The Ray Mine is located in eastern Pinal County, Arizona, about 80 miles southeast of the city of Phoenix. Ray consists of a large classical porphyry copper deposit.

The Ray sulfide system is developed in a variety of Precambrian rocks and Laramide intrusives. The bulk of the hypogene sulfides pyrite, chalcopyrite and molybdenite— occur in schist, the Ruin Granite (a quartz monzonite), quartzite and diabase, all Precambrian in age. Diabase is the youngest Precambrian rock and occurs as dikes and sills in all the older “country” rocks; it is the most receptive rock to copper mineralization and hosts the bulk of the ore at Ray. A series of Laramide (late Cretaceous) intermediate to acidic composition dikes and stocks, representing at least 12 different rock types, intruded all the older rocks. All Laramide rock types have been affected by the later Ray hypogene sulfide system and are cut by sulfide veinlets. Post-mineral Oligocene, Miocene and later volcanic and clastic rocks unconformably overlie part of the sulfide body. Major high-angle, northwest-trending normal faults extend through the deposit area, intersected by major northeast trending faults at the north end of the deposit with major deformation occurring before, after and perhaps during intrusion of ore-age dikes and stocks.

Hypogene mineral zoning is concentric, with a central low-grade core characterized by low total sulfides and a high cpy/py ratio. A higher grade zone (the “ore zone”) surrou ........

The Ray mine is an open pit mine.

The current footprint of the Ray open pit is elliptical in shape and measures 4.3 kilometers from east to west and 2.7 kilometers from north to south, with the elevation of the highest bench being 915 meters and the lowest bench being 260 meters above sea level.

- subscription is required.