The Baldy placers occur on the east side of Mount Baldy, with rich gravels at South Ponil, Ute, and Willow Creeks. Well over 100,000 ounces came from this area, which included many large nuggets that a modern day metal detector would be able to locate. The Elizabethtown Baldy District was most productive along the west side of Mount Baldy, with paying gravels found in Grouse and Humbug Creeks, as well as the Moreno River.

Here are a few of the most productive gold producing districts in New Mexico. Searching in areas that gold has been found in the past is always a good idea. Since water is a limiting factor in this southwestern state, the best tools for finding gold nuggets in most areas will be drywashers and metal detectors. This also means that there is likely a lot of gold still available for the prospector to discover. The extremely dry climate in New Mexico has probably limited its gold production due to the lack of water. Much of the state’s gold has come as a byproduct of mining for other minerals, but plenty of gold has been found in placer and bench deposits. The majority of gold production has come since whites settled the state since 1848. Although, Spanish explorers and Mexican settlers found gold many centuries ago, the Apache tribes make gold prospecting quite difficult for the earliest inhabitants of New Mexico. Still, New Mexico has produced quite a bit of gold over the past few centuries, including both lode and placer deposits.

New Mexico has nowhere near the gold production of Arizona, its neighbor to the west.

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