"Other skarn types"

"There are many other types of skarn which historically have been mined or explored for a variety of metals and industrial minerals. Some of the more interesting include rare earth element enriched skarns (e.g. Kato, 1989). REEs tend to be enriched in specific mineral phases such as garnet, idocrase, epidote, and allanite. Vesuvianite and epidote with up to 20% REE (Ce>La>Pr>Nd) have been found in some gold skarns and zinc skarns (Gemmel et al., 1992; Meinert, unpublished data)."

"Some skarns contain economic concentrations of REEs and uranium (Kwak and Abeysinghe, 1987; Lentz, 1991). The Mary Kathleen skarn deposit in Queensland, Australia is unusual in that REEs and uranium daughter minerals in fluid inclusions suggest that these elements can be strongly concentrated in high-temperature hydrothermal fluids (Kwak and Abeysinghe, 1987). This suggests that other metasomatic environments should be examined for possible concentrations of REEs and uranium"

"The occurrence of platinum group elements is reported in some skarns (e.g. Knopf, 1942). These deposits have not been well documented in the literature and most appear to represent metasomatism of ultramafic rocks (e.g. Yu, 1985). It is difficult to evaluate the abundance of PGEs in different skarn types because PGEs have not been routinely analyzed until recently. Geochemical considerations suggest that PGEs could be transported under very acidic, oxidized conditions (Wood, 1989). In the skarn environment such conditions might be reached in the greisen alteration stage of tin skarns. This might be a direction for future research and exploration"

http://www.earthsci.org/mineral/mindep/depfile/skarn.htm

My Thoughts & Guesses:

1) We already know that the presense of REEs have been detected at Hay Mountain. We do not know which, nor in what concentrations. However, the fact that they are there fits the models described above, and that's a huge plus, IMO.

2) Very significantly, the discussion above also gets into the sometimes relationship between skarn deposits and rare earth elements (RREs) AND uranium !!!

A) We already know of evidence supporting the presence of RREs at Hay Mountain.

B) I put up a number of posts in the last few months documenting radon gas being found in the Copper Queen mine at Bisbee. Radon come from decaying uranium.

C) Given Hay Mountain is part of the Bisbee Formation, there is evidence for Hay Mountain to also have uranium somewhere in the mix.

3) As if this is not enough, I suggested some days ago that the known mix of minerals at Hay Mountain also points to some potential for the presence of platium group elements (PGEs). This is also bourne out in the discussion above.

Only drilling and the consequential lab tests will tell us what, if anything, we have in economic grades, and just what that mix may be.

Meanwhile, I think this story gets more exciting all of the time. Hay Mountain richer than Pebble? ...countdown to drilling comes with a JV.

VP (holding my breath)