White brick manufacture utilizing kline mountain, New Mexico Clay

Abstract

The Kline Mountain kaolin deposit is situated on the northwestern flank of Kline Mountain in the complex black range uplift, Sierra County, New Mexico. It is located within the Gila National Forest. The deposit, discovered by Dr. F.L. Schneider in 1958, was used experimentally for its kaolin content in making ceramic tile. In 1962 and 1980, samples from the deposit were examined in some detail by the private sector to be utilized as paper coater. However, fine-grained silica (sristobalite and/or tridymite) within the kaolin has been reported as a major drawback for use in the paper industry. The whole deposit was reported to have 200 million tons reserve with 38 to 39 percent A1203 and a very high Standard Brightness of 94 percent. The production of kaolin has been by open pit mining methods. About 900 tons of kaolin were sold in 1969 for use as an oil absorbent by Union Oil Company. After screening crushed kaolin ore, it was shipped by trucks to Elephant Butte Lake for use in the Santa Barbara Channel Oil Spill. The kaolinized tuff of the Kline Mountain area lies on the eastern margin of the Mogollon Plateau volcano-tectonic province, a major mid-Tertiary volcanic center. The later stage of the evolution of this center was related to the extensional environment of Basin and Range province and the Rio Grande rift. Local faults in the study area could have originated by the intrusion of Kline Mountain rhyoli- tic domes, which may be a set of ring fracture intrusions possibly related to the Gila Cliff Dwellings cauldron to the west. These faults have probably been reactivated by Basin and Range extension in the past 21 Ma. Faults in the study area display two dominant trends : northwest and northeast. The dominant structural style found in the study area is high-angle normal faulting. The stratigraphy in the Kline Mountain clay deposit area consists of mid-Tertiary bimodal volcanic and volcanoclastic deposits that consist of basaltic andesite lavas, high-silica rhyolite lavas, and pyroclastic material.