Santa Fe NM prospecting

[ezrider2]

Going to be in Santa Fe for bit. Is there any place to take a pan and shovel and dig that is public/blm land? Be great to get some dirt from the area!

 

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[arizau]

Here is some info for you. http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1348/report.pdf

Go to page 6 here for recorded gold occurrence in Santa Fe County. Mineral Location Search All of these entries are listed by County.

San Miguel County is not far and is to the East and also has some entries.

No idea what the land status for any are.

There was a commercial gold (and maybe copper) prospect that was under consideration back in the 70's by the mining company I worked for. As I recall some company did develop it and I also think there were placers in the area too. It was SW of Santa Fe and may be one of the listed ones on the Mindat site above. Some of the best and prettiest turquoise also comes from that general area.

Have fun and enjoy my home state, The Land of Enchantment.

 

[RonnyB]

I was traveling through that area in the early 90's and came across a place called the Harmon mine near Santa Fe. If you go to the local University they will give you permission to go on site and directions. No gold that I am aware of but for years it was one of the few places in the world to find Purple lepidolite that was used in making stained glass. When I was there I found a bucket load of fine tumbling specimens in and around the tailings. Granite pegmatite outcroppings in and around the mine are also good places to look. The colors run from deep purple to lilac to pink and salmon. I don't know that they are worth anything but they tumble up really nice and some people make cabochons from them as specimens tend to have microchips of mica embedded in them.

 

[hvacker]

You can pick up a BLM map for $10. This State has got huge amount of public lands that are available and 15000 abandoned mines.