Cuchillo Negro Mining District, Sierra Cuchillo (Cuchillo Negro Mts), Sierra County, New Mexico, USAi

Regional Level Types
Cuchillo Negro Mining District	Mining District
Sierra Cuchillo (Cuchillo Negro Mts)	Sierra
Sierra County	County
New Mexico	State
USA	Country

NOTE: There is no listing for this district in the USGS MRDS database.

The Cuchillo Negro District is in northwestern Sierra County in the Cuchillo Mountains, about 8 km (ca. 5 mi) E of the small town of Winston (originally called Fairview).

Cuchillo Negro was named after Baishan, an Apache chieftain during the 1830s to 1850s whose name was translated by the Mexicans as Cuchillo (Spanish for knife) and because of the Apache practice of blackening their weapons to make them less conspicuous, thus Cuchillo Negro (Black Knife).

The Cuchillo Negro District mineralised area extends along the main range of the Sierra Cuchillo from the ridge south of Deep Well Canyon, and southward for approximately 11 km (ca. 7 mi) to the southern flank of Cuchillo Mountain; the width of the district is between 1 and 2.5 miles (ca. 4 km).

Mineral deposits in this area are widely separated. With several isolated prospects and small mines, there really is no well-defined central mining district. Mines in this area produced mostly copper and lead, with a little zinc, silver and gold (from contact metasomatic ore). They were chiefly active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; there has been relatively little activity during the past 50 years (1983).

The main mines in the district were the Vindicator, the Black Knife group, the Dictator, the Covington, and the Confidence.

In addition to these contact-metasomatic deposits, there are large fluorite veins north of Red Hill and also about 5 miles (ca. 8 km) east of Red Hill, and a mile north of Carrizo Peak.

Southeast of these deposits, near Willow Spring Draw, there are some small tin deposits, and there is also small, scattered red-bed copper in shale at various places in the eastern part of the district.

Although none of these deposits have any recorded production, the fluorspar deposits would certainly be mineable under favourable market conditions. The fluorspar deposits near Red Hill, and to the east, are in large northerly trending fissure veins. Some of these contain only fluorite and calcite, others are quite siliceous.

The tin deposits to the southeast contain cassiterite, haematite, and cristobalite in thin veinlets and breccia zones cutting rhyolite tuff.

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References