Page 6 - Geologic Investigations in the Lake Valley Area, Sierra County, New Mexico

IV
PREFACE
The Caballo Resource Area is a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) designated region that includes all of Sierra and Otero Counties, south-central New Mexico. Within this resource area of more than 33,790 square kilometers, nearly one-fourth of the land is administered by the BLM. At the request of the BLM, the area of the historic Lake Valley mining district and townsite, at the southeastern margin of the Black Range of western Sierra County, New Mexico, was evaluated for its potential for undiscovered mineral resources (Nutt and others, 1998). The BLM-designated study area, called the Lake Valley Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), is located in the northern part of the Lake Valley 71/2′ quadrangle, New Mexico. An area of more than 195 square kilometers in the area of the Lake Valley ACEC was mapped to increase understanding of ore con­ trols and to effectively assess mineral potential. The geology of this map area is described in this Professional Paper.
This report is divided into four chapters whose themes and content inform each other in contributing to a complete discussion of the area; each chapter is also designed to stand alone as an individual report. The first chapter describes the geology of the northern part of the Lake Valley quadrangle and the adjacent McClede Mountain 71/2′ quadrangle to the north. The second chapter presents the results of geophysical investigations, carried out to assist in the interpretation of the subsurface geology of the map area. The third chapter describes the mining history of Lake Valley and the character of its ore deposits. The fourth chapter is a geochemical study, undertaken to deter- mine the potential for contamination of the surrounding area from abandoned mine dumps in the mining district.
Note that because the four chapters cite many of the same references, all references from the four have been combined into a single listing that is located at the end of the volume, beginning on page 76.