DISTRICTS, MINES, AND GEOCHEMISTRY DATABASES

IN NEW MEXICO

Virginia T. McLemore and Maureen Wilks

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

PREVIEW

• Purpose

• Funding sources

• Available data

• Summary

• Unresolved issues

Lordsburg mining district, Hidalgo County

PURPOSE

• Provide data on districts, mines, and mills in New Mexico (public data only)

• To federal, state, and local agencies, public organizations, private industry, and individual citizens

Summit mine, Steeple Rock district, Grant County

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

FUNDING SOURCES• NMBGMR

• 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)

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

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)

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

Coal mines,Raton Basin, Colfax County

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

Mines records by

location and name

Mining Archives

New Mexico Mines DatabaseRelational 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

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.

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_idand as many mine_feature id

numbers as needed.

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

Industrial Minerals

• Any rock, mineral, or other naturally occurring material of economic value, excluding metals, energy minerals, and gemstones

• One of the nonmetallics

• Includes aggregates

White Mesa gypsum mine

M.I.C.A. mica mine (closed)

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

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)

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

OUTSIDEINSIDE

Bench 9, Trench LFG-006

Variation of pHs along Bench 9, Trench LFG-006

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Horizontal Distance from Station 9NW (ft)

pH

Paste pH1

Paste pH2

NAG pH

Paste pH and NAG pH trench LFG-007, Goat Hill North rock pile, Questa mine, Taos County

OUTSIDE INSIDE

GHN-KMD-0056-30-02

Chloritic clay

chloritic+illitic clay areas

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

Geochemistry

Hillsboro district, Sierra CountyGold vs copper, alkaline-related deposits, New Mexico

1 10 100 1000 10000 1000001

10

100

1000

10000

100000

Au

Cu

Nogal

Jicarilla

WhiteOaks

Cornudas

Gallinas

Laughlin

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)

Drill Data

• Drill logs

• Chemistry

• Cross sections

• Core and cuttings

Drill log, Jicarilla Mountains, Lincoln County

Drill Data

Typical uranium log, Ambrosia Lake subdistrict, McKinley County

Drill core, Saddleback Mountain, Steeple Rock district, Grant County

Mineral Production

• Year

• Commodity by year

• Coal field and mining district

• Mining district by year

• Some individual mine production

1804-2013 >11 million short tons Cu worth >$18 billion

$0

$100,000,000

$200,000,000

$300,000,000

$400,000,000

$500,000,000

$600,000,000

$700,000,000

$800,000,000

$900,000,000

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

1882

1886

1890

1894

1898

1902

1906

1910

1914

1918

1922

1926

1930

1934

1938

1942

1946

1950

1954

1958

1962

1966

1970

1974

1978

1982

1986

1990

1994

1998

2002

2006

2010

Va

lue

in

Do

lla

rs

Sh

ort

to

ns

Years

Copper Production 1882-2012

Short tons Value

1804-2013 >3.2 million troy ounces Au worth >$448 million

$0

$10,000,000

$20,000,000

$30,000,000

$40,000,000

$50,000,000

$60,000,000

$70,000,000

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

160,000

18

04-1

879

18

77

18

87

18

97

19

07

19

17

19

27

19

37

19

47

19

57

19

67

19

77

19

87*

19

97

20

07

Valu

e i

n D

oll

ars

Tro

y o

un

ces

Years

Gold Production 1804-2012

Troy ounces Value

1804-2013 >118 million troy ounces Ag worth >$277 million

$0

$5,000,000

$10,000,000

$15,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000

$30,000,000

$35,000,000

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

4,000,000

4,500,000

5,000,000

Valu

e i

n d

oll

ars

Tro

y o

un

ces

Years

Silver Production 1804-2012

Troy ounces Value

Uranium Production

http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/staff/mclemore/projects/uranium/documents/mclemore13.pdf

Reserves and Resources

• Some reserve and resource statistics by mine or mining district and coal field

• Significant deposits identified

Significant deposits

Uranium Significant Deposits

http://nmgs.nmt.edu/repository/index.cfml?rid=2013002

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

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