Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1897-12-09
SIERRA MINERAL DEPOSITS
A Kansas City Expert Describes For
nation in Southwestern Part of
Territory for New Mexican.
INTERESTING, INSTRUCTIVE, SCIENTIFIC
Geology of Mountains in Which Are
Rich Deposits of Gold, Silver,
Copper, Lead, Iron, Marble
and Fire-clay.

Mr.. Edwin Walters, mining expert
from Kansas City, who has made a thor
ough examination of the country and
mineral deposits of eastern Sierra county,
was in the city, and, in speaking of that
part of New Mexico to representative
of the NEW MEXICAN, said:
GAS the traveller especially the nom
resident traveler-views New Mexico from
the window Of Pullman or chair car he
is almost certain to receive wrong i'm
presslons of the country traversed.
"In no part of this territory does this
remark more aptly apply than to the
eastern portion of Sierra county-the
region of the Jornada del Muerto and the
Csballo range. Who would expect. after
casual observation, that here is district
aboundiDg in mineral wealth? Yet such
is the case. The Caballo range lie imme-
diately east of the Rio Grande and paral-
lei With it for 50 miles.
"In these mountains are rich deposits of
copper, lead, iron, limestone, marble and
fire-olay. Flanking them on the east is
feld rich in coal, beginning about ~
miles southeast of Engle. Through the
field, which is known to comprise many
thousand acres, there are two veins of
coal. In portion of the field, toward
the north end, there are four veins of
coal. The thickness of the veins vary
from 30 to 10 inohes. The quality of the
coal is first-class. One vein yields 78 per
cent of very fine coke. Several citizens
of the territory have located this valuable
field and are confident of developing it in
the near future. They have been pros.
pecting this coal for years.
"The formations of the Caballo noun
tains are mostly limestone. The united
thickness of these limestones are not less
than 5000 feet. They comprise the upper
siuriap, the devonian entire, the car
boniferous and the permian. But strange
to say, the coal is all on the last Hank of
the mountains and in the cretaoious sand.
stones-belng on the same geological
horizon as are the coal veins of Los Ger
rillos and Madrid. The carboniferous
imestones are 30 we'll developed in the
Caballos thht one wonld naturally exp pect
to find coal in their intermediate shales as
it OCCURS in the coal fields of the east, but
such is not the case.
"The principal copper belt in the Ca
ballos is on the west side of the range
between the axis of the mountains and
the Rio Grande. It is about Is miles
long. Prospectors have lately located it
for most of the distance. The geological
axis of the range is granite, which was
thrown up through the thousands of feet
of the above described limestones. Parsl-
leling this axis, and from 400 to 1000
faa 10 1v,t thak io
from 20 to $50 feet wide on the surface.
Between this granite and quartzite, which
both have broken the limestone strata
for vertical distance of thousands of
feet, is the copper in parallel veins run.
ming through the limestone formations
usually silurian. In many places the
copper ore is in a matrix of porphyry
which is more or less decomposed. This
condition will, no doubt, be found to
exist throughout the belt when depth is
reached. These copper ores vary from
azurite, carbon dioxides, and sulphides to
copper glance. 1t seems probable, how
ever, that sulphides will be the predomi-
mating ore with depth.
"The few score carloads that have been
shipped show values in copper usually
from II to AZ per cent, with some gold
and silver. The best sample gave cop
per 3411a per cent, gold SIG and silver 13
ounces.
son the east side of the Ceballos is
wide lode of calc, -four and heavy spar,
together with some decomposed quartz,
which carries great values in lead in the
form of sulphide or galena. This lode is
from four to 90 feet wide and fully 12 per
cent of the entire mass is galena. AS this
material can be mined for 81 per ton,
here are a number of splendid concep-
trating propositions.
"Here is truly an inviting field for coke
ovens, matte furnaces and concentrators.
With the abundance of coking coal, good
ores and fuxing materials within radi-
US of two or three miles, it would seem
that the district should become an i'm
portant one in our great territory whose
material resources are destined to attract
the attention that they so richly merit"