POTENTIAL FOR LARAMIDE PORPHYRY COPPER DEPOSITS IN SOUTHWESTERN NEW MEXICO AND TRANS-PECOS TEXAS

Abstract

New Mexico lies at the eastern edge of one of the world’s great metal-bearing provinces, where there are eight known Laramide porphyry copper deposits in New Mexico: Santa Rita, Tyrone (Burro Mountains district), Little Rock (Burro Mountains district), Copper Flat (Hillsboro district), Hanover-Hermosa Mountain (Fierro-Hanover district), Lone Mountain, Gold Lake (White Signal district), and McGhee Peak (Peloncillo Mountains). Additional Laramide skarn and polymetalic vein deposits in New Mexico formed in Paleozoic limestones and dolomitic limestones adjacent to calc-alkaline plutonic rocks emplaced during the Laramide compressional event; most of these areas have potential for additional porphyry copper deposits. FIGURE 1. Laramide porphyry copper deposits in southwestern United States and northern Mexico.