New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

Mexico's wealth of mineral resources is very well known, and even after five centuries of continuous mining, it is still considered that less than half her territory has been adequately explored. Mexico has been the world's leader in silver production since Spanish colonial times. During the Paris Exposition last century, it was estimated that 90% of the silver used in Europe at that time had come from Mexico. Mexico remains the world's leading silver producer today and is an important producer of at least 15 other minerals.

Unfortunately, this outstanding industrial development has not been accompanied by extensive historical records regarding the variety of minerals found, especially the hundreds of mineral species found during the early centuries of mining. This is surprising given the fact that the first school of mines was established in Mexico City in 1792 and that the distinguished Spanish-Mexican mineralo¬gist, Andres Manuel del Rio wrote the first Mexican mineralogy book in 1795. (Del Rio is also known for the role he played in the discovery of the element vanadium.)

Geological Institute Bulletins 40 and 41 (National Autonomous University of Mexico.. . UNAM), written by Jose G. Aguilera in 1922, represent the best information about Mexican mineral species and their localities known in his time. In more recent years, William D. Panczner made an effort to tackle an update in his book, "Minerals of Mexico" (1987).

There are scattered mineral collections and some minor museums at certain universities in Mexico, but there is no single mineral collection or museum that preserves any significant number of specimens from the last century or the early part of the present one. Perhaps older museums like the one at the Geological Institute in Mexico City, and at the School of Mines in Guanajuato may still hold some older mineral samples in their basements from this period, but no one really knows

The Romero mineral collection, which was started in 1970 and evolved into the Romero Mineral Museum by 1978, represents a modest effort to preserve the modern mineralogy and fill the gap regarding older materials. Unfortunately, for the most part it is too late to recover the lost wealth and treasures of the past. This presentation will describe some aspects of the motivation for starting the Romero collection, as well as its structure and development to date.