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Introduction:

The first mining claim in New Mexico was established by Pedro de Abalos in the Fra Cristabal Mountains, Sierra County on March 26, 1685, although mining by the Indians and Spanish occurred before 1685.  Since then, thousands of mines and prospects have been located and numerous names given to the mining districts (File and Northrop, 1966). Minerals have been and still are an important contribution to the economy of New Mexico. More than $30 billion worth of minerals have been produced from New Mexico since the early 1800s (excluding aggregate and common dimension stone). 

For the past 75 years, the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (NMBGMR) has collected information on mining districts in the state of New Mexico.  This information, mostly on paper, is currently being transformed to digital format.  Once this information has been organized into a relational database, a geographical information system (GIS) will be used for storing, modifying, querying, analyzing, and displaying information on mining districts within the geographic space of New Mexico. This report is the first part of that endeavor and includes information from the New Mexico Mines Database on the mining districts in the state, including coal fields and many industrial minerals. The ARC9 files, an ACCESS database, an Adobe Acrobat version of the mining district map, and a report are included. If any errors are found please send the corrections to the senior author.

The New Mexico Mines Database and Mining District Map of New Mexico are intended to provide the best data available on mines and districts in the state. New information is continuously becoming available and should be incorporated into the database as soon as possible. However, funding for this project has and will continue to fluctuate, which affects the completeness and updating of the database.

One of the concerns about releasing these data is that the general public will have ready access to locations of inactive mines and mining districts. Recreation in or around inactive mine sites is extremely dangerous, and can result in serious injury or death. According to MSHA statistics, 106 fatalities involving non-employees have occurred since 1999 at inactive mines throughout the U.S., including 28 through September 2002. Stay out and stay alive!

Files available:

• Report text (530 KB PDF)
• 1:100,000-scale map of New Mexico Mining Districts (513 KB PDF)
• Entire report (via FTP)
    includes:
  • Report text
  • Map
  • Databases
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data and projects

Note: You can also order these files on CD-ROM for $10.

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Revised: 15 April, 2008

© 2007 NMBGMR or as specified

Copyright © 2007 New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources unless otherwise specified.