Open-file Report - 617
Geology and mineral deposits of the Gallinas Mountains, Lincoln and Torrance Counties, New Mexico

The growing market for alternative technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric cars, desalination plants, and carbon capture and storage require non-traditional elements for their manufacture. In December 2017, President Trump signed an executive order (U.S. Presidential Executive Order (EO) No. 13817) that required the Departments of Interior and Defense to develop a list of critical minerals. In May 2018, the U.S. Department of the Interior published its final list of 35 critical minerals. As defined by EO No. 13817, “a critical mineral is a mineral (1) identified to be a nonfuel mineral or mineral material essential to the economic and national security of the United States, (2) from a supply chain that is vulnerable to disruption, and (3) that serves an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have substantial consequences for the U.S. economy or national security”. Many critical minerals are 100% imported into the United States. These mineral resources are essential to our economy and have supply chains that may be disrupted (Committee on Critical Mineral Impacts of the U.S. Economy, 2008; Subcommittee on Critical and Strategic Mineral Supply Chains Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Sustainability, 2018).

Rare earth elements (REE) are one group of critical minerals that are essential in most of our electronic devices, such as cell phones, laptops, computer chips, wind turbines, hybrid/electric cars, etc. (Committee on Critical Mineral Impacts of the U.S. Economy, 2008; Long et al., 2010; McLemore, 2011, 2015b). Other developing technologies such as solar panels, water purification and desalination systems, magnetic refrigeration, and efficient light bulbs also require REE and other critical elements in their manufacture. Most of the current world production of REE comes from China, but the U.S. has significant REE resources that could be developed in the future. Established REE deposits are located in New Mexico (Long et al., 2010; McLemore, 2015b), such as those in the Gallinas Mountains, but they have not been important exploration targets in the past because demand has been met elsewhere. However, with the projected increase in demand and potential lack of available REE production from China, the New Mexico deposits are being re-evaluated for their potential, and several areas are undergoing current exploration.

Many REE deposits are common in carbonatites and alkaline igneous rocks and are associated with alkaline metasomatism, known as fenitization. Therefore, re-examination of the REE deposits in the Gallinas Mountains in northern Lincoln and southern Torrance Counties is warranted in light of today’s potential economic importance of REE. A series of alkaline igneous rocks, including trachyte, syenite, andesite, and rhyolite laccoliths, sills, and dikes, have intruded Permian sedimentary rocks in the Gallinas Mountains and have potential for REE (Kelley et al., 1946; Kelley, 1949; Kelley, 1971, 1972; Perhac, 1961, 1970). A small amount of bastnäsite (671 short tons), a REE fluorocarbonate mineral, was recovered during historic processing for fluorite. Host rock alteration types recognized previously, are associated with the igneous intrusions, and include brecciation, silicification, and fenitization (Griswold, 1959; Perhac, 1961, 1970; Woodward and Fulp, 1991; Schreiner, 1993). Small skarns are found in limestones and sandstones within the Yeso Formation adjacent to the trachyte, syenite, and rhyolite (exoskarn) or within the trachyte (endoskarn).

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