Mineral resources of the Big Hatchet Mountains Wilderness Study Area, Hidalgo County, New Mexico

The Big Hatchet Mountains Wilderness Study Area has low resource potential for copper, lead, silver, zinc, uranium, oil and gas, coal, and industrial rocks and minerals. This study area includes two subeconomic deposits of lead, silver, and zinc; and is underlain primarily by Paleozoic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks that are mildly folded, faulted, and are raised to form a prominent mountain mass. Geological, geochemical, and geophysical reconnaissance studies indicate that this area contains a hydrothermal system which, however, is viewed as small, too dispersed along a fault zone, and perhaps too distant from an igneous source to offer much potential for the presence of economically attractive deposits. Two deposits that had been mined were studied in greater detail and found to be sub-economic. Gypsum prospects were found to be in tectonic pods and thus promise to be small and mostly inaccessible. Limestone suitable for cement is probably abundantly present, as it is in many nearby ranges.