Mexico’s geology is key to gold deposits

By Leia Michele Toovey
Gold Investing News

The majority of gold mined in Mexico is as a co-product first of silver, and secondly of copper. The bedrock beneath Mexico is laden with an intricate, and valuable network of vein deposits of minerals.

The bedrock deposits of the great silver-gold vein system of the Veta Madre at Guanajuato were discovered in the year 1550 and unearthed almost immediately. Numbered amongst the leading gold districts that have since been exhausted, El Oro was discovered in 1521 and mined for nearly 400 years, generating an output in excess of 5 million ounces of gold.

A history of intense volcanism and pyroclastic activity is the reason behind Mexico’s rich mineral deposits. Most mineral producing regions of the world have some areas where magnetism is the predominant force behind the geologic development; however, in the case of Mexico, virtually all of the crust has been intruded by magma.

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