ity within the Dakota to allow passageof the solutions; 4) presence of an impermeable Platinum-groupmetals in NewMexico caprock to contain the solutions, which are thought to have risen stratigraphically dur- by VirginiaT. McLemore, Robeft W. Eveleth, Lynn A. Brandvold,and James M. Robensln ing their migration northward toward the NewMexico Bureau of Minesand Mineral Resources. Socorro. NM 87801 San |uan Basin or westward toward the Gal- lup sag;and 5) availability of organic material in the Dakota to reduce and thereby precip- PGM reported in New Mexico itate the uranium from the rising solutions. Introduction (Blairet al.,1977) The author's observations agree with those Platinum-group metals (PGM) consist of of Piersonand Green (1980). six elements:platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), Tampa mine, Bromide district, AcxNowlrpcrr.rrr.rrs-This report would not rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir), osmium (Os), and Rio Arriba County have been completed without the encour- ruthenium (Ru); platinum and palladium are The Tampa mine in the northern part of agement of Virginia T. Mclemore of the New the most abundant of the group. The PGM the county is one of the largest mines in the Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Re- typically occur together as natural alloys (for Bromide district with a 400-ft shaft and 800- sources. Thanks are owed to Leo E. Little, example, osmiridium-an alloy of osmium 1000ft of drifts (Bingler, 1968).Sulfide re- Manager of the Grand Junction projects of- and iridium) and to a lesserextent as sulfides placement veins containing chalcopyrite, fice of the DOE for accessto the AEC records and arsenides.All the metals are rare (Table molybdenite, pyrite, malachite,and somefree stored in the DOE archives at Grand Junc- 1) and therefore expensive. PGM are used gold occur in schist and granite gneiss of tion. Raymundof. Chico provided somede- primarily as catalysts in the automotive, Precambrianage (Lindgren et al., 1910). tails of the earlv historv of the Diamond No. chemical,and petroleum-refiningindustries "In the Tampamine, assaysfrequently show 2 mine. John Gabelrnan, Chades Pierson, (U.S. Bureauof Mines, 1987). good valuesin platinum; this is the only place Morris Green,and Orin Andersonreviewed Periodicallv. the NMBMMR is asked to in New Mexico where this rare metal is ac- the manuscript; their comments are greatly provide informationon the occurrenceof PGM tually known to exist" (fones, 1904a).Sub- appreciated. in the state.More recently,increasing num- sequentlt fones (1904b, 1908, 1915) and bers of investors are being approachedby Northrop (1959)reported the Tampamine as References speculatorsto invest in alleged PGM-mining a PGM occurrence.However, Lindgren et al. ventures in New Mexico.NO PGM DEPOS- (1910,p. 132)reported that assaysof copper Albrethsen, Holger, Jr., and McGinley, F. E., 1982,Sum- mary history of domestic uranium procurement under ITS ARE CURRENTLY KNOWN IN NEW ore from the Tampa mine show NO DE- U.S. Atomic EnergyCommission contracts, final report: MEXICO THAT CONTAIN CONCENTRA- TECTABLEPLATINUM.Infact, L. C. Graton U.S. Dept. Energy, Rept. GJBX)20(82), 1.62pp. TIONS RICH ENOUGH ANDIOR LARGE deliberately visited the Tampamine with the Chenoweth, W. L.,1977,Uraniumin the SanJuanBasin- an overview: New Mexico Geological Society,Guide- ENOUGH TO ECONOMICALLYMINE (Eve- idea of confirming the presenceof platinum book to 28th Field Conf., pp.257-252. leth and Bieberman,1984) despite numerous as reported previously by fones. He had Chico, R. J.,1959,The geologyof the uranium-vanadium claims to the contrary. It is possiblethat a samples assayedfor platinum, something deposit of the Diamond No. 2 mine, near Gallup, New small amount of PGM could be recovered very rarely requested,by Ledoux & Com- Mexico: Unpublished M.S. thesis, Univ Missouri, Rolla, r24 pp. from the anode slimesproduced from a large pany, probably the best private laboratory at Gabelman,J. W., 1956,Uranium depositsin paludal black porphyry copperdeposit such as Chino. For the time, but no platinum was found (Lind- shales, Dakota Sandstone.San fuan Basin, New Mex- example, the concentratesproduced by In- gren et al., 1910,p. L32,footnote a). ico; in Page. L. R., Stocking, H. E., and Smith, B. B. spiration ConsolidatedCopper in Arizona (compilers), Contributions to the geology of uraniun and thorium by the United States Geological Suroey contained a mathematically calculated Red River district, Taos County andAtomic Energy Commissionfor the United Nations 0.0000028troy oz PGM per ton of ore (Phil- The Red River district, near Red River, International Conferenceon PeacefulUses of Atomic lips, 1980; Eveleth and Bieberman, 1984). consistsof numerous mines and prospects Energy, Geneva, Switzerland, 1955: U.S. Geological There is no documentedproduction of PGM ranging from Precambrianore-bearing quartz Survey, ProfessionalPaper pp. 300, 303-319. from New Mexico. veins (copper,tungsten, gold, silver,and other Gruner,J. W, Gardiner,Lynn, and Smith,D. K.,Jr.,7954, Mineral associationsin the uranium deposits of the Recent$ the U.S. GeologicalSurvey (USGS) ore minerals) to Tertiary ore-bearingveins ColoradoPlateau and adjacentregions, interim report: reprinted a map of reported PGM occur- and disseminated deposits (molybdenite, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Rept. RME-3092, rencesin the conterminousUnited States(Blair galena-sphalerite-chalcopyrite, chalcopyr- TechnicalInlormation Service, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, et al., t977). That report lists UNVERIFIED ite, galena-sphalerite,and pyrite-gold veins) 48 PP' Hilpert, L. 5.,1959, Uranium resourcesof northwestern PGM occurrencesin New Mexico as cited in to Tertiary-Quaternary placer deposits. New Mexico: U.S. GeologicalSuwey, ProfessionalPa- the literature.Not one of those"occurrences" Mineral deposits occur in Precambriangran- per 603, 156pp. has been found to actually contain PGM. ite and metamorphicrocks and Tertiary vol- Landis, E. R., Dane, C. H., and Cobban,W. A., 7973, Stratigraphicterminology of the Dakota Sandstoneand The purpose o{ this report is to briefly canic and intrusive rocks (Schilling, 1960). Mancos Shale,west-central New Mexico: U.S. Ceoloq- summarize and evaluatehistorical reports of In 1910,Fain (1910, p.3) stated,"there are icafSuruey, Bulletin 1372-J, pp.ll-JM. PGM occurrencesin New Mexico and to con- alsoindicationsof. .sperrylite(PtAs,). ." Mclemore, V T., 1983,Uranium industry in New Mex- sider possiblegeologic environments in New in the Red River district. Northrop (1959) ico-history, production, and present status: New MexicoCeology, v. 5, no. 3, pp.'45-51. Mexico thatmight containundiscovered PGM. stated, "I know of no subsequentreport of Mirsky, Arthur, 1953, Preliminary report on uranium this mineral." PGM have yet to be verified rnineralization in the Dakota Sandstone,Zuni uplift, from the Red River district. New Meico: U.S. Atomic EnergyCommission, Rept. TABLE1-Abundance of platinum-groupmetals RME-47, Technical Information Service, Oak Ridge, in crustal rocks (from Greenwood and Earnshaw, Ortiz mine, Old Placersdistrict, Tennessee,21 pp. 1e84). Pierson, C. T., and Green, M. W., 1980,Factors that lo- Santa Fe County calized uranium deposition in the Dakota Sandstone, The Ortiz mine is one of the oldest mines Abundance Gallup and Ambrosia Lake mining districts, McKinley Atomic in the district. The mine is located on the County, New Mexico: U.S. GeologicalSurvey, Bulletin Element Symbol no. (ppm) 1485,31 pp. Cunningham Gulch volcanic vent and fol- Reimer, L. R., 7969, Stratigraphy, paleohydrology, and Palladium Pd 46 0.015 lows an irregular gold-quartz vein as much uranium deposits of Church Rock quadrangle, Mc- Platinum Pt 78 0.01 as 4 ft wide and 1 mi long (Lindgren et al., Kinley County, New Mexico: Unpublished M.S. thesis, Osmium Os 76 0.005 19L0;Elston, 1967).Most of the mining oc- ColoradoSchool of Mines, 254pp. Iridium Ir 77 0.001 curred between1832 and 1870although sev- U.S. Atonic Energy Commission, 1959, Guidebook to Ruthenium RUM 0.0001 eral attempts have been made more recently. uanium deposits of westem United States:U.S. Atomic Rhodium Rh 45 0.0001 Energy Commission,Open-file Rept. RME-141,359 pp. Owen and Cox (1865,p. 15) reported an New Mexico Geology May 1989 analysis of gold from the Ortiz mine as con- Stillwater Complex in Montana containing are a number of localities in the state where taining 99.L70Vagold, 0.782V" silver, and known amounts of platinum and palladium Early Proterozoic mafic and, much more 0.0487'iridium. This report is more detailed were used as in-housestandards io confirm rarelv, ultramafic rocks occur. Someareas are than most that mention occurrencesof PGM that PGM couldbe detectedby standardan- Pecosgreenstone belt, Sangre de Cristo in New Mexico; however, no one since has alyticalmethods. Selected samples were an- Mountains (Wyman, 1980;Robertson and vedfied the presenceof PGM in this district. alvzed bv two or more different methods in Moench, 1979); and Tijeras-Hell Canyon The assaymethods in 1865were not as ac- oider to-address the question of interfer- greenstone belt, Manzanita-Manzano curateas thoseused todav nor was the assav ences.The NMBMMR and a number of rep- Mountains (Cavin et al., 1982). Mafic and method reported by Ow-enand Cox (1865j. utablecommercial labs have yet to detectPGM especially ultramafic rocks in these areas Iridium, along with ruthenium, is the most in any New Mexico samples. should be examinedfor PGM. difficult of the PGM's to determine and this assayis open to question. Assay Methods for PGM Alkalic Rocks Early methods used for determining PGM Very little information exists on PGM ficarilla district, Lincoln County (fire assay, colorimetric, gravimetric) were occurrencesin alkalicrocks (Mutschler et al., The Jicarilladistrict consistsof Tertiary- inexact, subiect to interferences,and re- 1985),but PGM values have been obtained Quaternary placer deposits,Tertiary vein quired that the elementsbe present in the from sulfide ores associatedwith alkalic rock deposits of pyrite, quartz, copper, gold in ppm range for detection.In the 1950'sand suites in British Columbia, Washington, monzonite and monzonite porphyry, and 1960's,arc emissionspectrography was used Montana, and Colorado(Finch et al., 1983).