Search USGS⌕ Search

Geology topics

Research about New Mexico

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including New Mexico.

At least 955 records · Page 53Linked to original sources
USGS1954

Copper and uranium mineralization in the Coyote mining district, Mora County, New Mexico

Sedimentary copper-uranium deposits lie along the eastern flank of the Sangre de Cristo Range in the Coyote mining district, Mora County, New ilexico. The oldest rocks in the district are pre-Cambrian granites, pegmatites and metasediments. These are unconformably overlain by marine limestones and shales of Pennsylvanian age and fluviatile sediments of Pennsylvanian-Permian age. Tertiary basalt flows are extensive to the east and cover Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks locally. The copper-uranium mineralization occurred in a belt of thrusting and transverse faulting associated with the uplift of the Ancestral Rockies, but there is no visible evidence to relate the ore deposits to faults. The uranium deposition seems to have been controlled by channels containing carbonized plant remains in the coarser sandstone lenses of the Sangre de Cristo formation. There are two major types of ore deposits in the Coyote district. One consists of copper-replaced pyrite nodules and plant remains in black carbonaceous shales, the other consists of uranium in cross bedded sandstones. Copper is most abundant in the lower 1500 feet of the Sangre de Cristo formation. The most important copper mineral is chalcocite with minor amounts of chalcopyrite, bornite, covellite, pyrite, malachite, and azurite. The uranium minerals are metatyuyamunite and an undetermined black radioactive mineral associated with chalcopyrite. The uranium occurs in stream channels approximately 2000 feet stratigraphically above the top of the Aagdalena group (as mapped). The copper-uranium was probably derived from nearby pre-Cambrian highlands which contain abundant copper mines, granitic intrusions, and uranium bearing pegmatites. Heteoric waters containing copper sulfate and a soluble uranium compound transported the minerals to their present site and upon encountering carbonaceous material were precipitated out.

New Mexico↗
USGS1954

The copper and uranium deposits of the Coyote district, Mora County, New Mexico

The copper and uranium-vanadium deposits of the Coyote district, Mora County, N. Mec, are confined to the lower 2,000 feet of the Sangre de Gristo formation of Pennsylvanian and Permian age. A narrow belt of deposits in steeply dipping or overturned rocks extends for 7 miles along Coyote Creek south of Guadalupita. Earlier studies showed that the copper deposits contained uranium, but both the reserves and the uranium content of the copper-bearing shale are too low to permit the recovery of uranium. However, small, commercial grade uranium deposits have been discovered in sandstone. Small lenses of copper-bearing carbonaceous shale, siltstone, limestone or sandstone, interbedded with predominantly red rocks, are present at intervals at 12 or more stratigraphic levels. The better deposits, in carbonaceous shale, average about 2 percent copper. The copper content of the other rocks is usually lower, but small concentrations may contain 6 percent copper. The principal copper minerals are chalcocite and malachite. Chalcocite replaces wood and forms nodules that contain small, variable amounts of pyrite, bornite, covellite, and rarely, uraninite. The uranium deposits occur as small closely spaced pockets that are commonly localized by sedimentary structures within one or more fluviatile arkosic sandstone beds near the middle of the formation, particularly" where carbonized wood, clay galls, and rock fragments are abundant. The uraniferous sandstone is commonly stained pink by hematite that probably was introduced with the uranium. The color increases in intensity with the radioactivity. The outcrops of the uranium deposits are typically inconspicuous, but close inspection shows they contain malachite, chalcopyrite, black vanadium minerals of micaceous habit, metatyuyamunite and microscopic grains of an unidentified black uraniferous substance. The proportion of copper, uranium, and vanadium is variable and any metal may be dominant. The metals probably were derived from pre-Cambrian granitic rocks. Copper and minor amounts of uranium were deposited in local stagnant basins by reaction with hydrogen sulfide. and decaying organic material. The uraniferous shales and the copper deposits are believed to be syngenetic, or nearly so, but the uranium deposits in sandstone are epigenetic and probably were deposited from ground waters with a possible hydrothermal admixture. The uranium and vanadium may have been reconcentrated from earlier, low-grade, syngenetic deposits.

New Mexico↗
USGS1954

Reconnaissance for uranium in New Mexico in 1953

In the fall of 1953 a reconnaissance search for uranium was made in the Datil area, west-central New Mexico, and in the Cerrillos, Glorieta, and Tecolote districts and the Las Vegas and Colfax Sill areas in north-central and northeastern New Mexico. Traces of radioactive materials were detected at many places and occurrences of uranium minerals that may be of possible economic significance were found in the Datil area, near the village of Datil. Small amounts of uranium are widespread in sandstone beds in the Mesaverde formation. The highest-grade sample contained 0.056 percent uranium.

New Mexico↗
USGS1954

Botanical prospecting for uranium on La Ventana Mesa, Sandoval County, New Mexico

A botanical sampling program has been completed by the U.S. Geological Survey on La Ventana Mesa, Sandoval County, N. Mex. A uranium-bearing coal in the Allison-Gibson members of the Cretaceous Mesaverde formation crops out in erosional remnants of the mesa.The coal is capped by a well-fractured 65-foot sandstone bed through which roots of a pinyon-juniper forest penetrate. Samples of several hundred branches of trees growing on top of the mesa were collected and analyzed for uranium. The assays ranged from 0.1 part per million to 2.3 ppm uranium in the wood ash. Dead branches, which were found to contain more uranium in the ash than live branches, were sampled where possible. The results have been contoured to indicated probable areas of mineralized coal. Parts of the north butte are recommended as favorable for physical exploration.

New Mexico↗
USGS1953

Geologic map of Lake Valley manganese district, Sierra County, New Mexico

The Lake Valley district was originally developed as a manganese-silver district, but the known silver-bearing ore bodies have long since been worked out. The critical shortage of manganese during World War II renewed interest in the manganese deposits; from October 1941 through June 1942 the U. S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted a cooperative exploration program in the district. This exploration demonstrated that the Lake Valley district contained about 175,000 tons of ore; approximately 37,000 tons has subsequently been mined. The present reserves are estimated to be approximately 140,000 tones of ore with a manganese content of more than 10 percent and an average content of 16.4 percent; about 75,000 tons of the ore has manganese content of more than 15 percent and an average content of 20.7 percent.

New Mexico↗
USGS1953

Uranium-bearing coal and carbonaceous shale in La Ventana Mesa area, Sandoval County, New Mexico

Uranium-bearing coal, carboanceous shale, and carboaceous sandstone of Upper Cretaceous age occur on and adjacent to La Ventana Mesa, Sandoval County, New Mexico. The geologic features of the uranium deposits are described and a hypothesis for the origin and control of the uranium deposits are described and a hypothesis for the origin and control of the uranium deposits is given. On the basis of recent sampling and analyses the uranium content in coal is found to be as much as 0.62 percent, whereas the coal ash has a uranium content that is as much as 1.34 percent.

New Mexico↗
USGS1953

The uranium-bearing nickel-cobalt-native silver deposits in the Black Hawk district, Grant County, New Mexico

The Black Hawk (Bullard Peak) district, Grant County, N. Mex., is 21 miles by road west of Silver City. From 1881 to 1893 more than $1,000,000.00 of high-grade silver ore is reported to have been shipped from the district. Since 1893 there has been no mining in the district except during a short period in 1917 when the Black Hawk mine was rehabilitated. Pre-Cambrian quartz diorite gneiss, which contains inclusions of quartzite, schist, monzonite, and quartz monzonite, is the most widespread rock in the district. The quartz diorite gneiss is intruded by many pre-Cambrian and younger rocks, including diorite granite, diabase, monzonite porphyry and andesite and is overlain by the Upper Cretaceous Beartooth quartzite. The monzonite porphyry, probably of late Cretaceous or early Tertiary age, forms a small stock along the northwestern edge of the district and numerous dikes and irregular masses throughout the district. The ore deposits are in fissure veins that contain silver, cobalt, and uranium. The ore minerals, which include native silver, niccolite, millerite, skutterudite, nickel skutterudite, bismuthinite, pitchblende, and sphalerite, are in a carbonate gangue in narrow, persistent veins, most of which trend northeasterly. Pitchblende has been identified in the Black Hawk and the Alhabra deposits and unidentified radioactive minerals were found at five other localities. The deposits that contain the radioactive minerals constitude a belt 600 to 1,500 feet wide that trends about N. 45° E., and is approximately parallel to the southeastern boundary of the monzonite porphyry stock. All the major ore deposits are in the quartz diorite gneiss in close proximity to the monzonite porphyry. The ore deposits are similar to the deposits at Great Bear Lake, Canada, and Joachimstahl, Czechoslovakia.

New Mexico↗
USGS1952

Memorandum on ground-water investigation of four proposed stock wells in Puertocito Area, Socorro County and Canoncito Area, Bernalillo and Valencia Counties, New Mexico

At the request of the Navajo Service, Office ot Indian Affairs, a groundwater iinvestigation of four proposed stock wells in the Puertocito Area, Socorro county and the Canoncito Area., Bernalillo and Valencia counties,New Mexico, was made in November, 1951 (see fig. 1). Although these areas are not on the Navajo Indian Reservation, they were included in the program of study of ground-water resources or the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations now being conducted by the Ground Water Branch of the United States Geological Survey. The work was financed by and was in cooperation with the Navajo Service, Office of Indian Affairs.

New Mexico↗
USGS1952

Uranium deposits in Grant County, New Mexico

The known uranium deposits of Grant county, N. Mex., are principally in the White Signal and Black Hawk districts. Both districts are within a northwesterly-trending belt of pre-Cambrian rocks, composed chiefly of granite with included gneisses, schists, and quartzites. Younger dikes and stocks intrude the pre-Cambrian complex. The White Signal district is on the southeast flanks of the Burro Mountains; the Black Hawk district is about 18 miles northwest of the town of White Signal. In the White Signal district the seconday uranium phosphates--autunite and torbernite--occur as fracture coatings and disseminations in oxidized parts of quartz-pyrite veins, and in the adjacent mafic dikes and granites; uraniferous limonite is common locally. Most of the known uraniferous deposits are less that 50 feet in their greatest dimension. The most promising deposits in the district are on the Merry Widow and Blue Jay claims. The richest sample taken from the Merry Widow mine contained more than 2 percent uranium and a sample from the Blue Jay property contained as much as 0.11 percent; samples from the other properties were of lower grade. In the Black Hawk district pitchblende is associated with nickel, silver, and cobalt minerals in fissure veins. The most promising properties in the Black Hawk district are the Black Hawk, Alhambra, and Rose mines. No uranium analyses from this district were available in 1951. There are no known minable reserves of uranium ore in either district, although there is some vein material at the Merry Widow mine of ore grade, if a market were available in the region.

New Mexico↗
USGS1952

Geophysical observations in parts of the Grants District, McKinley County, New Mexico

Geophysical observations near Haystack Mesa in the Grants district, McKinley County, New Mexico, had the dual objective of investigating the unusual occurrence of negative aeromagnetic anomalies in close association with airborne radioactivity anomalies, and of investigating other geophysical methods which might assist directly or indirectly in the search for uranium ores in the Grants district. Ground magnetometer tests indicate the apparent correlation shown in the airborne data is fortuitous. Ground magnetometer and self-potential surveys on an experimental basis may be justified to test the applicability of these methods in future exploration. Aeroagnetic surveys would aid field geologic studies in locating concealed Tertiary intrusives, which may have affected ore localization. Continuation of the airborne radiometric survey of the Todilto limestone outcrop is recommended to search for promising areas that might contain additional deposits.

New Mexico↗
USGS1951

Uranium occurrences on the Blue Jay Claim, White Signal District, Grant County, New Mexico

A discovery of secondary uranium minerals on the Blue Jay claim was reported in 1949 and the occurrence was examined by the authors in March 1950, The Blue Jay claim is about three-fourths of a mile south of White Signal, Grant County, N. Mex. in sees, 23 and 26, T. 20 3., R. 15 W. , New Mexico principal meridian. The Blue Jay claim is underlain by a pre-Cambrian granite mass that was intruded by numerous dikes ranging from rhyolite to basalt in composition. Abnormal radioactivity and secondary uranium minerals occur in altered rocks near oxidized quart z-pyrite veins. Forty-four samples ranged in grade from 0.001 to 0.11 percent uranium. The intermediate and basic rocks seem to have been the more favorable host rocks for the deposition of secondary uranium minerals, possibly because of their higher phosphate content.

New Mexico↗
USGS1951

Apache Trail uranium prospect, White Signal district, Grant County, New Mexico

The Apache Trail uranium prospect in the White Signal district, Grant County. N. Mex., was mapped by the Geological Survey in May 1950. Pre-Cambrian granite is cut by a diabase dike and a parallel quartz-hematite vein, both of which strike easterly and dip 60 to 65 degrees north. Small quantities of copper carbonates and bismuth-gold ore have been mined. The quartz-hematite vein is moderately radioactive and, although no uranium minerals were seen, two samples contained about 0.01 percent uranium. The diabase dike locally contains torbernite. Two samples of diabase contained about 0.04 percent uranium.

New Mexico↗