Mexico - Excursion
Mexico field trip - 11-22.01.2009
This year's Ore Deposits Group field trip took place in NW-Mexico's Sonora desert! Victor Valencia from the University of Arizona organised an excellent excursion which took us to many of the important ore deposits in the northern part of Mexico. This included mines which had been working for decades and other mines which are just being developed.
We visited different types of deposits including the La Herradura Au-(Ag), the Milpillas Cu-porphyry with its beautiful malachite specimens and excellent example of an enrichment of secondary Cu minerals, and several classic polymetallic skarn deposits including the Bismark, Santa Barbara, Santa Eulelia and Naica mines. A highlight was the cave of the giant gypsum crystals in Naica. Additionally, we spent some time learning about the Pinos Altos epithermal low-sulphidation Au project just in the final steps before starting production. The mines we saw represent an overview of different deposit types in this part of Mexico. Detailes can be found in the field report. You can also check out the field trip pictures.
| Field trip leaders: | |
| Victor A. Valencia | – University of Arizona |
| Massimo Chiaradia | – University of Geneva |
| Participants: | |
| Miguel Ponce | – University of Geneva (student M.Sc.) |
| Melissa Ortelli | – University of Geneva (student M.Sc.) |
| José A. Perez | – University of Geneva (student M.Sc.) |
| Anne Chevalier | – University of Geneva (student M.Sc.) |
| Mauricio Ibanez‐Mejia | – University of Arizona (student Ph.D.) |
| Edina Vago | – University of Geneva (student Ph.D.) |
| Johannes Mederer | – University of Geneva (student Ph.D.) |
| Honza Catchpole | – University of Geneva (student Ph.D.) |
| Aldo Bendezu | – University of Geneva (student Ph.D.) |
| Lluís Fontboté | – University of Geneva |
| Fernando Barra | – University of Arizona |
| Robert Moritz | – University of Geneva |
A big Thank You to all those who made this field trip possible, especially Victor Valencia who organised a major part of our trip sharing both his knowledge and passion of the area with us. We would like to thank Minera Penmont S.A, Industrias Peñoles, Mexico Group, Agnico‐ Eagle and Newmont for the permission to visit their mines and the kind support of mine geologists, engineers, and managers during the visit. Newmont and Barrick and the Society of Economic Geologists are gratefully acknowledged for financial support