New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

There are minerals from mining districts of New Mexico that were unreported in Minerals of New Mexico by Stuart A. Northrop. This is also the case in the third edition by Florence A. LaBruzza. This paper is an attempt to report some of them and also to show a few minerals from places not mentioned at all.

Aragonite—Cibola County at the Mirbal mine in Diner Canyon. Found in granite and associated with barite, fluorite, and native silver.

Augite--Catron County west of Pueblo Park. The location is 8 mi west of Pueblo Park and on the sides of Forest Road 232 below Saddle Mountain. Found as small and medium crystals in basalt on the side of road. The only other reference to augite for Catron County, in Northrop, is in the Mogollon district.

Aurichalcite—Grant County about 2 mi west of the junction on NM-152 from Hanover. A gravel road goes north to a gravel-pit operation. The location is close to the highway on the north side of the road where some prospect pits are west of the gravel operation road and its junction with NM-152. Aurichalcite occurs with grossular garnets and barite in the rock on the slag piles of the prospect pits.

Beryl (Aquamarine)—Cibola County at East Grants Ridge. Found in the form of small rounded masses in rhyolite and associated with red garnets (spessartine) and topaz.

Calcite—Pecos mine at Willow Creek, San Miguel district. Found as crystals covered with a dusting of malachite and associated with pyrite, actinolite, and tourmaline variety schorl. Northrop mentions calcite at the Rociada and Tecolote districts.

Calcite (variety travertine)—a short distance west of Twin Buttes at the west end of Gallup.

Chlorite—Zuni Mountains district at the west end of the range. Associated with epidote and milky quartz.

Epidote—McKinley County, Zuni Mountains in the western end of the district. Found in both crystal and massive forms and associated with chlorite and quartz.

Halotrichite--Becenti mine located on the Sundance Coal mine road 6 mi southeast of Gallup. Associated with carnotite.

Hematite—Cibola County around Bluewater Lake. Found on the southeast side of the lake. Pseudomorphs after pyrite and magnetite.

Hematite (variety specularite)—around Red Lake north of Navajo. Associated with pyrope and olivine.

Manganocalcite—Grant County on the dumps north of Fierro. Associated with andradite and magnetite.

Marcasite—San Juan County along US-666 north of Little Water. Associated with dogtooth calcite in weathered basalt. Also found in ball-like formation in a mine on the east side of the Hogsback formation near Gallup. (see halotrichite). Also associated with coal in McKinley County.

Molybdenite—Grant County, Pinos Altos district. Found in both crystal and massive forms and associated with pyrite. Molybdenite at this locality is not cited in Northrop.

Olivine (Peridot)—Catron County north of Luna in the S. A. Creek area at Black Gap. Associated with pumice. (Black Gap and Forest Road 6 and Kurrath road). Also found in the basalt at the Twin Buttes formation near Gallup and in basalt on the Zuni River (junction of NM-53 and ETA 4).

Pyrite—Georgetown district on the dumps. Associated with vanadinite and descloizite. Pyrite is not cited in Northrop for Georgetown district.
Quartz—McKinley County west end of the Zuni Mountains. Milky quartz associated with epidote and chlorite.

Rhodonite—Bear Mountain area north of Silver City. Massive form. The rhodonite is in an unidentified black mineral. Rhodonite is mentioned in Northrop as found in the Fleming district.

Stibnite—Grant County, Pinos Altos district north of Silver City. Found in a boulder along the highway north of the village, just near where the split pavement from the village comes back together.

Turquoise—Hanover Mountain above Fierro. Found on a dump on the northeast side. The turquoise is always weathered white, but some large samples sometimes have a blue center. It is usually too soft to use for anything. When an oil is put on specimens, they turn blue but are still too soft to work. Associated with malachite and azurite.