New Mexico Rockhounding: Magdalena District
Nitt mine’s iconic mining equipment, artifacts from another era of polymetallic mining.
Hello all! Welcome back to Rock Talk with Angel.
We’ve recently been exploring an area that any New Mexico miner worth their salt will know: the famous Magdalena District, including such well-known mines as Kelly, Graphic, Waldo, and Nitt. We had the opportunity to take a day trip to this area, and used it to rockhound at the Graphic and Nitt mines!
Before any rockhounding trip, your first priority is to understand the basic rules and protocols for collecting rocks, fossils, and minerals. Take a look at my guide for Rockhounding Rules and Tools here...
Graphic Mine & Magdalena District History:
The Graphic mine is technically known as Graphic-Waldo, as they access the same orebody (levels above level 6 are technically Graphic mine, and levels below are Waldo mine). The mine includes 14 levels accessed by several tunnels and one shaft--the total underground length of the mine extended up to 9,000 feet. Nitt mine workings mined the same orebody, and several levels also connect to the famous Kelly Mine. In its heyday, the Graphic-Waldo orebody produced gold, copper, silver, lead, and eventually zinc.
The Graphic and Juanita mines were staked in 1866 by J.S. "Old Hutch" Hutchinson. From the 1870s to 1904, the mine was operated and sold from one owner to another, building value and expanding the workings. From 1904-1928 (after the Graphic was purchased by the Sherwin Williams Paint Company) the Magdalena district produced 46% of the total zinc mined in New Mexico, and 34% of the lead. After WWII broke out, the district played an important role throughout the conflict in the production of industrial "war metals"--the Graphic-Waldo mine was closed in 1961. 36 distinct mineral species, and 5 commercial metallic commodities, have been reported from this mine, making it a rich and diverse source of collectible minerals!
Graphic Mine Access and Permissions:
For Graphic mine access and protocol, reach out to Grace at Bill’s Rock Shop in Magdalena. Grace is a Magdalena native, a nice lady who continues to operate the little rock shop her dad ran. Visiting the shop is alone is worth the visit! Give Grace a call, pay a small fee, obtain permission for collecting, and follow her instructions to get up to the mine dumps.
Magdalena District Hazards and Road conditions:
4WD and high clearance vehicles are highly recommended for the Graphic mine access road, and locked gates along the way bar the way to those who would visit the mine without permission. For your safety, freedom, and the ethics of the hobby, don't be that guy! The mine is on private property.
Graphic Mine's collecting area is defined by large, slippery hills of mine tailings, and nearby Nitt shaft also has antique mining structures dotting the surface above the dumps. (Stay away from these structures, and never collect inside or underneath them.) In New Mexico (as in Colorado), another major hazard to be aware of is abandoned mine shafts. Shafts can extend from dozens to hundreds of feet deep into the earth, and may be unmarked. In the NM spring and summer, watch for snakes--in the winter, keep an eye out for coyote traps in the area. In all seasons, cougars may be in the trees and rock ledges above. Bring water and wear sunscreen to avoid overexposure. While these warnings may feel intimidating, knowing the risks and coming prepared is your job as a safe and responsible rockhound!
Rockhounding experience at the Graphic:
Once we arrived at the mine, it was on! The mineral species are as colorful and diverse at the Graphic as anywhere in the region. Digging and surface collecting are your go-to methods here—since the prospecting is happening in tailings, hard rock mining doesn’t apply. The mine dumps are littered with limestone chunks intergrown with delicate psilomelane dendrites (tree-like or fern-like growth). The easiest pieces to find here, and definitely worth collecting your favorites for later!
In our experience, many of our most colorful fIndia (post-cleaning) appeared to be just dirt clusters or nearly colorless blobs when first collected; if you spot a pop of color, take it home and clean it! The wide variety of minerals resulted in many colorful and unique combination specimens, with one of the prizes we collected being smithsonite. The great difference in density and hand-feel helps to distinguish smithsonite from other species here.
Brightly colored or pale blue allophane is a common mineral here, but lacks the durability or collectibility of some of the other species. We recommend avoiding cleaning either Allophane or Psilomelane plumes with water, as it can cause them to disintegrate—allophane can also be photo-sensitive.
Nearby Nitt shaft was a fun spot to browse the surface and collect neat pyrite cubic specimens compacted in the dirt (bring a screwdriver or similar implement to pop them loose). However, in the short visit we had here, most of the pyrite crystals did appear weathered and incomplete—the smell of sulfur was abundant, and pyrite in many forms littered the dumps. We’d like to return to Nitt as well, as we think it would yield more interesting pieces with a bit more time spent exploring.
With the exception of the water-sensitive species mentioned above, cleaning with a textile gun was invaluable for revealing the true colors of our Graphic mine finds, but do expect a VERY messy cleanup job afterward.
Overall, we found the rockhounding at the Graphic and Nitt mines to be at a beginner to intermediate difficulty level, the specimens to be unique and diverse, and the access to be easy to moderate, and weather dependent (4WD/high clearance strongly recommended).
Have you been to Magdalena district, or would like to visit? Comment below with your experience!
Thanks for tuning in to Rock Talk! Follow the blog for more modern lore and history of the gems we love, as well as a firsthand perspective on some classic rockhounding localities around the US. Follow for more of our adventures, and catch us on Instagram and Tiktok @phenomenalgems to check out more of our finds! Rock on, my friends!