DISTRICTS, MINES, AND GEOCHEMISTRY DATABASES IN NEW MEXICO · PDF fileDISTRICTS, MINES, AND...
Transcript of DISTRICTS, MINES, AND GEOCHEMISTRY DATABASES IN NEW MEXICO · PDF fileDISTRICTS, MINES, AND...
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