New Mexico - The Sleeper Gold State
- Tyler Long
- Mar 13
- 7 min read
Talk to any gold prospector and you will hear them echo the virtues of mining in a well known gold bearing state like Arizona, Colorado, California, and Nevada.
These states have certainly produced phenomenal gold and other minerals and will continue to produce well into the future.
If I was to take on the lense of a small prospector/miner looking to purchase a mining claim for their own mining endeavours, I would highly encourage that customer to seriously consider a lesser known state such as New Mexico as the home of their new claim for a few reasons:
Mining Season Length & Temperate Climate
A large subset of my customer base are usually individuals, family units, and small fledgling mining companies looking to purchase a claim that could be worked profitably via a small and lean mining operation.
Oftentimes, these customers have researched heavily into areas like Colorado or Nevada prior to considering other states such as New Mexico.
An overlooked negative aspect of trying to set yourself up for success is the true seasonality that comes with working at/above 9,000 feet of elevation. Colorado for example; it's not uncommon for claims to be in the 10,000' to 11,000' elevation range. This leads to seasons as short as 4 workable months per year with major cold snaps and summer lightning storms to contend with all season long.
If using water pumps and wet sluice systems it's commonplace for pumps and sluices to freeze if left unheated overnight into the first week of June and as early as September 15th. Additionally, spring and early fall snowstorms can leave roads impassable for several days.
Add in a water temperature of just above freezing in most creeks; that if dredging, requires heavily insulated wet suits or complete dry suits to be able to dredge in a productive manner.
Arizona - has the opposite problem. With temps well over 100 degrees; working in Arizona as a prospector during the summer months is absolutely miserable if not downright unproductive.
Unless shade tents are erected to cover the work zone and frequent breaks are implemented; it takes a true desert rat to continually mine in an effective manner.
Where New Mexico brings it's advantage is the blend of climate and elevation between Colorado & Arizona.
Northern New Mexico produces and elevation profile of generally less than 9,000', but still retains the quintessential values customers love about the high country such as pine trees, flowing creeks, gorgeous camping sites, the aspen leafs in the fall, and the feeling that you are still in the rockies. Generally the Northern New Mexico mining season is 7-8 months in length.
Central New Mexico in the Gila National Forest is just far enough south to provide a year round mining season that is tolerable in both winter months and summer months. The Gila is home to several small mining operations by past customers on both the lode and placer sides of the mining operation spectrum.
Southern New Mexico in the Luna County area provides a warmer winter environment and slightly warmer summer environment than central New Mexico. Generally the landscape is true desert with several small mountain systems. Although no water is in this part of the state; drywashers and metal detectors really shine.
Mining Regulations
Over the past 8 years I have experienced mining permits for both small scale mining under a Notice Of Intent (NOI) and larger mining permits such as a Plan Of Operations (POO) become increasingly difficult to obtain, specifically in Colorado.
Without a question people now, more than ever, are pursuing gold mining opportunities with no end in sight of slowing down. Whether it's due to the popular TV gold shows, the pandemic, or high gold prices; the fact is - we have more people mining our mountain streams than ever before.
A result of this influx comes in the form of more paperwork for the claim owner should the claim owner utilize anything more than a gold pan or high banker. Simply due to the cumulative impact multiple operations can have on one creek.
While Federal Bureau Of Land Management & Forest Service rules and regulations govern the usage of public lands for mineral development, local Forest Service districts can and do have the ability to create additional more restrictive regulations to combat what their forest is experiencing in order to align with their 10 year forest plans.
So before diving head first into a claim say in Colorado, ask yourself if you are prepared to wait 1-2 years minimum to run a large dredge or mini excavator.
While New Mexico shares a common stateline border with Colorado, New Mexico in my experience has been much easier to obtain mining permits of all different sizes and flavors. Generally, small scale equipment such as large high bankers and even small dredges don't even need a permit depending upon the location.
Additionally, even the mining permits in New Mexico; should you require one are faster, more flexible, and cheaper to retain.
Claim Price
While still retaining the lense of a small prospector/miner looking to acquire a claim in order to develop their own mining operation it's important to look at price points of claims. Take an area like Gilpin County, Colorado, Rye Patch in Nevada, Rich Hill in Arizona; these are areas that have been historically heavily mined and continue to be mined at some level today.
The consequence in terms of these prior mining activities means there is almost no open ground to stake a new claim and to buy one would cost a fortune, just to say you own a claim in a historic district that likely already had the guts mined out of the claim especially on the placer claim side.
Claims in these areas can easily fetch 25,000 to 150,000 + depending on the specific circumstances. You would need to mine a tremendous amount of gold to recover your initial investment. Plus you would incur any potential liability left over from the previous mines such as mercury or cyanide contamination.
While not as well known as the previously mentioned areas, New Mexico has as great selection of mineral bearing areas that have long gone under the radar since the 1940's and in some places even earlier dating back to the spanish.
Consequently, less claims and less competition means a lower claim price for the end consumer with most of Gunnison Gold Prospecting's claims ranging from 2,750 USD to 10,500 USD excluding a few large historic lode mines.
Fresh Ground
Echoing numerous references from the claim pricing paragraph of this blog is the ability to get on lightly mined ground or potentially even virgin ground.
Working is New Mexico for 4 years now and visiting most every gold bearing area within the state has produced a number of developed patterns that I feel would be wise to take into consideration in favor of purchasing a claim in New Mexico.
First off, most of the mining done in the late 1800's to 1940's era was focused largely on lode mining. This means, outside of a few select areas the placer was not completely gutted down to bedrock with a fine tooth comb. Additionally, high tech dry washers such as the Keene Engineering 151S and powerful minelab metal detectors were not in existence yet, giving the modern prospectors the upper hand with technological innovation.
New Mexico is scattered with small to medium lode mines throughout the Gila National Forest in the central part of the state and down into Luna County in the Southern part of the state. These mines can be found both accessible via the road system or well off the beaten path in the backcountry. It's important to note with these mines that much of the ore was shipped via mule train long distances to a railroad or refiner. Due to the small nature of these mines it just did not make sense financially to construct a mill adjacent to the mine sites.
The result of this shipping method and advantage to the modern miner is that the early miners only shipped the highest grade ore to the mills. I can confidently say that most low grade ore piles that were seperated back in the day by hand can carry gold values ranging from 1/8 - 1/4 ounce per ton gold on average. This excludes true barren waste rock piles of overburden and country rock. At a current respectable gold price of 2,900 USD these piles can carry values per ton of material of 362 - 725 USD. Which can potentially be worked for profit by small and efficient mining operations given little overhead, good access, and enough tonnage.
Mineral Diversity
Something not talked about enough when choosing a mining claim are the other minerals associated the primary target mineral of gold.
It is very rare to be in a vacuum of a geologic deposit whether lode or placer that has solely gold for a target mineral. Most geologic formations Gunnison Gold Prospecting works in generally falls under a polymetallic replacement deposit. Usually gold and silver are the primary minerals targeted with this deposition model. What I see undervalued are the other associated secondary or tertiary minerals. Depending on the specific deposit these generally can include lead, zinc, copper, iron, nickel, and manganese.
While the secondary and tertiary minerals don't pay the bills like gold and silver can. These bolt on minerals certainly help offset the cost associated with development of a mining operation, particularly on the lode side.
Great New Mexico examples of this lode diversity include the Cincinnati Vein Au Lode in Luna County, New Mexico. The Columbia Lode in Grant County, New Mexico, and the Bald Eagle Lode Claims in Sierra County, New Mexico.
Excellent New Mexico placer claim examples include the Wolverine Gulch placer claims in Sierra County, New Mexico and the Hopewell Gold placer claims in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico.
If you would like to learn more about the available claims in New Mexico you can contact us at:
Tyler Long, Lead Prospector
Gunnison Gold Prospecting Company, LLC
970-901-9043
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