Opportunities and Challenges for Assessing Critical Mineral Resources Potential Using Legacy Drilling Results, Cave Peak Porphyry Mo Deposit, Texas, USA

The Eocene Cave Peak intrusive complex in western Texas was the site of a major exploration program in the late 1960s, principally for Mo in a porphyry mineral system. Although neither Texas nor the US federal government have protocols for the archiving of data and materials resulting from private sector exploration programs, much of the Cave Peak exploration results has been preserved through a fortuitous series of events. This information was utilized to construct modern 3D geological and mineralization models, serving as an example of the opportunities and challenges of working with legacy data. In addition to Mo and Cu, the Cave Peak system is enriched in the critical raw materials Nb, W, Sn, REE, and F. Despite the limitations and uncertainties of geological and resource models constructed from incomplete and problematic legacy information, such models may serve to accelerate new exploration and evaluation activities for diverse targets in similar geologic terranes. This information may provide an invaluable starting point for current assessments of the US critical mineral resources toward supply chain security.