The Garnet Mine, Orogrande, NM
The Garnet mine is located at LAT N32.41267° LONG W106.10862°
The mine can be spotted on the right side of the jeep trail by it's massive tailing pile. There appears to be three levels of this mine, judging by the verticle shafts that we have witnessed. We ventured into the 2nd (the main level) and 3rd level and this mine is in suprisinly good shape, clean of debris, and it looks like it is still being mined on a very limited scale. We would estimate that the combined distance of the tunnels is around a half mile or more...this really is a big one.
This mine seems to have a large quantity of Pyrite, Turquoise, Copper and Iron but we were unable to find any data on MINDAT other than it may have been called the Lucky Mine at one time. We would also think that the Garnet Group (Galena) would be common by the name of the mine but Garnet seemed to be more prevalent up north towards the Charleston and Iron Queen mines.
Legal stuff: We, at the Raging Main, do not encourage nor do we recommend for anyone to venture into any mines, shafts or caves...neither does the BLM Abandoned Mine Lands Cleanup Program. Mines are killers and many hazards exist...If you have questions about mine safety please go to: http://www.blm.gov/aml/.