Page 97 - The Geology and Ore Deposits of Sierra County, New Mexico - Bulletin 10

96 GEOLOGY AND ORE DEPOSITS OF SIERRA CO., N. M.
CLIFF-L-EMBOLITE GROUP
South of Palomas Creek at the junction of the Palomas Chief fault and the Pelican fault is a group of claims known as the Cliff-L-Embolite group. There are no shafts on this property, and the workings consist of approximately 4,000 feet of tunnels and drifts. Some high-grade ore has been removed from these workings at the junctions of east-west fractures with the main breaks, but it seems to be the opinion locally that the main junc- tion between the Palomas Chief and Pelican faults has not been sufficiently explored for the indicated possibilities.
PELICAN GROUP
On the north side of the creek along the Pelican fault is the Pelican group of claims, from which the largest production in the district has come. This group consists of four patented claims, which cover the outcrop of the northward-trending Peli- can and Bullfrog faults and their intersections with the main cross fracture on the north side of Palomas Creek, known as the Kendall break. Numerous tunnels on these claims extend into the side of the hill at the level of the ore horizon, which is 60 feet or more above the level of the creek. These tunnels have followed the north-south fractures, of which there are a large number be- tween the major breaks, and crosscuts from them prospect all of the east-west breaks that were encountered. Wherever traces of ore were found these were closely followed, and in many places the effort expended in tracing out these tortuous stringers was rewarded by uncovering a shoot or pocket of the typical high- grade ore of the district. Most of these pockets of ore were found at the intersections of the two sets of fractures, and any- where in a vertical distance of 100 feet, although most of them were found in a bed of limestone about 20 feet under the shale horizon. On the west side of the Pelican fault, the Pelican shaft, with collar 50 feet above the creek level, is 150 feet deep, and its bottom is 164 feet lower than the tunnels of the ore horizon and 120 feet west of the Pelican fault at that elvation. This shaft passed through a bed of shale, and in the underlying limestone it encountered numerous stringers of high-grade ore. The ground here is well fractured, and above the shale the shaft passed through much silicified limestone and stringers of quartz with some showings of lead. It is said that the ground passed through in this shaft was typical of the silicified and fractured rock seen on the surface over the highly productive area east of the Pelican fault. It is probable that where this shaft has penetrated the limestone under the lower shale it is too far away from the Peli- can fault and from the intersection of that fault with the Kendall break to be in the best prospecting ground. Should high-grade ore be found in commercial quantities at the lower level, there appears to be no reason why another and perhaps more extensive ore horizon should not exist under the Percha shale, which is esti- mated to be about 500 feet below the bottom of the Pelican shaft and within reasonable prospecting distance from this level.