DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MISCELLANEOUS FIELD STUDIES UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY MAP MF-1570-A PAMPHLET MINERAL RESOURCE POTENTIAL OF THE COLUMBINE-HONDO WILDERNESS STUDY AREA, TAGS COUNTY, NEW MEXICO By Steve Ludington, U. S. Geological Survey, John P. Briggs, U. S. Bureau of Mines, and James M. Robertson, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources STUDIES RELATED TO WILDERNESS Under the provisions of the Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577, September 3, 1964) and the Joint Conference Report on Senate Bill 4, 88th Congress, the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Bureau of Mines have been conducting mineral surveys of wilderness and primitive areas. Areas officially designated as "wilderness," "wild," or "canoe" when the act was passed were incorporated into the National Wilderness Preservation System, and some of them are currently being studied. The act provided that areas under consideration for wilderness designation should be studied for suitability for incorporation into the Wilderness System. The mineral surveys constitute one aspect of the suitability studies. The act directs that the results of such surveys are to be made available to the public and be submitted to the President and the Congress. This report discusses the results of a mineral survey of the Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area in the Carson National Forest, Taos County, N. Mex. The Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area was established by Public Law 96-550, December 19, 1980; it was earlier classified as a further planning area (B3032) during the Second Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE n), by the U. S. Forest Service, January 1979. MINERAL RESOURCE POTENTIAL SUMMARY STATEMENT Two areas, one adjacent to, and one within the Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area, have high potential for the occurrence of stockwork molybdenum deposits. These areas are bordered by regions of moderate potential for stockwork molybdenum deposits that include parts of the study area. Two regions within the study area have moderate potential for massive sulfide deposits. Two small areas, one within, and one partially within the study area, have moderate potential for small, low-grade gold- and silver-bearing epithermal vein deposits. GEOLOGIC SETTING LOCATION AND ACCESS The study area lies in the Sangre de Cristo The Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area Mountains, an uplifted block, which is bounded on the (fig. 1), in north-central New Mexico, covers about west by a series of structural depressions that make up 46,000 acres (186 km2) of the Carson National Forest the Rio Grande rift. On the east, the area is separated in Taos County. from the high plains by several lower uplands and The area extends from the mountain front on the mountain blocks. Present relief and topography is due east side of the Rio Grande Valley to the crest of the largely to Neogene and post-Neogene uplift. Sangre de Cristo Mountains, though the highest peaks In the study area, the range is composed are in the central part of the study area, west of the primarily of Precambrian rocks, partly mantled by range crest. The area is drained on the south by the mid-Tertiary volcanic rocks. Both the Precambrian Rio Hondo and its tributaries and on the north and east rocks and the Tertiary volcanic rocks are intruded by by the Red River and its tributaries. Elevation ranges rocks of Tertiary age that exhibit a wide range of from 12,711 ft (3,874 m) on Gold Hill to about 7,800 ft compositions. (2,380 m) at the point where the Rio Hondo emerges The Precambrian rocks are of volcanic, from the mountains. Access is via New Mexico sedimentary, and intrusive origin, and of medium to Highway 38 up the Red River on the north and New high metamorphic grade. They are believed to be of Mexico Highway 150 up the Rio Hondo on the south, Proterozoic X age (1.7 to 1.8 billion years), though no both paved. A U. S. Forest Service road skirts the radiometric ages are available. eastern margin of the area, and several U. S. Forest Along an approximately 5-mi (8-km) wide, Service roads provide access to the western margin northeast-trending zone, centered approximately on from New Mexico Highway 3. the Rio Hondo, some of the metamorphic rocks exhibit 105°30' COLUMBINE- HONDO WILDERNES STUDY AREA 10 MILES I i 0 5 10 15 KILOMETERS Figure 1, -- Index map showing location of the Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area. retrograde greenschist facies assemblages and area were patented between 1897 and 1922. cataclastic textures. These features may be related to For the purpose of discussion of existing mineral the Jemez zone of crustal weakness of Precambrian deposits and prospects, the area has been subdivided ancestry, which has been an important control of late into 10 mineralized locales (fig. 2). Further details, Cenozoic plutonism and tectonism (Lipman and and the analytical data from the U. S. Bureau of Mines Mehnert, 1979). are found in Briggs (1982). The Tertiary igneous rocks include parts of the Latir volcanic field and intrusive rocks associated with Rio Hondo Mining District the Latir field (Lipman, 1981). Rocks of the Latir field include basalt to quartz latite lava flows, The Rio Hondo district contains seven overlain by a welded ash-flow sheet of rhyolite erupted mineralized locales (fig. 2); they are, clockwise from during the collapse of the Questa caldera. A few the northeast: rhyolite flows overlie the ash-flow tuff. 1. West Fork Workings in the West Fork locale Within the study area, only a few volcanic rocks explore quartz-pyrite veins in Precambrian quartzites are preserved. Perhaps one third of the study area is and o.mphibole and mica schists. Gold and silver were underlain by Tertiary intrusive rocks related to the detected in two dump samples collected in this area. Latir field; they range in composition from basalt to 2. Gold Hill-Long Canyon Three types of mineralized rhyolite and form plutons, dikes, and sills. The major structures are present in the Gold Hill-Long Canyon features are the Columbine-Hondo pluton, composite locale. Most workings explore precious-metal bearing in detail, but predominantly quartz monzonite, and a quartz veins and pods in Precambrian rocks. A caved large, predominantly rhyolitic dike swarm. adit on Gold Hill appears to be driven on a northeast- trending shear zone which contains base-metal sulfides MINES, MINING DISTRICTS, AND with gold and silver. Lenses of magnetite in quartz- MINERALIZED AREAS biotite schist and diabase were explored in a 300 ft (91 m) adit. Assay results from chip samples taken in this Introduction area show that small amounts of gold and silver are present in some workings. The Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area and 3. Amizette The Amizette workings explored quartz vicinity have been the site of considerable mining veins along contacts between Tertiary quartz activity. Placer mining in the region dates from 1866 monzonite and Precambrian amphibolite. Assay and lode mining from 1867. Only in the 1890's, when results show trace amounts of gold, as much as 0.4 prospecting and mining efforts focused on gold and oz/ton (14 g/t) silver, and up to 0.39 percent copper in silver lode deposits, did the mining camps at Red samples taken from this area. River, Twining, and Amizette flourish. By 1905, the 4. South Fork Workings in the South Fork locale boom had died, although short-lived periods of renewed explore narrow silver-, copper-, and gold-bearing shear activity occurred about 1910, 1920, and 1930 zones trending N. 60° W. that mark the contact (Schilling, I960). between Tertiary quartz monzonite and Precambrian Most of the mining activity took place in the amphibolite. Assay results from several chip samples northeast part and around the northeast perimeter of show small amounts of gold and silver. the study area. Production was recorded principally 5. Rio Hondo An east-trending shear zone extends from placer deposits along Red River and Rio Hondo into the southern tip of the study area. Small amounts and from the Caribel, Jayhawk, and Silver King mines of gold, silver, and copper are contained in chip and (Schilling, I960; U. S. Bureau of Mines, unpub. channel samples from this area. production records). Despite the extensive 6. Arroyo Hondo The Arroyo Hondo locale development, value of production probably did not encompasses the Gallina Creek and Lobo Creek exceed $20,000 between 1900 and 1930. drainages. Silver, copper, and trace amounts of gold Current significant mining activities include a are present in the mineralized area. large molybdenum mine (Questa; fig. 4) north of the 7. San Cristobal The principal working in the San study area, which has been in continuous production Cristobal locale is the Iowa lode (Briggs, 1982). An since 1922. In addition, several mining companies have inclined shaft follows a 1 to 6 ft (0.3 to 2 m) thick conducted exploration programs over the last few shear zone in quartzite. Sample assays indicate the years, both for molybdenum and for base- and presence of silver, copper, and minor gold. precious-metals, principally in the southwest part of the study area. Red River Mining District The Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area encompasses the northern half of the Rio Hondo Production from the Red River mining district mining district and the southern half of the Red River between 1897 and 1922 amounted to 2,539 tons (2,303 mining district (fig. 2). t) of ore containing 262 oz (8,150 g) of gold (U. S. The earliest claims in the area probably predate Bureau of Mines, unpub. production records). Average the 1872 mining law. Of 1,080 unpatented mining grade was 0.1 oz/ton (3.43 g/t) of gold and 2.15 oz/ton claims (1,030 lode and 50 placer) in or near the area, (73.7 g/t) of silver.