DISTRICTS, MINES, AND GEOCHEMISTRY DATABASES IN NEW MEXICO. Virginia T. McLemore and Maureen Wilks

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1 DISTRICTS, MINES, AND GEOCHEMISTRY DATABASES IN NEW MEXICO Virginia T. McLemore and Maureen Wilks

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resource Department Company annual reports Personal visits to mines Historical production statistics from US Bureau of Mines, US Geological Survey, NM Energy, Minerals and Natural Resource Department (NM MMD), company annual reports New Mexico Mining Association Many students and colleagues over the years

3 PREVIEW Purpose Funding sources Available data Summary Unresolved issues Lordsburg mining district, Hidalgo County

4 Provide data on districts, mines, and mills in New Mexico (public data only) PURPOSE To federal, state, and local agencies, public organizations, private industry, and individual citizens Summit mine, Steeple Rock district, Grant County

5 Purpose continued To make informed decisions about Economic impacts Resource development and management Impacts on water supplies Impacts on land use Environmental impacts (including potential sources of AD [acid drainage] or other MIW [mine influenced waters]) Physical hazard assessment and remediation Adit, Jicarilla Mountains, Lincoln County

6 NMBGMR FUNDING SOURCES NM State Land Office (Mineral Resource Assessment of Luna County, NMBGMR OF-459) EPA (Uranium database, NMBGMR OF-461) ACofE (Mines database of Sierra and Otero Counties, USGS OF) USGS (minerals database projects) USGS coal database project (NMBGMR OF- 572) OSM (Acquiring and georeferencing coal mine maps)

7 AVAILABLE DATA The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (NMBGMR) has been collecting data on mining districts since it was created in 1927 The task is to convert these data into electronic form and import into ArcGIS

8 Databases Coal fields and Mining districts Coal mines and reserve data Mines and mills Geochemistry Photographs (both recent and historic) Bibliography Mine maps Mine production Mine reserves Drill data (Petroleum records) Well logs (Coal library and Petroleum records)

9 Coal Fields and Mining Districts 273 coal fields and mining districts in NM ~30 districts have had zero production Each district is classified by predominant commodity Each district can have more than 1 commodity type 28 coal fields 40 industrial minerals districts 173 metals districts 32 uranium districts Chino copper mine San Juan coal mine

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12 Coal mines, Raton Basin, Colfax County

13 Mines and Mills Data Organize, catalog and scan the mining archives Create a database of mines in New Mexico based on the NM Mine File Catalog (>16,000 mines) with links to more detailed location by section, township range files (>6000 file cards) More than 2000 mine plats scanned and cataloged Scan and catalog thousands of reports, both published and unpublished, accompanying mine maps, newspaper articles, assay reports, and historical mine photographs

14 Mines records by location and name

15 Mining Archives

16 New Mexico Mines Database Relational database in ACCESS that will ultimately be put on line with GIS capabilities ACCESS is commercial software and this design is compatible with other formats Metadata (supporting definitions of specific fields) can be inserted into the database ACCESS is flexible and data can be easily added to the design Easily imported into ArcGIS

17 The term mine is defined here as any mine, prospect, mineralized outcrop, altered area, mill, smelter, or other mining-related facility, including mineral wells, but excluding geothermal wells, petroleum wells.

18 Mine_id in some cases refers to one mine feature (adit, pit, shaft, etc.) and in other cases to several mine features. If a mine occurs in 2 quadrangles or 2 counties, then it receives 2 separate Mine_id numbers. Large mines receive one Mine_id and as many mine_feature id numbers as needed.

19 Mines Each mine is classified by predominant commodity Each mine can have more than 1 commodity type 8200 mines in the database that include active, inactive, abandoned, and exploration sites Not all mines have workings Some mines have multiple workings Questa mine, Taos County

20 Industrial Minerals Any rock, mineral, or other naturally occurring material of economic value, excluding metals, energy minerals, and gemstones White Mesa gypsum mine M.I.C.A. mica mine (closed) One of the nonmetallics Includes aggregates

21 Available Data Location (= GIS, point and polygon data, QA/QC) Production, reserves, resource potential significant deposits, drillhole data Geologic Geochemical (rock, water, etc.) Environmental Water well data Historical and recent photographs Mining methods, maps Ownership Other data

22 Environmental Data Commodities produced and present Potential hazardous materials Evidence of potential acid drainage Hydrology Receiving stream Reclamation Mitigation status Sensitive environments Chemical data (both solids and water)

23 OUTSIDE INSIDE Photograph looking north showing undeformed layers in trench LFG-007, Goat Hill North rock pile, Questa mine, Taos County. White lines show unit contacts.

24 Bench 9, Trench LFG OUTSIDE Variation of phs along Bench 9, Trench LFG-006 INSIDE 7 6 ph Horizontal Distance from Station 9NW (ft) Paste ph1 Paste ph2 NAG ph Paste ph and NAG ph trench LFG-007, Goat Hill North rock pile, Questa mine, Taos County

25 GHN-KMD chloritic+illitic clay areas Chloritic clay Electron microprobe image of clay minerals in soil matrix, Goat Hill rock pile, Questa mine. One area contains end-member chlorite, and the other areas are mixed. FOV 600 um

26 Geochemistry Nogal Au Jicarilla WhiteOaks Cornudas Gallinas Laughlin Cu Fig 8. Anamolous concentration of As is found in Laramide veins. The concentrations in samples above 25 ppm As were plotted on the geologic map (modified from hedlund, 1977) Hillsboro district, Sierra County Gold vs copper, alkalinerelated deposits, New Mexico

27 Drill Data Drill logs Chemistry Cross sections Core and cuttings Drill log, Jicarilla Mountains, Lincoln County

28 Drill Data Typical uranium log, Ambrosia Lake subdistrict, McKinley County Drill core, Saddleback Mountain, Steeple Rock district, Grant County

29 Mineral Production Year Commodity by year Coal field and mining district Mining district by year Some individual mine production

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31 Copper Production ,000 $900,000, , , , , ,000 50,000 $800,000,000 $700,000,000 $600,000,000 $500,000,000 $400,000,000 $300,000,000 $200,000,000 $100,000,000 0 $ Short tons Value in Dollars Years Short tons Value >11 million short tons Cu worth >$18 billion

32 Gold Production ,000 $70,000, ,000 $60,000,000 Troy ounces 120, ,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 $50,000,000 $40,000,000 $30,000,000 $20,000,000 Value in Dollars 20,000 $10,000,000 0 $ Years * Troy ounces Value >3.2 million troy ounces Au worth >$448 million

33 5,000,000 Silver Production $35,000,000 4,500,000 4,000,000 $30,000,000 3,500,000 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000, ,000 Troy ounces $25,000,000 $20,000,000 $15,000,000 $10,000,000 $5,000,000 Value in dollars 0 $0 Years Troy ounces Value >118 million troy ounces Ag worth >$277 million

34 Uranium Production

35 Reserves and Resources Some reserve and resource statistics by mine or mining district and coal field Significant deposits identified

36 Significant deposits

37 Uranium Significant Deposits

38 SUMMARY Team effort database information database design and linkages Steps Design the database format ASAP Data input Use subset of data to test the project Develop the final product Use it

39 UNRESOLVED ISSUES How to provide the data to the public Some mines are not in districts How to combine databases from different states, federal agencies, etc. How to include mine maps, mine plans in the database How to maintain quality control of the data How to continue funding this effort