Tios Ixamentfos Famous Mineral Localities: The Erupcién/Ahumada Mine, Los Lamentos District, Chihuahua, Mexico by W. E. WilsonWayne & Dona Leicht, 875 North Pacific Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 926! (949) 494-7695 .. . 494-5155... . FAX (949) 494-0402 Open Thurs.-Sat, 10-5, Sunday 12-5. (Closed Mon.-Tues.-Wed, except by Appointment : Please call ahead for our travel 5 TAR au nue (OCC Mon cn SRL CuR TOOT CRTC) Perel Photo by Harold and Erica Van Pelt, Los AnglesThe Mineralogical Record od November-December 2003 « Volume 34, Number 6 Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Typesetting & Graphies Subseription price for one ‘Wendell E. Wilson Capitol Communication year is $55 [in the US, ‘Systems, Ine. $59 [outside the U.S.] for Editor individuals, and $175 for ‘Thomas P. Moore “Associate Photographers Iihrarios ant insite ‘Nelly Bariand Circulation Manager Dan Behake Editorial & Advertising ‘Mary Lynn Michela ‘Werner Lieber +4631 Paseo Tubatama Erich Offerman ‘Tueson, AZ. 85750 Associate Editors Jefe A, Seovil ‘Te: 520-209-5274 Piece Bariand Harold & Briea Van Pelt ‘e-mail: minree@earthlink net Bill Birch ‘Michael P. Cooper Seannirg ‘Subscriptions, Books & ‘Anthoay R. Kampf Hollis Graphs, In, ‘Back Issues F Joseph A. Mandarina PO. Box 35565 F ‘Steven R. Morehead Printing & Mailing ‘Tueson, AZ 85740 Donald R. Peacor ‘Cadmus Journal Services ‘Tel: 520.297.6709 Website ‘Andrew C, Roberts Fax: 520-544-0815, i Ee George W. Robinson Single Copies ofthis issue are e-mail: minree@aol.com 5 Abraham Rosenzweig available, while supply lasts, f at $20 per copy plus $1 postage Design & Layout (Goficore). ‘Wendell E, Wilson Hardcover Copies {$50 plus $2 shipping U.S. (64 shipping outside U.S.) ‘While supply lasts a ect Sa nDNE NeNThis is our third special issue on the mines and minerals of Mexico (Mexico-I having dealt with the Boleo deposit, and Mexico-II having been devoted to the famous Ojuela. mine). Covered here are four more importan: and prolife localities for collectible mineral specimens. The Las Lamentos deposit, per- haps the most famous source of wulfenite in Mexico, was de~ scribed in less detail (and in black and white) in the Mineralogical Record back in 1980, and is given a more thorough, color- illustrated treatment here. The silver deposits near Fresnillo, though known for centuries, have only been a source of fine crystallized silver minerals since the early 1980's, thanks to the recent discovery of a new and extremely rich vein which may well continue to produce for some years. Since 1970 the amethyst deposits in the remote Las Vigas area have produced countless ‘thousands of fine specimens which now grace collections around the world, And the Sierra de Cruces garnet locality, originally known simply as “Lake Jaco,” has recently been producing significant quantities of raspberry-pirk to red grossular, rather different from the well-known but neatly colorless grossular first ‘mined there in the 1940's by George Burnham. All of these ‘occurrences have contributed to the fame of Mexico as one of the ‘greatest mineral-producing countries in the world. ‘Work continues on articles for additional Mexico Issues. Obvi ‘ously there are many important localities that remain to be covered, and we will endeavor to cover them in ihe course ofthis series. As with these first three Mexico Issues, we will be preparing just 300 leather-bound copies of each future installment, and I urge inter- ested readers to order a copy while they are still available ($50 plus ‘2 postage U.S., $4 postage outside the U.S.) There is no doubt that ‘complete set of the hardbound editions will ultimately become very coveted and hard to obtain. As book collectors know all too ‘well, there is really very litle in collectible hardcover mineralogy ‘books being produced these days, sad to say, and these Mexico volumes will be among the few representing our current period, ‘The binding material for the hardcover editions is bonded leather, a reconstituted form of hundred-percent leather which has the look and even the smel! of regular leather at a much more reasonable cost. (We produced a handful of copies of the Sweet Home Issue in regular leather, and out cost for those was around $250 per copy, so the $50 price for these bonded leather copies is truly a bargain.) ‘The hardcover copies of Mexico-II, the Ojuela Issue, have specially printed end-papers showing a fascinating photo of Ojuela in its prime, ca. 1910, The scene is hard to describe, but appears to involve the whole town gathering around a natural amphitheater amid the mine buildings and headframes in order to hear what we think was a shortwave radio transmission, perhaps of an important bull fight, ca, 1910. Our thanks to Joe Kielbaso for making this remarkable photo available to us for reproduction, We may come up with other interesting images with which to embellish future hardcover editions. Itis a pleasure for me, as publisher, to have such interesting and well-illustrated articles to present for this series, and I want to thank all of the authors and photographers who have been involved, including our guest editor for the series, Peter Megaw. Special thanks must also go once again to our indispensable patron, Philip Rust, whose generous contribution has helped to make this issue possible, Every reader owes him a debt of thanks, especially now that our other important benefactor, Randolph Rothschild, has passed away. We can only hope that someone else will soon step up to the plate and take over for Randy, so that we can continue to supply the mineral world with interesting, high-quality publica- tions at an affordable cost. ‘So now, although you have just taken your silver-studded boots off the coffee table afier having read Mexico-II, you can recline ‘comfortably and put them right back up there again as you delve into the mineral riches of that extraordinary country once more. Have your significant other pour you a small glass of well-chilled, high-quality sipping tequila (one could do worse than Corazén Aiiejo from the Arandas Highlands of Jalisco: 100% blue agave, aged for two years in charred oak casks), just to get in the mood. Soon you will be hearing the distant how! of the Mexican wolf, the muffled boom of carefully placed explosive charges, the excited cries of the miners as they break into yet another fabulous pocket, and the rhythmic rumble of the old hoist engines as they bring more treasures to the surface. May that special specimen you have been looking for be among them. ‘Wendell E. Wilson ——————— ose teFigure 1. John Campbell Greenway (1872-1926) moved to Arizona in 1910 to manage the Bisbee mines of the Calumet and Arizona Company, then ‘managed the New Cornelia mine at Ajo with great success. While still ‘working for the company he invested his own money in the Los Lamentos district and helped manage the operations there until his retirement in 1925. (Photo courtesy of the Arizona Historical Society, Tueson) edeFamous Mineral Isocalifies: The Erupcién/flhumada Mine Thos Ikamentos Disfricf Chihuahua, Mexico ‘Wendell E, Wilson ‘The Mineralogical Record 4631 Paseo Tubutama ‘Tucson, Arizona 85750 For decades the Ahumada lead mine in the Los Lamentos District, northeastern Chihuahua, has been famous among collectors for a single species: wulfenite. Los Lamentos ranks as one of the two most important and prolific producers of specimen-quality wulfenite in Mexico. Periodic discoveries have yielded an interesting variety of distinctive crystal habits, and a substantial portion of the productive zone remains preserved just below the water table. LOCATION ‘The mines of the Los Lamentos distict (also sometimes called the Bravos district) are located in the Sierra de Los Lamentos (Los Lamentos Range), about 50 miles east cf Villa Ahumada, which is itself about 187 km (115 miles) soulh of El Paso, Texas, on highway 45. The range is within the municipio of Villa Ahumada, ‘Some early specimen labels give Villa Ahumada as the locality for what is actually Los Lamentos wulfente, probably because resi- dents of Villa Ahumada often used (o sell specimens. The original mining settlement at the site, connected to Villa Ahumada by a rough, unpaved road, was called Felix J. Gomez, but it is now a ase ‘rumbling ghost town. The two principal mines, the Erupeién mine and the Ahumada mine, connect underground and occupy portions of a single deposit. HISTORY ‘The Los Lamentos district derives its name from the mountain range in which itis located, not because of any sorroveful lamenta- tions of disappointed mineral collectors, but because of the pecu- liar sound made by wind passing through the limestone caverns. Unlike many other Mexican mining districts, Los Lamentos wasNUE Paso bosocatiente —°$ MocTezUuMA not an antigua—a term referring to tie ancient workings of the early Spaniards. The first ore was discovered there by a Mexican, ‘Tosé Maria de la Petia, in 1907, who dug a 7-meter-deep prospect shaft which encountered high-grade cerussite ote. The original claim was then raffled off by Pefia and won by David Fenchler; but the new owner did nothing to develop the workings further. In 1905, two years preceding the actsal discovery, José Maria de Ja Pefia had suggested to David Bruce Smith (who had been in ccharge of the San Pedro de Corralitos mine in the Bravos district of Chihuahua from 1897 to 1904) that he should visit the Los Lamentos area. Smith finally made the trip in 1909, and examined the various claims and workings including the original Los Lamentos (Benito Judrez) claim and the Erupsién claim (“Erupcién” in Spanish refers to a “blow out” or prominent outcrop). In 1916 Smith returned again and purchased an option on the claims from Fenchler for $50,000. ‘Smith had two chief difficulties at che mine: not enough water aand too many bandits, Russell Bennett (1963) visited the mine area in 1920 and described the recent unpleasantness there as follows: A semblance of order was just being retumed to Mexico, after the twelve-year chaos and bloodshed of the Madero Revolu- tion, Then the Carranzistas were in nominal control of northem Mexico [following] the overthrow of the great Don Porfirio Diaz, But, although Carranza had been recognized, Pancho Villa was still at large, and tad actual control in those areas where he chose to roam, e656 UNITED STATES Rio GRANDE ‘9 REBOSADERO 9 10 20 30 40 Las Vacas Figure 2. Location map (adapted from Ransome and Patterson, 1928). The ‘current dirt access road is shown by the dashed line from Villa Ahumada; the railroad spur (the “Ferro- carril Chihuahua y Oriente”) extends from Lucero to Los Lamentos. MILES Villa was in a mood of violent hostility toward Americans. He had expected to be recognized by our government. When, instead, the United States recognized his archenemy, Carranza, and permitted Carranza’s troops to go through U‘S. territory in Arizona in order to attack Villa from the rear, Villa's rage knew no bounds. His answer was two-fold: the first to come ‘was the Santa Ysabel massacre, in January 1916, in which 18 American mining men were taken off train in westem. ‘Chihuahua and shot. The second blow came in March 1916, in the form of a night raid on the town of Columbus, New ‘Mexico, in which seventeen inhabitants were killed. This raid inspired the punitive expedition under General Pershing, sent into Mexico to get Villa dead or alive, which accomplished neither. In the haleyon days of the magna pax of Diaz, American mining men had gone in large numbers into Mexico. This was during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, when there was @ Big Stick in the closet, when the doctrine of Manifest Destiny hhad not become unmentionable, and when the marines were available to land and take the situation in hand. But Teddy Roosevelt went out in 1908, two years before the beginning. of the Madero Revolution. Succeeding administrations re- nounced his policies, and it was open season on American ‘mining men across the length and breadth of Mexico. A few saw the handwriting on the wall and got out; the greater portion stayed on, many to meet their deaths. The EngineerFigure 3. Francisco “Pancho” Villa (center), Mexican revolutionary and terrorist, with some of ‘men in Ciudad Juarez in 1911, Villa abducted Erupeién mine director Smith and mining, company president Knotts in 1918, extorting $20,000 in ransom. According to the Engineering and Mining Journal, Villa and other Mexican insurreetionists murdered st least 270 American, ‘mining men in Mexico during the revolution. Mexican National Archives. {ng and Mining Journal estimated that 270 American mining ‘men died by violence in Mexico during the Madero Revolu- tion, Our driver and guide to the Les Lamentos mine was D. Bruce Smith, originally from Dundee. He spoke English and Spanish alike with 2 Scotch burr. In 1916 he had succeeded in getting control of the Los Lamentos claims. This ‘was the year of greatest. violence against Americans, the year of the Santa Ysabel massacre and the Columbus raid. Smith had enlisted a partner in El Paso, E. F. Knotts, and the two ‘would slip into the spot and do a bit of digging and blasting whenever the Mexican underground telegraph reported Villa to be elsewhere. Smith and Knotts took turns as a lookout from the peak overlooking the claims. They learned the art of reading dust clouds, like the plains and desert scouts of the Indian wars a half-century earlier, When a dust cloud beto- kkened the approach of an armed force, they, with their Mexican helpers, would slip away, [later to] retum and resume work ‘They had continued this hide-and-seek game, played for kkeeps, for two years, until 1918 when their luck ran out. In October of that year Villa caught Smith and Knotts at the ‘mine. Villa was in a rage over their innumerable evasions and gave orders to shoot the two gringos at dawn the next day. In the morning, however, Villa had another idea. He said that he could not afford the luxury, however pleasurable, of shooting ore the two if ransom could be obtained, After a day or so, during which Villa appeared to weigh pleasure against necessity, he named the sum of $100,000 in gold coin. The answer Smith ‘gave to this demand was: “If that’s your price, you might as ‘well take us out and shoot us.” Villa trussed the two up again and waited another day. Then he cut the price to $75,000. “If I could raise that much money, ‘mi general;” Smith answered, “what would I be doing out in this Godforsaken desert ‘The bargaining process continued for twelve days, until the ransom was reduced to $20,000. Smith was released to get the money; Knotts was left as hostage. In El Paso the ‘American Smelting and Refining Company magnanimously Put up the money as an advance against smelter receipts, although there was no assurance that these would develop. ‘There was at that time an embargo by the Carranzistas against the importation of gold into Mexico, so Smith took ‘back the requisite sum in paper money. Villa took one look at the bundle of bills and threw it to the ground in a rage. “You've got a lot of nerve bringing me that stuff, with the pictures of your [expletive deleted] presidents on it! I said ‘old and I mean gold!” ‘Smith made his way back to El Paso again, exchanged the ‘currency for gold, and smuggled it across the border by auto ‘and horseback, This was a feat in itself. The countryside held ‘numerous roving bands, and the coin might well have beenhijacked. The gold weighed about 69 pounds; for most ofthe ‘way Smith carried it on his person. After he got his price, Villa lft the mine in peace, under the rough code of honor then in force. He continued, however, to be the scourge ofthe countryside, and other prospectors were not so fortunate. Every one of the gente de razon [people of reason"] in Mexico breathed a sigh of relief when he was ambushed with his bodyguard in the streets of Parral in July 1923. His assailants were the broers of one of his early victims ‘The episode with Villa had brought an end to such difficulties at the mine. Villa had promised to protect the mine from further raids if the ransom was paid, and he was true to his word, Ore was discovered on the Erupcién claim in 1917, and the mine shipped 8,000 tons of anglesite lead ore averaging 42.5% lead (that is, about 62% anglesite) by wagon to the railroad station at Villa Ahumada during 1917 and 1918. From there the ore was sent by rail to the city of Chihuahua, Nevertheless, the operation suffered from a lack of capital until 1919, when Henry C, Dudley,! Louis D. Ricketts? and John C. Greenway? agreed to buy the remaining stock in the company, stipulating that the money be useé for further development, Dudley, Greenway and Ricketts took over management of the mine, incorporating as the Ahumada Lead Company, and eventu- ally gained controlling interest in the property. Workings opened from this time forward were given a new name, the Ahumada a ‘mine, despite the fact that they were only a natural extension of the Erupcién mine along the same orebody. Exploratory work revealed promising signs of dolomitized limestone accompanied by a broad fracture zone extending a considerable distance on the surface. Ore reserves were judged sufficient to warrant the construction of a 182-km railroad spur connecting the mine (the terminus at the mine was called Villa Felix U. Gomez, before that known simply as Los Lamentos) to the National Railroad of Mexico line at Lucero about 20 km north of Villa Ahumada, from Whence ore could be shipped onward by train to the smelter in Ciudad Juarez, The spur was called the Ferrocerril Chihuahua y Oriente. ‘Adjacent properties were acquired until, by 1924, the mining property covered 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres). Thomas A. Rickard! (1864-1953) visited the property in the early 1920's and subse- quently described the history of the mine and the extent of its workings in 1924, By the mid-1920's the Ahumada mine had become the third largest producer of lead on the North American continent, all from secondary cerussite, anglesite, wulfenite and vanadinite. ‘The assassination of Villa did not put an end to local violence, however, On October 10, 1924 the train returning to Los Lamentos from El Paso was derailed near Candelaria by bandits, and all the ‘men aboard were shot in cold blood. The fatalities included an American named Barker, the Ahumada Mine auditor, who was bringing the monthly payroll to the mine "Henry “Harry” C. Dudley (1878-1968) was born in Guilford, Connecticut and graduated from Harvard College in 1902 as @ mining engineer. He first worked in the copper mines of Upper Michigan and in the iron mines of the Mesabi district, Minnesota, where he met John Greenway. In 1911 he went to Brazil to study nore deposits in Minas Gerais and other South American districts for Chester A. Congden (the Congdon family, many years Tater, funded the Congdon Earth Science Center at the Arizona- ‘Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson). Following his service in World ‘War Ihe operated independently, organizing and directing mining activities and petroleum exploration in the United States, Mexico, South America and Canada, the largest and best known of which were the Ahumada Lead Company operations at Los Lamentos and his operations at the Maguarichie and Namiquine mines, all in Mexico. He carried on his various businesses from his offices in Duluth, Minnesota and El Paso, Texas until a few months before his death in at the age of 89. Louis Davidson Ricketts (1859-1940) was born in Maryland, graduated from Princeton at the age of 21, and earned his doctorate in economic geology two years later, in 1883. He worked in the Leadville, Colorado mines first, the served as the Territorial Geologist for Wyoming, In 1890 he was hired as an examining engineer by James Douglas, head of Phelps Dodge Corporation, and studied properties in Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora and Chihuahua. In 1895 he managed the mine at Nacozari, Sonora for Phelps Dodge, and went on to help develop the mines at Cananea, Sonora; Miami, Arizona; and Ajo, Arizona, where he and John Greenway devised innovative techniqtes to process copper oxide ore, Ricketts was considered the leading copper metallurgist of his time; he was responsible for developing pioneering processes and technologies forthe recovery of copper from low-grade ore, which opened up vast reserves in Arizona and Mexico to profitable mining. He donated two vanadinite specimens and a descloizite from the Ahumada mine, and one walfenite from the Erupcién ‘mine, to the University of Arizona collection in Tueson, °John Campbell Greenway (1872-1926) was bom in Alabama and fought with distinction inthe Spanish-American War, becoming an intimate friend of Theodore Roosevelt and an officer in the Rough Riders. He was cited for bravery in the Battle of San Juan Hill. Following his graduation from Yale as an engineer he worked for U.S. Steel from 1905 to 1910, developing a large iron orebody on the ‘Western Mesabi Range in northem Minnesota. In 1910 he moved to Arizona to manage the Bisbee mines of the Calumet and Arizona Company; in 1911 he advised the Company to acquire the New Comelia Copper Company property at Ajo, Arizona and he then ‘managed the mine there with great success. While still working for the company he invested his own money inthe Los Lamentos district and helped manage the operations there until his retirement in 1925 and his death in New York te following year. Greenway built a very good mineral collection which was rediscovered in the 1970's in @ crate in the basement of the Arizona Inn in Tucson (owned by his son, Jack Greenway). For many years thereafter the Arizona Inn displayed Part ofthe collection ina comer cabinet, butte specimens have since disappeared. The rest ofthe collection was given to Tueson mineral dealer George Bideaux in compensation for his serves in identify- ing the unlabeled specimens. Most of the material consisted of Bisbee and Ajo copper minerals; whether any Los Lamentos specimens were included is unknown (Richard Bideaux, personal communication. “Thomas Arthur Rickard (1864-1953) was bom in Pertusola, Italy, to English parents, and came tothe United States in 1885. He became a prominent American mining engineer, served as State Geologist of Colorado from 1895 to 1901, and worked at mining properties in Colorado, California, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He then turned to writing, and is well-known as a prolific author on mining districts and the history of mining. He served as editor of the Mining and Scientific Press and the Engineering and ‘Mining Journal, and was a lecturer on Mining Geology at Harvard. ‘The copper telluride rickardite was named in his honor in 1903, based on specimens he collected while working as a mining ‘engineer for the Good Hope mine in Gunnison County, Colorado. eeeFigure 4. A zurronero hauling ore out of a mine in Chihuahua ca. 1905, in the manner em- ployed in the early days of the Los Lamentos district, The rawhide bag strapped across the forehead was called a zurron, (Engineering and Mining Journal, 1926) ‘The lack of water had always been a problem at the mine, situated in the remote, dry desert of Chihuahua. For some years, water for the camp had to be hauled from a spring 16 miles away. But around 1930 a flow of water was encountered in the lower extension of the orebody, around the 705 level. (This was later shown to be the regional water table ard not simply a localized pocket.) The ore appeared to continue undiminished below this water table, 50 massive pumps were installed. Eventually a virtual flood of water, 6,500 gallons per minute, was being pumped to the surface. This expense, hopeless as it was, could not be endured, and the mine was foreed to close down in 1931, By that time it had yielded a total of 365,000 tons of concentrated lead ore paying smelter retums of $13,564,000, William F. Foshag (1895-1956) of the Smithsonian Institution visited the locality in the early 1930's, and briefly described the species occurring there in 1934, Much of the technical information presented here has been drawn from the work of Foshag and Rickard, though neither author described the wulfenite beyond a brief mention. Unfortunately, most of the species mentioned by Foshag have not been present on mineral specimens reaching the ‘market in recent decades. According to Foshag (1934), the property was being operated by the Compania Minera de Plomo, S.A., tthe time of his vist. All of the stock of this company was held by the Ahumada Lead ‘Company, plus over 50% of the stock of the Erupeién Mining ‘Company (which, in tum, controled the Compania Minera Erupcién y Anexas, which owns the Erupcién mine). Compania Minero de Plomo and Compania Minera Brupcién y Anexas jointly owned the railroad spur to Lucero, Currently the mine is owned by the family of Pedro Licona Saenz. in Chiftuahua City; they have periodically mined the property themselves for wulfenite specimens, hematite (for cement) and zine oxides (Alvarez and Giles, 1986). Figure 5. Louis D. Ricketts (1859-1940) became part owner of the Erupcién mine in 1919. (Photo: Arizona Historical Society, Tucson) COLLECTING HISTORY Foshag’s article in Economic Geology encouraged collectors to visit the mine in the 1940's. Among the first were Dan Mayers and. Francis Wise of Tucson, who collected several times at Los Lamentos ca. 1944-1945. They brought out commercial quantities of wulfenite specimens and sold them wholesale to several dealers in the Southwest. Californians Earl Calvert (1904-1964), Wendell . Stewart (1903-1994) and Louis W. Vance (1901~1964)° col- lected there in the late 1940°s, and Vance wrote a note about one of his visits to Los Lamentos in 1949 for Rocks & Minerals; it makes interesting reading as a collecting story: ‘Earl Calvert visited Mexico, and especially Los Lamentos, on many occasions, taking the train for much of the way with his collecting partner Louis Vance. Calvert's mineral collection, heavy in Los Lamentos specimens (one of whieh is pictured here) was acquired after his death by Rock Curier. Louis Vance’s collection was given o Pasadena City College, and the bulk of it was auetioned off to provide funds forthe Geology Department there. eoeFigure 6. jing was such an important aspect of the economy in Chihuahua that it was depicted on local currency. This 1914 2-peso note issued by the Banco Minero (“Miners Bank”) de Chihuahua in Chihuahua City shows miners working in a cavernous stope similar to those at the Erupcién mine. Mineralogical Record Library. Earl Calvert and I busied ourselves preparing for the long- planned visit to the Abumada mine at Los Lamentos. This rine is justly celebrated for the spectacular wolfenite it has produced. A large share: of this material now found in collections was collected by Earl Celvert and Wendell Stewart, ‘who have made several trips there, ‘We spent a day and a half geting the car out of storage and serviced, repacking and checking cur equipment. The offices of the company controlling the mine were visited, where we discovered the mine was not workirg and only a caretaker was there, We were given a letter to the caretaker Which authorized our collecting. Driving to Villa Ahumada we looked up Sefior Gomez, a fiend and guide of Barl’s on former trips, who was to be our guide also. He was away working and his daughter, a cute kid oF about 10, guided us to him. After arranging to get started at 5 pam., we took his daughter home, We drove slowly down the main street ofthe town and she sat up very straight, obviously thrilled to death. I suppose that ride of a few blocks gave her something to boast about for quite a while. At 5 o'clock we picked up Gomez and, after loading 10 gallons of water and getting a couple of sticks of dynamite, justin case, we headed cast toward Sierra de Los Lamentos, 50 miles away. The ungraded ditt road was crossed by ‘humerous deep, narrow gullies which made the going slow. ‘We dipped into these with brakes set, bumped slowly across and climbed out in low gear. Other portions of the road were not bad. ‘We presented our letter tothe cartaker about 8:30 pm. and were assigned quarters in an adobe building where we tossed cour sleeping bags on the cement floor, set up the stove and prepared dinner. Our room, about 12 X 14 feet, had been an office when the mine was operating. It contained a desk, 3 chairs and a large iron safe. Spindles on the wall stil held reports, invoices, etc. This is about the only habitable building in what once was quite a settlement. Wood i so very searce in this part ofthe country that none is allowed to go to waste and, upon abandonment of the town, the roof beams were re- Figure 7. Louis Vance (left) at Los Lamentos in 1949; standing beside him is their guide, Gomez, holding a fine 30-cm matrix specimen of Ahu- ‘mada mine wulfenite they had just brought out. ‘moved. Left unprotected, the adobe walls soon disintegrate, Earl tells that upon an earlier visit when the mine was going full blast the village of Los Lamentos was a little oasis in theFigure 9. William F. Foshag (1894-1956), Smith- sonian mineralogist and curator, visited Los Lamentos in 1933 and wrote the earliest sys- tematic description of the mineralogy there for Economic Geology (1934). Some of the speci- mens he collected on that trip are still pre- served in the USNM collection, Figure 10. Thomas A. Rickard (1864-1953), American mining engineer, geologist, author and editor of the Engineering and Mining Jour- nal, visited Los Lamentos in 1924 and de- scribed the deposits for the first time, ele Figure 8. Miners working an ore cavern in the Ahumada crusts of white calcite and gypsum on the walls and rock rubble. Concentrated secondary lead ore many feet thick comprised the floor of these caverns (Rickard, 1924). ne; note the desert, Water from the mine was used tn irigate comm fields and gardens. Now all is desolation, the buildings are in ruins and the fields are now taken over by sage and other desert ‘growth ‘We were up bright and early and with our guide, Gomez, and the caretaker, Gregorio, we entered the mine. The way led through a horizontal tunnel for 1,500 feet to a point where it intersected an inclined tunnel and then down this incline for 3,000 feet. At regular intervals ore chutes from the caverns above were encountered. At about 600 level we left the incline and followed a steep trail over waste rock through old,Figure 11. Stock certificate for the Ahumada Lead Company, issued at about the time the mine closed in 1931. Peter Megaw collection. partially filed stopes to the 800 level, just above the water. We ‘made headquarters in an immense stope which could have accommodated a large building with room to spare. The limestone is so fissured here that, a: the 800 level more than 3000 feet from the portal, we found the ar fresh and good and but little warmer than on the surface. The ore is oxidized to ‘considerable depth. An carly visitor ‘old of seeing 40 carloads of finely erystalized wulfenite on the way to the smelter. AL ‘of this was from below the 800 level, now under water. ‘There was wulfenite everywhere we looked, but not very ‘good. Either the crystals were stmall or they were badly stained by the red iron oxide so plentiful here. While prospect- ing around, Gomez. came to me and with the most innocent expression proffered a specimen of very ordinary wulfenite, asking, “Is this good?" I looked it over carefully and hesitated to tell him it was not very good. Finally I took it and upon tuming it over I found that the other side was a superb specimen, My expression sent him into gales of laughter. I later found that he is one of the very few Mexican miners who know what constitutes a good specimen. He is intelligent and z0od-humored and always alert to anything that will produce a laugh. He is a good worker and, though nota large man, is tremendously strong. Gomez, soon located some good wulfenite in a narrow fissure in a solid, compact limestone. We succeeded in getting a few specimens but found the going tough with our hand tools. Making little headway here we prospected around and found a small stope which contained lots of walfenite but all ‘coated thickly with drusy brown vanadinite, It was all over the pplace—it was impossible to move without walking on it. We collected a few of the better specimens as it is not very spectacular. (Having seen what is here we are getting choosy.) ‘Some of itis quite interesting, however, the wulfenite having been leached until it is paper-thin, leaving the vanadinite coating as a cast showing the original size of the wulfenite, ‘Some think that the vanadinite received at least a part of its lead from leaching the wulfenite ‘Time to go to the surface arrived too soon and about 3 p.m, with our bags full, we started out. Climbing up the trail through the old stopes was strenuous and by the time we reached the incline we were perspiring freely and I was puffing like a locomotive, so we rested a few minutes. There ‘was a strong draft of cool air moving down the ineline as we started out briskly. After a bit I was forced to slow down and stopping for a few seconds at the end of each 25 to let my Jungs catch up. That is by far the longest five-eighths of a mile Thave ever walked. Try walking up a 22-degree slope with a bag full of lead minerals on your back after & hard day’s work and you'll see what I mean, It's like walking up stairs without any stairs. The miners didn’t seem to mind but went steadily along. They say that they regularly climbed out in 20 minutes carrying a full load. It took us an hour. Upon arrival below ground the second day we sent the ‘Mexicans to blast inthe hope that we could open up the seam ‘of good wulfenite so we could get at it. In the meantime Earl and I prowled around, occasionally finding a specimen that seemed worthwhile, Shortly the blast was heard and after ‘waiting a short time for the air to clear we went to take a look, It was a very sad sight, The shot had opened up the fissure all right but it also had shaken nearly all the crystals off the rock, Careful search salvaged a few specimens and hundreds of broken crystals were scattered about. These were cubes of a beautiful orange-yellow color measuring from three-fourths to a full inch on an edge. ‘While we were eating lunch Earl questioned Gomez. as to where they had worked on a former visit. Gomez replied,Figure 12. Limestone bluffs of the Sierra de los Lamentos overlooking the abandoned mining village of Los Lamentos (also known as Villa Felix U. Gomez). The Marjorie tunnel dump is visible at the foot of the bluff, just right of center, and the opening representing the outcrop of the vein is upward and to the left. Stan Esbenshade photo. “Right here.” So Earl got up and started working between an immense rock and the wall. I went over to help hien hut as there was not room forthe two of us I moved around the rock inorder to give him the benefit of my light. Earl was lying on his stomach, head down ata steep angle working at a crack in the rock at the base of the wall. His position was quite uncomfortable as the loose rock he was lying on had sharp cdges which gouged unmercifully. Aftr prying several slabs of rock off without seeing any indications, he was becoming Los LAMENTOs VIEJO. After Alvarez and Giles (1986) Figure 18. Geologic map of the Los Lamentos mining district, Sierra de los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico (adapted from Alvarez and Giles, 1986). ‘The controlling factor which resulted in the Los Lamentos limestone being a favorable bed for deposition of ore is apparently not related to chemical composition—ihe composition of the ‘barren Angela limestone which underlies the Los Lamentos Lime- stone is very similar (Foshag, 1934). Instecd it appears that the Los Lamentos limestone was favorable because of some physical property, most likely its heterogenous texture and its brecciated and fractured character which provided abundant channels for ore- forming solutions. The ore geologist Ira Joralemon (quoted by Rickard, 1924) considered the ore channel to be the result of @ fracture zone 1,000 to 1,500 feet wide, formed by the intersection of a system of N10°W fractures with a second system of fractures oriented at N35°W. Early investigators presumed that the molybdenum concentrated at depth near the water table, in the form of wulfenite, was the result oF secondary enrichment. Considering that no appreciable ‘amount of unaltered ore was found for examination, it remains possible that primary molybdenum minerals in the upper portions of the manto yielded the molybdenum which formed wulfenite. Nevertheless, no molybdenite has been found in the rare patches of unaltered ore, a situation which is typical of many major deposits of walfenite in Arizona. An unpublished study by the author has shown a rough correlation between lead deposits carrying large amounts of wulfenite, and the occurrence within a few kilometers of large copper-molybdenum porphyry bodies in Arizona. The implication is that molybdenum put into solution in groundwater and surface water by the weathering of the porphyry can travel ‘many kilometers underground until being precipitated as wulfenite in areas of altering lead deposits, the lead being far less mobile in solution than molybdenum. If a copper-molybdenum porphyry body exists within 20 or 30 km of Los Lamentos, it may well be the source of the molybdenum. However, a great deal of exploration in northern Chihuahua has yet to reveal the presence of any copper- ‘molybdenum porphyry bodies, and the distance which such metals can travel in solution is unknown, ‘Wulfenite in the mine tends to be concentrated near the Sonora- ‘Vanadium Fault zone which crosses the manto, and it is probably this zone (and perhaps others crossing the manto at a deeper level) which conveyed the molybdenum-bearing (and vanadium-bearing) ‘ground water to the manto from its source, wherever that might be. ee eeFigure 19. Idealized block diagram showing (op) original, ‘unoxidized manto (M) and sub-manto (SM) bodies of mixed sulfide ore (S) and thin “hilo” veinlets (#); the favorable horizon is the Los Lamentos Limestone (L), whereas the underlying Angela Limestone (A) is generally unmineralized. Also shown is the current form of the oxidized orebodies (ottom) in which a cavern (C) has opened up as a result of ‘acid-dissolution of limestone and shrinkage of the sulfides during weathering. The floor of the chamber is a layered deposit of cerussite and anglesite, in some places also containing iron oxides and lenses of plumbojarosite. The lowermost layers are usually white gypsum and in some cases native sulfur. Collapse boulders and rubble which have spalled off the ceiling of the chamber cover the ore bed. and are coated with a layer of white calcite and gypsum. (modified from Ransome and Patterson, 1928). Figure 20, Idealized block diagram showing the general structure of the oxidized manto and sub-manto orebodies between the 650 and 750 levels. The San Luis fault zone and Sonora-Vanadium fault zone are both many meters wide and are surrounded by wulfenite and vanadinite mineralization which inereases with depth; the lead ore in this area is primarily wulfenite, vanadinite and cerussite. (©) cavern, (L) Los Lamentos Limestone, (A) Angela Limestone, (H) thin “hilo” veins and stringers, (0) oxi- : dized lead ore. Black = calcite deposits and wulfenite. FAULT ZONE FAULTZONE H MINE WORKINGS The mine is entered by an adit known as the Marjorie tunnel, ‘which proceeds horizontally for about 320 meters to its intersec- tion with the main ineline. The incline descends from there at a 14° angle for the first 450 meters, and then steepens to a 22° angle for another 160 meters. The incline passes underneath the manto, paralleling it, with winzes and raises along its length extending upward to intersect the various stopes and caverns. The Marjorie tunnel was originally called the 1000 level, and levels below were numbered from 1 down to 13 down the Erupeién workings, and then from there starting over again at 1 where the Ahumada workings begin. For the sake of simplicity, this was later changed o1ge to call the Marjorie tunnel the O level, and the levels below numbered in hundreds of feet below the Marjorie Tunnel (e.g. the Sth level equals the 500 level, which is 500 feet below the Marjorie Tunnel). Miguel Romero (personal communication) visited the mines in June of 1980 and reported as follows: | found that there are now four tunnels, all on the west side of the mountain. £l Cuervo is the current name of the ‘original tunnel, About 50 meters below EI Cuervo is another tunnel named Frente de Guia (meaning the front or head of ‘a vein outcrop; formerly called the Marjorie tunnel); it is presently the longest, 1400 meters, and is in partial opera-SS WATER TABLE, 708 awe Figure 21. ‘The wulfenite/vanadinite zone at the lower end of the Ahumada mine is where alll specimens of these minerals have been collected. It extends from the Las Goteras stope South of the San Luts Fault zone all the way to the Los Bafios stope and beyond, north of ‘the Sonora-Vanadium Fault zone. From there it plunges below the water table, where ‘some of the finest specimens have been collected during especially dry years when the water table drops a few meters. The area below the water table undoubtedly holds a great reserve of specimens that one day may be collected if and when the water table drops of its own accord or can be temporarily pumped down. (Adapted from the unpublished map by Patterson, 1928) tion, Above these and to the left (notin the main deposit) are two other tunnels, Santa Cruz and Rerrendo or Berrenda, currently being worked for lead ore by a few miners. I checked with the miner in charge «t the Frente de Guia tunnel, and saw the little shrine to the Holy Cross about 80 meters inside from the entrance, You can still see the remains of @ small cross monument, I was told the patron saint of the mine is “San Nicolas,” and there is a chapel nearby, in ruins. However, in the 1920's, the patron saint was Santa Cruz, Even the extreme lower end of the workings required no artificial ventilation, Natural fractures, fissures, crevices and cav- ems in the limestone provide excellent satural circulation in all portions of the mine. In fact, miners would light cigarettes and note the flow of air by the smoke, then mine in the direction of greatest flow on the assumption that they would find ore-lined caverns, At 4 place 40 miles north of the mine there is said to be a large sinkhole in the heavily fissured limestore formation where, on Some days, air blows outward and, on other days, air is drawn inward. The spot was known to the locals as “the breathing volcano.” ‘The upper portion of the mine, toa distance of about 700 meters from the portal, is the Erupcién mine, and the lower workings down- ratio of around 10:1 (Peter Megaw, personal communication) was once abundant in the lower levels, especially in association with wulfenite near the water table, In places it formed crystalline mastes of high purity which Were mined as ore. The vanadinite occuss in fine, large but thin crystals of a cinnamon or raisin-brown to medium brown color and has traditionally been referred to by collectors as “endlichite;” an obsolete term for arsenate-rich vanadinite which, in any case, would not be justified by the small amount of arsenic present in Los Lamentos specimens. The best specimens were found in the Los Batfos stope on level 7, from the early 1960's through the mid- 1980's. Crystal size commonly ranges from microscopic to perhaps 1 em, bat examples 3 em long and almost pencil-thick have been found (Mike New, personal communicaticn), The smaller crystals are well-formed, hexagonal prisms with pintacoidal termination faces whereas the larger ones are cavernous. ‘The larger masses contain vugs lined with brilliant crystals Vanadinite and wulfenite appear to have incompatible stability zones, and are rarely present on the same specimen in bright, unaltered condition, Usually, localized zones predominate either in wulfenite or vanadinite, Vanadinite has replaced wulfenite in some areas, and in other places it forms crusts over wulfenite crystals, apparently having formed at the expense of the wulfenite substrate In some cases an empty shell of vanadinite is left surrounding wulfenite-shaped voids. There is no apparent systematic segrega- tion ofthe wulfenite and vanadinite-dominant zones in the Ahumada mine (Peter Megaw, personal communication), Willemite — ZnSid, Willemite was found as spongy aggregates of small, hexagonal crystals colored chocolate-brown by iron oxides. White tufts and acicular erystals were occasionally found in red hematite masses, and are still found in association with wulfenite (recent X-ray identification reported by Miguel Romero, personal communication) Wulfenite — PbMo0, The mineral of principal interest to collectors at Los Lamentos is wulfenite, which occurs in crystals to more than 6 em, primarily in the Ahumada mine. Crystals range in habit from thin tabular to 56‘Wulfenite on caleite, 5 em, purportedly én mine, Originally from the Roger Wendell Wilson photo. Figure 30, The only reliably documented walfenite specimen from the Erupcién mine, showing pyrami- dal crystals to 1.3 cm. From the collection of Louis D. Ricketts, part owner of the Erupcién mine in 1919 before the Ahumada workings were begun; now in the University of Arizona Mineral Museum collection; Figure 31. (below left) Pyramidal walfenite Figure 32. (below) Pyramidal wulfenite crystal cluster, 4 em, from the Ahum: mine, Jin Walker specimen; Wendell son photo.Figure 33. Wulfenite crystal, 3 em, on matrix, from the Ahumada mine, Martin Zinn collec tion; Jeff Seovil photo, Figure 34. Walfenite crystals to 2.2 em with descloizite, from the Ahumada mine. Kristalle specimen; Jeff Seovil photo. ‘mine, Smithsonian Institution specimen; Wendell Wilson photo. Figure 36. Wulfenite crystal, 3 em, from the Ahumada mine. Martin Zinn collection; Jeff ScoFigure 38. Wulfenite erystal cluster, 3. cm, from the Ahumada mine. Cal Graeber specimen; Jeff Scovil photo. Figure 40. Wulfenite erystals on matrix with calcite and descloizite, 5.8 cm, from the Ahumada mine, GeneSchlepp specimen (1980); Wendell Wilscn photo, blocky and pseudocubic, and even to prismatic or steeply bipyra- midal, with many minor variations along the way. In general, specimens have emerged on the mineral market in batches. Each batch seems to be distinctive in habit, suggesting a single, localized ‘occurrence within the mine for each batch. Collectors at the locality have reported either feast or famine . .. wulfenite is now Aifficult to locate, but, when found, is locally abundant. If sufficient data could be gathered, one could protably date the discovery of a particular specimen on the basis of its habit. oe Figure 39. Large blocky wulfenite crystals to 2.4 em from the 1974 pocket, Ahumada mine. ‘Wendell Wilson collection and photo. Pseudocubic crystals are said to have been found in the Erupeién, mine (Sinkankas, 1964), and this is confitmed by a cabinet specimen in the University of Arizona mineral museum donated by Louis D. Ricketts, one of the three founders of the Ahumada Lead Company in 1919 (if anyone would know the difference under- ground between the Erupcién and Ahumada mines it would be him). Another specimen labeled “Erupcién mine,” for many years in the author's collection, has erystals of identical habit. The crystals are blocky and elongated to a length/width ratio of 2:1 orFigure 41. Large blocky wulfenite crystals from the 1974 pocket, 10 ‘om, from the Ahumada mine, Norm and Roz Pellman collection and photo. Figure 43, Walfenite of an unusual habit, 4.5 em, from the Ahumada mine. Gene Schlep specimen (1980); Wendell Wilson photo. 2.5:1, Though the prism faces are roughly parallel to the ¢ axis in the center portion of the crystals the ends tend to be steeply tapered, reaching a rough-surfaced pinaccid face or coming to a steep pyramidal point. Erupcién mine wulfenite is quite scarce, however; probably more than 99% of alll Los Lamentos wulfenite specimens in collections today have come from the Ahumada ‘workings. Therefore itis generally safe to label specimens that way in the absence of any information to the contrary. Figure 42. Transparent walfenite crystal on matrix, 5.2 em, from the lowest level of the Ahumada mine, Martin Zinn collection; Jeff ‘covil photo. ‘The color ranges from a clean, pale yellow through various shades of orange to an iron-stained purplish black. Crystals are commonly color-zoned perpendicular to the ¢ axis, looking like sandwiches. The various zones range from translucent to transpar- ent. Prism and pyramid faces tend to be rounded imegularly, making goniometry impossible; a rather bubbly-appearing surface composed of intergrown hillocks is typical, The e face, where present, is usually lustrous and well formed, though it may be e296Figure 44, Transparent wulfenite erys- tals to 1.5 em from the lowest level of the Ahumada mine. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum collection (via Gene Schlepp and Miguel Romero); Wendell Wilson photo. Figure 45. ‘Transparent octago- nal crystals of wulfenite on ma- trix, 8.7 em wide, labeled as from the Erupcién mine but almost certainly from the lowest level of the Ahumada mine instead. Ri chard Jackson collection; Jeff Seovil photo. Figure 46, Tabular wulfenite erystals col- ored dark brown in the center (probably by inclusions of hematite), 8.9 cm, from the Ahumada mine, Martin Zinn collee- tion; Jeff Scovil photo.incised with numerous pits and lines sometimes on a square pattern rotated approximately 11° from the square perimeter of the face. In extreme cases the c face disappears entirely in favor of irregularly intergrown pyramids or tightly packed acicular terminations. Such crystals, though interesting and regular, may lack a single measur- able form. Associations are limited to calcite (which covers the matrix as @ fine-grained white blanket to 1 or 2 em thick on some specimens), vanadinite, descloizite, willemite and hydrozincite. A dusting of ‘minute, green, poorly formed crystals on the caleite matrix of some spocimens has been identified as pyromorphite (Romero, personal communication). Some wulfenite occurson spongy black hematite, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Richard A. Bideaux for several interesting discussions regarding wulfenite localities, in particular for his suggestion about the possible correlation of wulfenite-lead deposits with copper-molybdenum porphyries. Thanks are also due Gene Schlep of Western Minerals, Tuc- son, for permitting me to draw on his large stock of fine specimens for examples to photograph; Miguel Romero for information; William Pancaner, formerly of the Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum, for making specimens available; and Shirley ‘Wetmore of the University of Ari- zona mineral museum and Rock Cur- niet for access to additional speci- ‘mens. Rock Curtier, Stan Esbenshadk, Mike New, Wayne Thompson, Gra- hham Sutton, Curtis Schuh and Manel Ontiveros also kindly contributed in- formation, and Art Smith provided a copy of his unpublished bibliography of articles on Mexican minerals. Stan Esbenshade, Brad van Scriver, Miguel Romero, Tom Moore, and the Ari- zona Historical Society kindly pro- vided a number of locality photo- ‘graphs, both old and recent. Archivist Tracy Robinson of the Smithsonian Institution Archives kindly provided access to William F. Foshag’s origi- nal photo files from his tips to Los Lamentos in the 1930's, 1 especially want to thank Peter Megaw for supplying copies of several private reports and maps, and for first-hand information obtained during his exploratory work thete; and IMDEX Inc. for supplying bibliographic data from their MEXBIB 3.2 database. BIBLIOGRAPHY ALVAREZ, A. and GILES, D. A. (1986) Los Lamentos lead-silver ‘mine, Chihuahua: in CLARK, K. F, MEGAW, P. K. M., and. RUIZ, J., eds., Lead-Zine-Silver carbonate-hosted deposits of northern Mexico, Society of Economic Geologists Guidebook, Nov. 13-17, 1986, p. 305-310. ANACONDA COMPANY (1950) Los Lamentos Mine. Company report. Intemational Archive of Economic Geology, Anaconda Collection, Laramie, Wyoming, ANONYMOUS (1945) Los Lamentos, Mexico, descloizites and wulfenites. Rocks & Minerals, 20 (5), 213. ANONYMOUS (1968) H. C. Dudley, world mining man, dies here [obituary]. Duluth News-Tribune, June 20, 1968. ANTUNEZ-ECHEGARAY, M. (1954) Informe geologico minero de la Sierra De Los Lamentos, Municipio de Ahumada, Chihua- ‘hua. Unpublished C:R.N.NR,, Informes Ineditos del Archivo ‘Tecnico, Mexico, DR BEALES, F. W., and LOSEJ, J. P. (1971) Geology of the Los Lamentos Range. Private report to Tormex, S. A., 10 p. BENNETT, R. H. (1963) Quest for Ore. T. S. Denison & Co., Minneapolis, 135-152, BLAIR, G. (1970) A mineral collector visits Mexico. Gems & Minerals, no. 388, January, 22-24, BRONIMANN, E., 1945, Map of Los Lamentos Mining Camp, Chihuahua, Bancroft Collection, University of California at Berkeley, Map Collection, Map Carton #1 FOSHAG, W. F. (1934) The ore deposits of Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico. Economic Geology, 29, 330-345. HORCASITAS, J. (1929) Las minas de la Cia, Minera de Plomo SA y de la Cia. Minera Erupcién y Anexas (Los Lamentos), Boletin Minero, 28 (4), 240, KATZ, F. (1998) The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford University Press, 1998, LONGORIO, J. (1984) Drilling sec- tions at Los Lamentos. Private report to Fresnillo S. A. MEGAW, P. K. M,, BARTON, M. D., and ISLAS-FALCE, J. (1996) Carbonate-hosted lead-zine (Ag, Cu, Au) deposits of northern Chi- hhuahua. tn SANGSTER, D. F., ed., Society of Economic Geolo- sists Special Publication No. 4, 277-289, MEGAW, P. K. M., RUIZ, J., and TITLEY, S. R. (1988) High- tem- perature, carbonate-hosted, Pb- Zo-Ag massive sulfide deposits of Mexico: An overview. Eco: nomic Geology, 83, 1856~ 1885. PANCZNER, W. (1984) Benny J. Fenn (in Notes from Mexico) ‘Mineralogical Record, 15, 239, RANSOME, F. L, (1927) Report on the geology of the Los Lamentos Range. Private report prepared for the Ahumada Lead Company, 42 p RANSOME, F L., and PATTERSON, J. W. (1928) Geology and ore de- posits of the Los Lamentos Range, Chihuahua, Mexico, Unpublished private report, 73 p. RICKARD, T. A. (1924)The Ahumada lead mine and the ore deposits of the Los Lamentos Range, in Mexico. Engineering and Mining Journal, 118, 365-373, RUSSELL, R. W. (1924) Preliminary report on the Los Lamentos mining district. Unpublished CR.NNR,, Informes Ineditos del Archivo Tecnico, Mexico, DF. SINKANKAS, J. (1964) Mineralogy for Amateurs, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, p. 434, VANCE, L. W. (1949) A visit to Los Lamentos, Mexico. Rocks d ‘Minerals, 4 (11-12). Reprinted (1982) in Mineralogical Record, 13, 318-319, WILSON, W. E, (1977) The distribution of wulfenite in North ‘America. Unpublished report. WILSON, W. B. (1980a) What’s new in minerals? Tucson Show 1980. Mineralogical Record, 11, 190. WILSON, W. B. (1980b) Famous mineral localities: Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico. Mineralogical Record, 11, 277-286. WILSON, W. E. (1984) Los Lamenos—walfenite aus Mexiko, Lapis, 9 (6), 9-11.Tar 50H Annvat FBCOR GEM AND MINERAL SHOW THIS YEAR GOLD will be the featured spe- cies atthe 50th annual Tucson Show: the exhibits will be spectacular. If there is any chance that ‘you can arrange a trip to see the world-famous ‘Tucson Show, this will be the year aot to miss! In addition to extraordinary exhibits from muse- ums and private collections worldwide, you'll see the world’s top mineral dealers, publishers and program lecturers, Make your arrangements now to attend! Use Church Street or Granada ‘Avenue Entrance! ‘Tucson Convention Center, Downtown Tuc- son, See: Competitive Exhibits, The Arthur Roe ‘Memorial Micromount Symposium, Mineral Photography Seminar and Competition, Sym- posium on Gold and Gold-containing Minerals (sponsored by FM, MSA and TGMS), Great Saturday Night Program and Auctions. 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