1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Blanca District

Past Producer in Costilla county in Colorado, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Copper, Tungsten, Molybdenum
Map
XML
JSON
KML
B
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Mineral occurrence model information
  8. Host and associated rocks
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Geologic structures
  11. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  12. Mining district
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10311019
Record type District
Current site name Blanca District
Alternate or previous names Sierra Blanca, Blanca Peak

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -105.48779, 37.57169 (WGS84)

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Costilla(county)

Colorado(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Blanca Peak(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Blanca Peak(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Trinidad(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

San Luis(hydrologic unit)

Rio Grande Headwaters(hydrologic accounting unit)

Rio Grande Headwaters(hydrologic subregion)

Rio Grande(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Colorado Costilla

Comments on the location information

  • District includes the top of Blanca Peak (14,345 ft. elev.), and surrounding area in Alamosa, Costilla, and Huerfano counties.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Primary
Copper Secondary
Tungsten Critical Primary
Molybdenum Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Scheelite shoots in veins are not associated with gold and silver minerals. Gold is associated with pyrite. Silver associated with red-gray mineral.

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Pyrite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Galena Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Tetrahedrite Ore
Wolframite Ore
Sylvanite Ore
Calaverite Ore
Hessite Ore
Pearceite Ore
Quartz Gangue
Calcite Gangue
Ankerite Gangue
Barite Gangue
Adularia Gangue
Chalcopyrite Trace

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 82
USGS model code 22
Deposit model name Epithermal veins

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Gneiss
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Paleoproterozoic
  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granodiorite
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Paleoproterozoic

Nearby scientific data

(1) -105.48779, 37.57169
ListMap

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure name NNW-trending fault controlled veins
Structure description veins

Comments on the geologic information

  • Mineralized quartz vein trends N30W. The vein is exposed for over 5 km along strike (Ellis and others, 1983). The vein and its main branch have over 1000 m of development.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Underground
Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Significant No

Mining district

District name Blanca District

Comments on the production information

  • Vanderwilt (1947) noted that production was limited to few trial shipments of ore in 1928 and 1934. Ellis and others (1983) estimate a total of 400 oz. gold and 7,000 oz silver were removed from the ground but were not able to determine how much was actually recovered.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Almost every sample taken on the vein system by the USBM for its wilderness assessment (Ellis and others, 1983) contained gold. Average grade was about 0.10 oz/ton gold and 2.0 oz/ton silver. Tungsten values are generally low.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Ellis, C.E., Hannigan, B.J., and Thompson, J.R., 1983, U.S. Bureau of Mines MLA 65-83, 190 p.

  • Deposit

    Vanderwilt, J.W., 1947, Mineral resources of Colorado: State of Colorado Mineral Resources Board, 547 p.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 28-FEB-2005 Keller, John W. Colorado Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Colorado resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.