Ruby REE-Silver

Project Summary

Ruby REE-Silver combines a high-grade historic silver mine with rare-earth pegmatites on 14 claims (about 290 acres) in the Gold Hill district, New Mexico on the old Co-op prospect. The ground has been idle since the 1930s and has never been explored with modern methods.

Highlights

• High-grade native silver. In the early 1920s the Co-op (Good Luck) mine produced about $103,000 of silver ore and concentrate from several hundred tons. At the prices of the day that is roughly 100,000–150,000 oz of silver, implying grades in the hundreds of ounces per ton.
• Critical minerals on the same claims. The North and South Pegmatite deposits, a few hundred feet from the Co-op, are listed by USGS for rare earth elements, niobium, tantalum, thorium and uranium, hosted in euxenite.
• Structural sweet spot. The Co-op ore sits where the Co-op-McWhorter fault crosses a northwest-trending pegmatite line — the classic setting for an ore shoot.
• Two deposits, one barely tested. The adjacent Ruby Silver vein, with argentiferous galena and possible ruby silver (pyrargyrite), has seen only a 50–60 ft shaft and shallow pits.
• Depth potential. Historic work noted sulfides at depth and a district metal zonation that may point to deeper silver-base metal targets.
• Active mining nearby. Golconda Gold is restarting the Summit silver-gold mine about 40 miles away, and Freeport's Tyrone copper mine is about 15 miles away.

Location, property and history

The project lies in the Gold Hill district of the western Burro Mountains, Grant County, New Mexico, about 26 miles south-southwest of Silver City. The Co-op mine is at about 6,500 ft elevation.

Property. 14 unpatented lode claims (RUBW 1–6 and RUBE 1–8, about 290 acres). The blocks cover the Co-op mine, the Ruby Silver workings and the North and South Pegmatite deposits. The claims are on National Forest System land, active with BLM, and paid through the 2027 assessment year. They lie outside wilderness and Inventoried Roadless Areas.

History.

• 1884: Gold discovered at Gold Hill; more than 500 people lived in the camp.
• 1920–1926: The Co-Operative Mining Company mined several hundred tons of high-grade silver ore from the Co-op mine and treated it in a flotation mill on the property.
• 1930: Last recorded production, by the Co-Operative Mining Co. of Lordsburg.
• 1950s: Cherry Mining Co. worked the North and South pegmatites.
• Since 1940: The district has been largely idle, and modern exploration methods have not been applied.

Geology and mineralization

The project hosts silver-base metal hydrothermal veins and rare-element pegmatites in Precambrian Burro Mountain Granite. The two are tied together structurally: the Co-op ore formed where a major fault crosses the pegmatite trend.

At the Co-op, the highest silver values came with abundant galena and pyrite in the sulfide zone. A district-wide metal zonation has been proposed, with silver and base metals increasing toward the periphery; this may reflect a depth zonation useful for targeting.

Rare earth elements, niobium and tantalum are all on the U.S. Geological Survey's list of critical minerals, which gives the pegmatites a separate value story from the silver.

Historical production

The Co-op produced roughly 100,000–150,000 oz of silver in the early 1920s.

Ounces are estimated by dividing the reported value by silver prices of about $0.65–1.00/oz (the 1920s market price and the $1.00 Pittman Act price for domestic silver). Values are from Gillerman (1964); the U.S. Bureau of Mines also records "over $100,000 mined" and stoping above the 300-ft level. Concentrate value may include some lead, so the ounce figures are approximate.

The ore came from "several hundred tons," so the mined grade was probably in the hundreds of ounces of silver per ton. Workings consist of two inclined adits on seven levels with about 1,700 ft of drifts.