Description
Includes a general summary of the geology and mineral and mineral fuel potential of Park County along with topographic and geologic maps of tract locations. The main body of the report is an evaluation of the resource potential for oil and gas, coal, metallic minerals, and industrial minerals for individual tracts. Digital PDF download. OF-99-15D
Four general categories of resources are included in this inventory:
- oil and gas
- coal
- metallic minerals
- industrial minerals and construction materials
Each individual tract evaluation includes:
- A bar graph which ranks each tract’s resource potential for each of the four mineral categories. An explanation of the categories may be found at the end of this introduction
- Tract identifier number, county name, and county location map
- Tract location on a 7-1/2-minute United States Geologic Survey topographic map
- Tract location on a United States Geologic Survey surface outcrop map
- Location as to section, township, and range and approximate acreage
- Overview of tract geology
- Specific assessment of the resource potential for the four resource categories
- References used in assessing tract potential
From the Introduction:
Park County is situated in the central Colorado and includes the large intermontane basin South Park. Mineral resources include silver, gold, zinc, lead, and copper. Other metallic commodities exploited in the past from in-situ deposits include copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, radium, tin, titanium, thorium, tungsten, uranium, and vanadium. Other non-metallic in-situ commodities exploited in the past include barite, feldspar, fluorite, garnet, mica, monazite, rare earth elements, topaz, and vermiculite. Also present are a small amount of coal, and some oil and gas.
Mines and prospects in Park County are distributed among nine major districts and 26 less productive ones. Ores were sourced in both placer and lode deposits. The most important mines were producers of various combinations of gold, silver, lead, and zinc and are located east of the crest of the Mosquito Range and west of the U.S. Highway 285 and Colorado State Highway 9 in the northwest portion of the county. Although vein-type tungsten has been exploited from several mines in the northwestern portion of the county, the metal is most widespread in the southeastern and east-central portion of the county. Uranium is found in the Guffey and the Greater Alma Districts, and uranium-vanadium-radium-copper bodies are found in the Garo District. Beryllium has been exploited at numerous locations in the east-central portion of the county.
In Park County the sources of sand and gravel are primarily Quaternary deposits related to both the present day South Platte River system as well as extensive glacial deposits. Coal was mined from 1870 to 1905 from the Como District and is also present in outcrop in the Kenosha Pass and Hartsel Districts. South Park Basin has two distinct petroleum regimes; the eastern sub-basin with potential petroleum reservoirs and the western sub-basin unexplored for oil or gas.
