The Hazel Copper-Silver Mine, Culberson County, Texas

The Hazel mine is one of the oldest mines in Texas and has been the largest copper-producing property in the State. The mine has a recorded production of over 1 million pounds of copper and over ½ million ounces of silver, and there are a number of years in which the mine was active but for which no figures are available. True production is in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 million ounces of silver and 1½ million pounds of copper. The Hazel mine is the most important of a group of mines and prospects known as the Allamoore—Van Horn copper district. This district lies within Culberson and Hudspeth counties in an area of pre-Cambrian rocks exposed between the scarp of the Sierra Diablo to the north and Beach and Baylor Mountains to the southeast and east. The district is bounded on the east and west by the approximate longitudes of Van Horn and Allamoore. The altitude is about 4,500 to 5,000 feet, climate is arid or semi-arid (generally less than 10 inches rain per year), and mining operations can be conducted all year. Water is obtained from wells or mine seeps. Vegetation is of a desert type and consists of various cacti, yucca, and thorny shrubs without suitable mine timber.