New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

The Steeple Rock Silver/Gold Mining District lies in southwestern New Mexico 15 miles east of the town of Duncan, Arizona. During the last decade, exploration activity and drilling has been carried out by several companies including Inspiration, Pioneer, Nova Gold, FMC, Mount Royal, Sutel and Queenstake. Also Steeple Rock has been the object of prospecting by individuals, satellite imagery interpretation by the Imperial College in London, and fluid inclusion/gas geochemistry analysis at New Mexico Tech.

Compilation of all this work indicates that the. alteration and mineral zoning in the Steeple Rock District, the depositional temperatures and the structural features are similar to other "bonanza" vein, volcanic hosted epithermal systems in which new discoveries are being made throughout the world.

Current small scale mining occurs at the Center Mine on the Carlyle Vein system which is producing flux ores for smelters in Arizona and New Mexico.

Further potential in the district includes the summit Mine area: (1) underground mining for silver/gold ores (smelter flux) delineated by Inspiration and Nova Gold drilling and underground workings and (2) possible open pit mining of lower grade vein surface ores. The East Camp Vein system and others offer similar possibilities.

Clay data, geochemical sampling results, mineral zoning patterns, volcanic features and fluid inclusion values indicate a possible fossil heat and volcanic center immediately north of the intersection of the summit Vein/East Camp structural system, the Carlyle structural trend and the north-south structural trend shown by the Imperial and Jim Crow veins. These features indicate a possible boiling-upwelling zone that is an exploration target for bonanza gold ores.

Additional work is necessary in the Steeple Rock District to detail (1) the volcanic history of the area, (2) alteration zoning and its relationship to the structural features, (3) hydrothermal model and epithermal fluid flow patterns and (4) targets for further exploration.