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{{Short description|Area of ore deposits in Colorado, United States}}

factoids

| map_alt =| relief =| label =| label_position =| mark =| marker_size =| location = Colorado| grid_ref =| grid_ref_UK =| grid_ref_Ireland =| coordinates = | coordinates_ref =| range = | part_of =| water_bodies =| elevation_ft = | elevation_ref = | surface_elevation_ft = | surface_elevation_ref =| highest_point =| highest_elevation =| highest_coords =| length = | width = | area = | depth =| drop =| formed_by =| geology = | age =| orogeny = Laramide| volcanic_arc/belt = | volcanic_arc =| volcanic_belt =| volcanic_field =| eruption =| last_eruption = | topo = | operator = | designation = | free_label_1 =| free_data_1 =| free_label_2 =| free_data_2 =| website = | embed =}}{{For|the other mineral areas at the Colorado Western Slope and Pikes Peak Region, and for the history of the state’s mineral belts|Uravan Mineral Belt|Cripple Creek Gold Rush{{!}}Cripple Creek district|Colorado mining history}}The Colorado Mineral Belt (CMB) is an area of ore deposits from the La Plata Mountains in Southwestern Colorado to near the middle of the state at Boulder, Colorado, and from which over 25 million troy ounces (778 t) of gold were extracted beginning in 1858.WEB, Colorado Geological Survey, 2022, Minerals,coloradogeologicalsurvey.org/minerals/, 2022-10-27, Colorado Geological Survey, The belt is a “northeast-striking zone defined by: a Proterozoic shear zone system (McCoy, 2001); a suite of Laramide-aged plutons and related ore deposits (Tweto and Sims, 1963); a major gravity low (Isaacson and Smithson, 1976); low-crustal velocities; and high heat flow (Decker et al., 1988).“CD-ROM Working Group, Structure and Evolution of the Lithosphere Beneath the Rocky Mountains: Initial Results from the CD-ROM Experiment. GSA Today 12, #3, p. 4-10, 2002. weblink {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329103035www.colorado.edu/GeolSci/faculty/pdf/karlstrom_et_al_0302.pdf|date=2012-03-29}} Mining districts include:fairburn-mining.com/CMB_Revisited.pdf" title="https:/-/web.archive.org/web/20130908203624fairburn-mining.com/CMB_Revisited.pdf">weblink

• Central City-Idaho Springs district
• Leadville mining district, named for Leadville, Colorado
• Sneffels-Red Mountain-Telluride district

The belt lies within a zone{{Specify|reason=What is the name of the larger “zone“?|date=March 2014}} that has been geologically active at intervals beginning from near the time of crustal accretion in central Colorado at least 1.6 billion years ago until the present. Parts of the CMB follow shear zones of Precambrian ageREPORT, Tweto, Ogden, Sims, Paul K., 1963, Precambrian Ancestry of the Colorado Mineral Belt.’’,gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/74/8/991, abstract with link to PDF, Geological Society of America, Bulletin 74, 991–1014, 2014-03-02, and the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. Igneous rocks intruded about 60 to 70 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny are associated with the belt and once were thought to be responsible for most of the ore deposits.REPORT, Charles G. Cunningham, 1994, Ages of Selected Intrusive Rocks and Associated Ore Deposits in the Colorado Mineral Belt,pubs.usgs.gov/bul/2109/report.pdf, United States Geological Survey, Bulletin 2109, 2014-03-02, etal, Now many of the important ore deposits are thought to be{{Opinion|date=March 2014}} genetically related to younger magmatism, some at least as young as about 25 million years.

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• geosurvey.state.co.us/pubs/geohazards/docs/mining.asp" title="web.archive.org/web/20040423194031geosurvey.state.co.us/pubs/geohazards/docs/mining.asp">Map of the Colorado Mineral Belt

{{Colorado|state=collapsed}}