Jicarilla
Deposit type & geology
Great Plains Margin alkaline veins, iron skarn, and placer.
Late Eocene–early Oligocene granodiorite/monzonite laccolith (Lincoln County porphyry belt) intruding Yeso/San Andres limestone.
Age: ~37–40 Ma.
Structural geology & terrain
Vein/structure orientation: N–NE trending veins, less than 2 m wide
Named controlling structure: Not identified in accessible sources
Elevation range: 6,800–7,800 ft
Rough terrain, steep canyons, Lincoln National Forest, gravel-road access.
High-resolution terrain
~6 m/pixel lidar-derived hillshade (USGS 3DEP) — fine enough to reveal old mine workings, waste-rock piles, trenches, and roads the statewide terrain layer can’t show.
Historical production
Widely conflicting figures, none reconciled by sources: $63,500 (1933–42) + ~$90,000 (through 1931) per USGS Bull. 1308; ~$145,000 total per NMBGMR Circular 5; ~8,000 oz placer per NMGS Guidebook 42; a 1936 in-ground resource estimate (not production) of ~230,000 oz. A separate, more precisely-dated McLemore compilation (SME Preprint 15-084) gives yet another figure: 22,857 troy oz lode gold, 37,561 oz silver, and 4.2 million lb copper, 1912–1957. Treat any single number here with caution — this is this map's clearest example of unreconciled source disagreement.
Sources: USGS Bull. 1308 (Segerstrom & Ryberg 1974); NMBGMR Circular 5; NMGS Guidebook 42; NMBGMR placer gold resources page; EMNRD permit listing researched — see sources
Current status
Recreational panning reportedly continues intermittently — NMBGMR names Jicarilla as one of five NM districts with ongoing recreational panning today (with White Oaks, Pittsburg, Hillsboro, and Orogrande). An EMNRD permit record (“Wolf Energy Jicarilla Project,” LI034EM/LU034EM) exists but its target commodity, acreage, and approval status could not be confirmed from the available filing.
Recency not verified
An EMNRD permit record ("Wolf Energy Jicarilla Project," LI034EM/LU034EM) exists, but its filing date, target commodity, and approval status could not be confirmed from the available filing.
Land ownership & directions
U.S. Forest Service land — open to mineral entry under the 1872 Mining Law, but surface use is regulated by the Forest Service and may include wilderness-adjacent or sensitive-area restrictions.
Lincoln National Forest. ~20 mi NE of Carrizozo off US-54.
See specimen photos (mindat.org) → — this app doesn’t host specimen photos itself; this searches mindat.org’s own mineral-specimen database, which isn’t necessarily specific to this exact district.
This pin is a generalized district/historic-site reference point, not a surveyed claim boundary — routes may cross private or patented inholdings where public access isn’t guaranteed even if a road reaches the site. Backcountry mine areas commonly have unmarked shafts, unstable ground, and no cell service; confirm current access and safety conditions (land manager, county, or landowner) before heading out.
Tailings reprocessing potential
Placer-dominant with only limited, low-tonnage lode milling — less tailings volume than the vein/skarn districts on this map. NMBGMR notes this as one of the few districts where recreational panning continues today.
This is a documentary heuristic, not assay data.The tier above is inferred from historic production era, processing method, and ore character already cited elsewhere on this page — nobody has sampled or assayed this district’s tailings as part of this research. Actual recoverable gold content can only be established by physical sampling.
Reprocessing tailings is regulated mining. Disturbing or reprocessing historic mill waste requires the same NM Mining Act permitting as new mining (see the regulatory companion guide), regardless of who currently holds the claim or surface rights — and ownership of the tailings material itself is a separate legal question from mineral rights on the underlying land.
Legacy tailings can be hazardous. Pre-modern processing commonly used mercury (amalgamation) or cyanide (heap leach), and can carry elevated arsenic and other heavy metals — not a casual sampling target, and disturbing contaminated material can carry real environmental liability.
Geologist’s read
Flagged here mainly as a data-quality example: four independent sources give production figures spanning more than an order of magnitude, and none of them explain why. Worth a primary-document check (USGS Bull. 1308 in full) before relying on any single figure.