The Northwest orebody, located in Pima County, Arizona, is a large tonnage skarn containing copper, silver, and molybdenum mineralization. The orebody is separated from the main orebodies of the Twin Buttes mine by the Twin Buttes fault. Sulfide mineralization and silicate alteration are systematically zoned along a westerly trend away from the fault and from a central intrusive complex. Original host rock chemistry was the major control on the silicate and sulfide mineralogy of the skarns. The highest grade ore occurs in a garnet-diopside alteration zone within beds of altered limestone and dolomite. Lower grade ores formed in cal-silicated siltstones, quartzites, and granitic rocks. The skarns exhibit a complex history of sequential veining and replacement. The alteration can be subdivided into an early thermal event, followed by three stages of hydrothermal alteration. The first stage of hydrothermal alteration is characterized by the formation of anhydrous Ca-Mg-Fe-Al silicates, predominantly garnet and diopside. Stage II is a period of sulfide mineralization. The copper sulfides were deposited when copper in the hydrothermal solutions reacted with Fe⁺⁺⁺₋ rich garnet to form chalcopyrite. Mineralization continued during Stage III as increasingly pyritic sulfide mineralization was deposited with hydrous silicate minerals, predominantly epidote and actinolite. Several points of evidence show that the mineralization in the Northwest orebody is related to the intrusive activity at the center of the Twin Buttes mine area and not to either the pre-mineral Ruby Star Granodiorite or to a buried intrusive at depth.

Ground magnetic data are consistent with the interpretation that Lower Jurassic volcanic rocks of the Twin Buttes mine area (Ox Frame Volcanics) are confined to a distinct block by the northwest trending Sawmill Canyon Fault Zone which was initially active during the Lower Jurassic. Possible reactivation of the Sawmill Canyon Fault zone in the Middle Jurassic as a left-lateral wrench fault is recorded by the deposition of syntectonic red-beds (Rodolfo Formation). Lower Cretaceous rocks (Whitcomb Quartzite, Glance Conglomerate, and Angelica Akrose) were deposited in alluvial environments resulting from additional reactivation of the Sawmill Canyon Fault Zone. Upper Cretaceous (Laramide) deformation involved the formation of northwest trending folds and northwest and northeast trending reverse, tear, and later block faults during the uplift of Precambrian basement. Ore deposits of the Pima mining district are localized along a northeast trending fault zone with evidence for initial activity in the Middle Jurassic and later reactivation during the Laramide.