A study of abandoned mine lands in New Mexico

Abstract

Abandoned mines (AML) are lands that were mined and left unreclaimed where no individual or company has reclamation responsibility and there is no closure plan in effect. These may consist of excavations, either caved in or sealed, that have been deserted and where future mining is not intended. The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (NMBGMR) and the Mineral Engineering Department at New Mexico Tech is conducting research to develop a better procedure to inventory and characterize legacy, inactive, or abandoned mine features in New Mexico. The object of this study was to inventory a number of abandoned mine features in the North Magdalena District in Socorro County, New Mexico and the Jicarilla District and Gallinas District in Lincoln County, New Mexico. This inventory was conducted by means of recording field observations according to the procedure already used by the program, soil petrography of composite dump samples, and paste pH analysis of said samples. This work served to identify environmental hazards in the two districts, which contributed to the goals of the AML program.