Table 9.—New Mexico: Mine production (recoverable) of gold, silver,
copper, lead, 
and zinc, by county 
 
  MinesCounty producing  ~ 
Material 
sold or 
treated 
(short tons) 
Gold 
Silver 
 
 
Troy Value Troy Value 
ounces  ounces 
 
 8,719 $317,285 781,952 $1,384,697 
 10,681 440,593 782,441 1,209,653 
 
11,883 
1,821 
1,192 
1 
696,344 
106,711 
69,851 
59 
884,649 
33,730 
21,124 
77,377 
1,490,633 
56,835 
35,594 
130,379 
 
 
14 
20,270,860 
 
14,897 
872,965 
1,016,880 
1,713,441 
Short 
Copper 
 
Value 
 
— Short 
Lead 
 
Value 
Zinc 
Short Value 
 
Total 
value 
tons 
 
 
tons 
 
tons 
 
 
1972: 
 Grant 159,952 
 Hidalgo 1,948 
 Santa Fe 786 
 Undistributed 2 5,348 
 1970, total 166,278 $191,884,984 3,550 $1,108,979 16,601 $5,086,306 $199,782,251

 1971,total 157,419 163,715,604 2,971 819,940 13,959 4,494,815 170,680,605

Total4 168,034 
 12,731 4,519,521 171,574,101 
 2 681 2,159,081 
 1 268 910,729 
 2 614 5,607,588 
' Revised. 
' Operations at plants leaching runoff water, not counted as producing mines.

2 Includes Sandoval, Sierra, and Socorro Counties, combined to avoid disclosing
individual company confidential data. 
Less than 3~a unit. 
4 Data may not add to totals shown because of independent rounding. 
12,735 4,521,084 180,251,499 
484 
MINERALS YEARBOOK, 1972 
 
Table 8.—New Mexico: Mine production of gold, silver, copper, lead,
and zinc in 1972, 
by type of material processed and method of recovery, in terms of recoverable
metal 
Type of material processed 
and method of recovery 
Gold 
(troy ounces) 
Silver 
(troy ounces) 
Copper 
(short tons) 
Lead 
(short tons) 
Zinc 
(short tons) 
Lode: 
Acid leaching (heap)  Smelting of concentrates         
 
Direct smelting of:— Cleanup                  
Ore                      
Precipitates                
 
Total                   
 
Grand total                  
- - 
11,518 
- - 
1,004,227 
333 
140,037 
- - 
3,572 
12,732 
 
3,379 
- - 
180 
12,473 
- - 
29 
63 
27,572 
10 
- - 
3 
- - 
 
3,379 
12,653 
27,664 
10 
3 
 
14,897 
1,016,880 
168,034 
3,582 
12,735 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1970, total          
1971, total 
 
1972: 
Grant 
Hidalgo         
Santa Fe        
Undistributed 2 
Total 
 19 ' 20,797,211 
 13 ' 18,554,543 
 9 18,973,847 
 1 100,866 
 1 34,352 
 3 1,161,795 
 163,791,145 3,581 1,076,458 
 1,994,854 -- -- 
 805,016 -- -- 
 5,476,392 (3) 144 
 172,067,407 3,582 1,076,602 
 
 
 
 
 Construction of the Phelps Dodge smelter, located 11 miles east and 16 miles
south of Animas, started in August 1972. The smelter will use the flash-smelting
process developed by Outokumpu Oy of Finland. The plant was designed to produce
280 tons per day of 750-pound copper anodes containing 99% copper. About
475,000 tons of concentrate per year from the Tyrone mine will be fed to
the smelter. Copper anodes will be shipped to the Phelps Dodge refinery at
El Paso, Tex. 
Total cost for the smelter was reported to be near $100 million. As the smelter
was planned from the start to minimize environment impact, approximately
60% of total costs will be for pollution control. Employment was to be 300
persons with an annual payroll of $4 million. 
 Phelps Dodge copper mine expansion was completed in August 1972. Total costs
amounted to $38 million, and the capacities of mine and concentrator were
increased to 90,000 tons of copper per year.