The Sabinas Mine is operated by Industrias Peñoles and exploits the northwestern part of the same skarn orebody exploited by Grupo Mexico through the San Martin Mine. The property boundary between the two companies dovetails irregularly through the western part of the skarn body and the mineralogy is essentially identical on both sides of the boundary so there is no geological difference between the two mines. However, the San Martin Mine got started going deep 25 years before Sabinas so was operating at much deeper levels at any given time. This means minerals characteristic of the upper levels of the system (apophyllite, stilbite, stibnite) came out of Sabinas 20 years or so after they came out of San Martin. San Martin closed in the late 2000s so since then all specimens from the district have come from Sabinas.

Most of the minerals seen from Sabinas are primary species, but oxidation affected the deposit from the surface to about the 150 m level. Most of the oxides were mined out long ago, but small prospect and high-grade pits dot the surface and oxide minerals can be found there. These oxide minerals reflect their sulfide precursors with chrysocolla and azurite seen around the peripheries and adamite and conichalcite and cerussite towards the intrusive contact.

Prior to 1998 the Sabinas Mine exploited narrow high-grade veins that cut the skarn and extend beyond it. The largest of these veins continues northwest for 2 kilometers and was exploited through the La Noria Shaft and related workings for over 300 years, producing some of the richest silver ores ever produced in Mexico outisde of Batopilas. The Noria Mine was exhausted in the early 1970s and allowed to flood. However, many specimens from the Sabinas Mine (and probably San Martin as well) bear an erroneous "Noria Mine" or "La Noria de San Pantaleon" label, often from Blue Sky Minerals, which brought out a lot of material from the district in the 1990s. Specimens younger than 1975 cannot have come from La Noria and since the Sabinas Shaft and Ramp lie over a kilometer from the Noria Shaft and the Sabinas mine workings have never been accessible through the Noria workings there is no justification for labeling them as Noria. La Noria de San Pantaleon was the small mine colony at the headframe of the Noria Mine. This settlement shows on government maps but was largely abandoned by the 1980s. In 1999 there were only one or two habitable buildings left. If one desires a nearby community for location attribution "San Martin", which is the miners town of several hundred people 2 kilometers from the Sabinas installations, is a better choice than San Pantaleon.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References