New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

Private collections and museums throughout the world contain superb mineral specimens from New Mexico. Fabulous specimens of lustrous blue and green smithsonite from the Kelly mine in the Magdalena district are instantly recognizable in collections from London to Tokyo. Many other New Mexico minerals evoke recognition and appreciation for their unique qualities, aesthetics, or rarity. Unfortunately, one factor that sets these outstanding specimens apart from others is that they can no longer be collected, for a variety of reasons. Mine closings, exhaustion of deposits, reclamation, legal restrictions, and other limitations have all contributed to the loss of classic New Mexico mineral specimen locations. Of course, one positive aspect of this situation is that the value of specimens from these locations has markedly increased due to their scarcity.

Appreciation of minerals as specimens by New Mexicans seems to have been negligible during the very active mining era from 1880 to 1910. Consequently, much of the noteworthy material that was produced during that era went to dealers, collectors, and museums in the eastern United States and Europe. Adding to the loss of classic New Mexico minerals was a devastating
fire in 1928 that burned down the Old Main building on the campus of the New Mexico School of Mines in Socorro (Eveleth 1997). This had been the home of a substantial mineral collection that had been assembled, starting at least as early as 1899. No catalog remains, thus no record exists of the specimens in that early collection.

Before 1900 many of the foremost eastern mineral dealers, including George L. English, A. E. Foote, Otto Kuntze, Lazard Cahn, and others, were acquiring and promoting the "fantastic" minerals of New Mexico. Early advertisements in The Mineral Collector, published from 1894 to 1907 in New York, hyped smithsonite from the Kelly mine, wulfenite and cerussite from the Organ Mountains (Stephenson—Bennett mine), vanadinite and descloizite from Lake Valley, "endlichite" from Hillsboro, descloizite from the Mimbres (Commercial mine), copper pseudomorphs after azurite from Georgetown (Rose mine), and rare minerals such as melanotekite from Hillsboro and altaite from the Organ Mountains (Hilltop mine).

The status of some of these classic mineral specimen locations today is as follows:

• Kelly and Graphic mines (smithsonite, aurichalcite). Inaccessible due to caving and unsafe underground conditions.
• Stephenson—Bennett mine (wulfenite and cerussite). Closed to access by Abandoned Mines Program.
• Rose mine (copper pseudomorphs). Remediated in 1992 with access prohibited by Phelps Dodge Corporation.
• S. J. Macy (Percha) mine ("endlichite"). Unsafe underground workings and exhausted specimen occurrences.
• Lake Valley mines (vanadinite and descloizite). Underground workings inaccessible and minerals exhausted.
• Commercial mine (descloizite and vanadinite). Inaccessible due to collapse of decline.

Mining and collector activity in more recent years opened up other "classic" New Mexico locations that have also been obliterated or otherwise lost for various reasons. Some of these more recent classics include:

• Denver shaft (wulfenite). Shaft covered up and site obliterated in 1979.
• Alhambra mine (silver and Ni-skutterudite). Shaft filled in and stock piles obliterated.
• Ground Hog mine (chalcopyrite). Shaft closed and mine flooded in 1981.
• Mina Tiro Estrella (Japan law quartz). Under private claim. Site exhausted.
• Hanover #2 mine (azurite). Adit filled in and closed with metal door.
• Cunningham Hill mine (scheelite). Mine closed and pit flooded.
• Pine Canyon prospect (fluorite). Site reclaimed in 1994.
• Sierra Blanca (smoky quartz). Wilderness area, collecting prohibited.
• Poison Canyon (uranophane, tyuyamunite). Mines closed, area remediated.

On the positive side, there still remain noteworthy New Mexico locations that are today producing classic mineral specimens. Some of these sites are the:

• Hansonburg district (Blanchard, Mex-Tex, and Royal Flush mines producing fluorite,
linarite, spangolite, and other minerals). Open with permission of claim owners.
• San Pedro mine (chalcopyrite, gold, scheelite). Open with permission of owner.
• Bosque Draw (pyrite). Under claim but open with permission of claim owners.
• Mule Creek (amethystine quartz). Various claims but access possible with permission.

There are, of course, many other locations in New Mexico producing or capable of producing outstanding mineral specimens. If history is an example, however, many of these specimens will be underappreciated in our home state and will find their home outside of the area. Isn't it time we give recognition to the marvelous mineral patrimony of New Mexico?

References:

1. Eveleth, R. W., and Lueth, V. W., 1997, A rocky history???The first 100 years of the Mineral Museum in Socorro, New Mexico, USA: New Mexico Geology, v. 19, no. 3, pp. 65-75.
2. The Mineral Collector, 1894-1909, v. 1-15.