location

Output the documents report

Figures as printed, in the units each document uses (short tons before about 1990, metric tons after, in most U.S. chapters). Some are a year's output, some a daily rate or a capacity, some a company's total rather than this mine's alone; the statement for that year below says which.

Year by year

Every statement about this mine in the documents, in each document's own words, by the year it is about.

1966

• Description: “the working faces are over 2,500 feet from the portal” (Jaquays Asbestos), p. 27³
• Exploration: “Jaquays has developed an entirely new orebody in the South El Dorado area of the Chrysotile group of claims formerly owned by Johns-Manville Corporation” (Jaquays Asbestos; Johns-Manville Corporation), p. 27³

1975

• Description: “highly-selective casual room and pillar methods; Two parallel haulage levels, 200 feet apart” (Jaquays Asbestos Corporation), p. 7²
• Description: “Chrysotile asbestos at El Dorado occurs in a thin, discontinuous vein of cross-fiber in the lower Mescal dolomitic limestone formation” (Jaquays Asbestos Corporation), p. 6²
• Workforce: “The Mine works six shifts per week, employing some 28 underground production personnel” (Jaquays Asbestos Corporation), p. 7²
• Output: “Only one mining operation, the El Dorado Mine, is presently active. It mines an estimated 45,000 tons per year of ore and waste. From this figure, about 3,000 tons a year of fiber are recovered” (Jaquays Asbestos Corporation), p. 6²
• Description: “one of four Jaquays-owned underground mines located in the Tonto National Forest” (Jaquays Asbestos Corporation), p. 22¹
• Worked: “currently running its El Dorado Mine at full capacity and is annually recovering about 3,000 tons of low-iron Chrysotile fiber” (Jaquays Asbestos Corporation), p. 22¹

In medical studies

Medical studies in our research library that name this mine, by how they concern it. A search found every one that names the mine and an AI reader sorted them; the quotation, checked word for word against the text, shows where. Those that name the mine only in passing or in a reference list are left out.

Studies of the mine’s fiber (2)

• Wu L 2015: In Situ Liquid Cell Observations of Asbestos Fiber Diffusion in Water: “A raw chrysotile ore block (purity 90%) from El Dorado Mine, Salt River, Arizona, was used as the source material for generating fibers”
• Wu L 2017: Aggregation of Elongated Colloids in Water: “A raw chrysotile ore block (pu- 28 rity > 90%) from El Dorado Mine, Salt River, Arizona was used 29 as the source material for generating fibers.”

Other names

Documents call this mine “El Dorado Mine”, “El Dorado”, “South El Dorado area”, “Old El Dorado Mine”.

See also

• Johns-Manville Corporation: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Asbestos exposure sites in Arizona
• All asbestos mines

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1975, December 1975 (December 1, 1975), p. 22.
2. Asbestos Magazine, 1975, October 1975 (October 1, 1975), pp. 6–7.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1967, January 1967 (January 1, 1967), p. 27.