Mine wastes in new mexico year 3PROJECT period: 8 1 2025 through 7 31 2027AWARD purpose: the purpose of this award for the priority 1 project is to inventory mills, tailings, slags, ORE stockpiles,…

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology received a $344,087.65 cooperative agreement from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073) for the period August 1, 2025 through July 31, 2027. The award supports a three-priority project focused on mine waste inventory and critical minerals assessment in New Mexico. Under Priority 1, the recipient will inventory a minimum of 120 mine waste features—including mills, tailings, slags, ore stockpiles, and smelters—and populate a USGS USMIN (U.S. Mineral Deposits and Resources Online System) ArcGIS Pro database documenting the geographic locations and feature descriptions of solid mine waste materials in New Mexico. Under Priority 2, the recipient will characterize and estimate critical mineral content across several mine waste features by analyzing 179 waste samples submitted to USGS, creating detailed geospatial maps, and developing a geochemical database. Under Priority 3, the recipient will attend the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative workshop to learn new data characterization methodologies.

The cooperative agreement's principal deliverables include an ArcGIS project for USMIN, a final project report, a geochemical database with associated progress reports, and a published technical report. The project directly supports the USGS national mine waste inventory database and addresses the interests of multiple stakeholders, including mining companies operating in New Mexico (New Mexico Copper Corporation, Standard Silver Corp., and Summa Silver Corp.) and rural communities concerned about legacy mine waste contamination and potential resource recovery opportunities.

Activities

Opriority 1: inventory mine waste feature descriptions submitted to usmin in arcgis, final report. A minimum of 120 features in new mexico will be inventoried n 2023-2026.opriority 2: characterize tailings, mine dumps, stockpiles, and slags creating detailed GIS maps, geochemical database to determine the potential of critical minerals in these features. Send 179 waste samples to USGS for analysis. Opriority 3: attend workshop to learn new methods of characterizing the data.expected deliverables or outcomes:opriority 1: arcgis project for usmin and a final reportopriority 2. Geochemical database, progress reports, published technical reportopriority 3: attend workshop.

Intended beneficiaries

A mine waste inventory is needed to complete the USGS usmin national mine waste inventory database of mine wastes in the united states, including new mexico. Several mining companies working in new mexico are interested in understanding the potential for critical minerals of mine wastes on their properties (new mexico copper corporation at copper flat in the hillsboro district, standard silver corp. At steeple rock and black hawk districts, and summa silver corp. At mogollon district). Residents of several small communities in rural new mexico are especially concerned about the legacy mine wastes in their communities, and this inventory will aid in their understanding of the potential contamination and reprocessing of these wastes. In order for this method to be attained, the recipient needs to analyze the features and the mine wastes available.

Subrecipient activities

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