>>1600017I find lots of Copper ores, Iron ores, and obsidian near Picketpost mountain (dead eroded volcano) and the eastern Superstitions, peridot/olivine near the Mescal mountains. The only place I have found actual magnetite (weakly magnetic rocks) though is around Picketpost along with big chunks of hematite. You can find iron sand in pretty much every wash running from the base of mountains in the state. AZ has a huge variety of minerals and ores; Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, Mo, smaller amounts of Au, Ag, W, and U are still mined. Uranium mining is kind of on hold right now though for legal reasons.
see "Mineral Deposits" section.
http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/nid942/ofr-95-15_report_picketpostmtns.pdf >>1600014Depends on the region, but I find most of my specimens in ancient lava flows and washes leading from them. Iron sand is the easiest to find in washes or creek beds just below mountains in my experience, sometimes buried under several feet of normal quartz sand.
