Same type of ore?

[Smokehouse_83]

Top pic is Carlin ore and the bottom is a few chunks from a mine I found. I have been scanning pictures on the net trying to figure out what in the hell these guys were mining and I stumbled across the Carlin deposit pictures and they look real similar. What do you guys think?

 

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[tamrock]

Are you talking about the Carlin trend in Nevada? If so it does look like some of the rock I've seen in the mines within that zone.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

Yes and I read that they are finding it outside of northern Nevada and I’m in New Mexico. From what I read Carlin type ore has no visible gold and this mine is not listed so it’s either pre statehood or was kept secret. I found little cubes of metal in the tailings with perfectly flat sides that are non ferrous also.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Assay it and let the assayer know you think it is Carlin type ore.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I've got a piece of ore identical to that dark Carlin ore, and it came from the Holcroft mine south of Winnemucca. It has a small piece of visible gold in it.
Jim

 

[tamrock]

Yes and I read that they are finding it outside of northern Nevada and I’m in New Mexico. From what I read Carlin type ore has no visible gold and this mine is not listed so it’s either pre statehood or was kept secret. I found little cubes of metal in the tailings with perfectly flat sides that are non ferrous also.

Yeah the Carlin trend ore has very small microscopic particles of gold within. Thing is there's cubic miles of it and production is on a massive scale. Get an assay.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

Who do you guys recommend around northern New Mexico? What else could they have been after? What else could be coming out of this type of ore?

 

[tamrock]

Who do you guys recommend around northern New Mexico? What else could they have been after? What else could be coming out of this type of ore?

Here https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/labs/home.html Mexico Tech has a very nice rock and mineral Museum. I think I've stopped by there three or four times on my way down to Silver City. It's free to visit.
Can't help with the others questions, but I'd start with researching the local history of this location.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

I’ve looked into the mining history and they mined everything here. Mica,nickel,uranium,REE,molybdenum,galena,lithium,ect. No recorded gold though.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

Found two more unrecorded open pit mines. Here are peices from the tailings piles.

1 what we’re they after in granite?

2 this stuff looks kinda like the greenstone from the other mine

I guess this area was called mineral city back in the day and was a bustling town, had a hotel/saloon and everything. We found an old book that shows about 12 mines along two small creek/rivers that we plan on exploring in the next month or so.

 

[Clay Diggins]

That's the Elk Mountain Complex. The only thing that was ever mined there was Mica. There isn't enough commercial value to Mica to support a mine anymore. Assays don't show any gold values.

The rock you are seeing is highly albitized pegmatite - not a gold ore. (Albite is a feldspar) The Carlin type gold deposits are sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits - not pegmatites. The Carlin type gold deposits and the albitized pegmatites found at Elk Mountain are unrelated.

Where the road enters the mine area is all private patented property now. Best to stay to the forest area before the mine or you would be trespassing.

Try the areas nearby to the East around Mora up Coyote Creek. If you can find some friendly landowners/grantees that would give you permission that would be perfect. Great minerals in that area including gold and silver.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

The mines I have been to are all on Forest. There are no active claims claims on this side of the mountain in my area according to land matters. They have all been ate up by the Santa Fe National Forest. The mica mine I’ve been to is the Priest Mine (I’ve been there and it’s awesome). If you go to land matters and look at the half dozen marked mines they were mining all kinds of minerals though. These new one I have found aren’t in land matters and were mines before New Mexico was a state, but they are all on national forest except for a few that are part of the Blue Haven Christian camps 100year lease property. I’m not going up through Pecos and have never been up to the mines on that side of the hill/Elk mountain. The mines on my side are part of the tecolote or Gillianas complex’s and we are accessing them through Gillianas/Johnson Mesa or through Mineral Hill/San Jeronimo and have permission on all the private property we might go through getting into the forest.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Yes, Tecolote Canyon (Mineral Hill), the Gallinas river and Porvenier creek/canyon (Las Vegas) all follow their respective canyons up to the Elk Mountain mineral district on the East side of the mountain - just as you described. They all drain from the same area where the mine is.

I never mentioned the west side or the Pecos river. Not sure where you got that idea?

There are no mining claims there because there are no minerals that are profitable to mine. The Forest is not off limits to claims but when there are no minerals worth mining you usually won't find mining claims. I suggested further East because there are valuable minerals East of Mora.

The only mines that were productive up there were mining Mica. The other minerals you see in the reports are just notes on the mineralogy of the deposit. Nickel, Uranium, Rare Earths, Molybdenum, Galena and Lithium have never been mined commercially in the area - just Mica.

You could have your rock fire assayed. That would tell you what the potential for mineral value would be for the material. I doubt you will find anything of value but for less than $50 you will know a lot more about the minerals in the area you are exploring.

Heavy Pans

 

[Smokehouse_83]

I read a pdf document once that split these districts into different area’s. The Blue and Tecolote creek don’t come from elk mountain they start right behind Johnson Mesa/Bear mountain. You have to come up from the Pecos side to get to elk mountain by vehicle or hike over the ridge line trail. The green material in the top pictures had to be economicaly viable enough for some one to dig a 100+ foot shaft into the mountain. There are minshafts with tracks that we are trying to find also, there has to be some good stuff up there.

 

[Clay Diggins]

I think you are confused. We may be talking about the same thing but you seem to think Elk mountain only has a western (Pecos) side? The Blue, Tecolote, Gallinas and Porvenir creeks all drain the east flank of Elk Mountain. Bear mountain, Johnson Mesa, El Cielo and Hermit peak all sit on the east flank of Elk mountain.

There is pretty good access to the top of Elk mountain from the Pecos side but the Elk Mountain mineral district, where the Mica mines are, can only reasonably be accessed from the Las Vegas side.

All over the earth you will find short shafts dug to explore for minerals. Most vein deposits (98%) "pinch out" at depth and aren't worth mining. Although a 100 foot shaft may be an indicator of decent mineralization it doesn't mean someone found minerals that were profitable to mine. The entire history of hard rock mining is all about thousands of prospects dug to find just a few good paying strikes. You may find some overlooked mineralization in one of these shafts but the short length is more likely an indicator of failure to discover a paying prospect.

Keep looking and you may find something of value. The old miners were very clever and the chances of finding an old shaft with profitable gold or silver just waiting for you to mine are slim to none. There is an opportunity to find mineral specimens and rare stone types that might have some value because the old time miners didn't have a market for rare or pretty minerals.

Look further away from the Mica mines and you might find some nice Tourmaline or Beryl. The area where the Mica is mined are the edges of the quartz core of the Pegmatite dike that is the basis for the Elk Mountain mineral district. Moving away from the center of the pegmatite will bring you into the zone of mineralization where you could find gem deposits the old time miners had no interest in. Look between the area where you found the "granite" and the Mica deposit and you could have some luck finding gems.

Blue Haven sits on private property. They may have a lease but it's not from the Forest Service. You have to cross over the Las Vegas Grant to get into the areas you are exploring - some grantees still insist on enforcing their rural community grants as well as the private grant portions. Try looking at the Land Matters Land Status maps for the area. Download the Master Title Plats and supplements and you can see that a good part of that area is private property. There are a lot of private property inholdings in those canyons.

Be safe up there, always take a friend and stay out of the underground workings. If you don't know what a winze is you shouldn't be anywhere near a lode mine. If you do know what a winze is you already know why you shouldn't go into these old mines.

Heavy Pans

 

[dave wiseman]

Clay Diggings is writing of this...It is sweet to dance to violins..it is delicate and rare..to dance to lutes..to dance to flutes is way beyond compare..but it is not sweet with nimble feet to dance upon the air..from the ballad of Reading Gaol,by Oscar Wilde.

 

[Smokehouse_83]

Spent some time on Land Matters and I don’t see any Gold mines on Coyote Creek or Black Creek either. How do you know there is Gold there? Where I do see Gold mines is when you head back towards Taos past Angel Fire.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Spent some time on Land Matters and I don’t see any Gold mines on Coyote Creek or Black Creek either. How do you know there is Gold there? Where I do see Gold mines is when you head back towards Taos past Angel Fire.

The area between Mora and Guadalupita is mostly Spanish Grant land and above there almost to Angelfire are Indian owned lands. You won't see government data about mining in those areas. Even Land Matters can't show mines there is no official record of.

The Indian lands are going to be off limits but the Grant lands are open by personal invitation. That's why I said "If you can find some friendly landowners/grantees that would give you permission that would be perfect."

I know there are old and still productive gold and silver mines on the Grant lands there because I've visited them with the permission of their owners. They are being mined by the Spanish Grantee families that own them just as they have for the last 300 years.

Heavy Pans