Deposit

Climax

Climax is a deposit with published resource estimates in Colorado, recorded in the USGS USMIN rare earth element occurrence database (ver. 4.0, June 2019).

Facts on this page last re-verified Aug 12, 2026 — the oldest verification date among its current claims. How we verify.

Location: Colorado, United States (39.369, -106.165 approx.)

Commodities: molybdenum; tungsten; rhenium; platinum-group elements; tin; rare earth elements

Deposit model: Climax Mo

Geology

The Climax mine is a porphyry molybdenum deposit with molybdenite as the primary sulfide mineral. (Climax Molybdenum (2017)) The Climax deposit is within the southern extension of the Front Range mineral belt and lies on the east side of the Mosquito fault. This fault is a strong, westward-dipping normal fault that separates Pennsylvanian and Permian (?) sedimentary rocks of the Minturn formation on the west from Precambrian crystalline rocks that constitute the bulk of the Tenmile Range in the vicinity of Climax (fig. 1). Rocks on both sides of the fault are intruded by various Tertiary (?) porphyries in the form of dikes, sills, and stocks. (Wallace and others (1960))

Published resource estimates

As compiled by USGS USMIN from the cited studies. Resource classes follow the source; "approximate" flags values USMIN reports as approximations. These are not current company reserve statements.

Material	Class	Amount	Grade	Contained	As of	Reference
tungsten trioxide (WO3)	Unclassified	375,000,000 t	0.03 percent	89,200 metric tons W	Jan 1, 1982	Werner and others (1998), Page 64, Table 10
platinum (Pt) + palladium (Pd)	Unclassified	≈800,000,000 t	0.44 parts per billion	0.4 metric tons Pt + Pd	Jan 1, 2016	John and Taylor (2016), Page 156, Table 3 — John, D.A., and Taylor, R.D., 2016, By-Products of Porphyry Copper and Molybdenum Deposits in Verplanck, P.L., and Hitzman, M.W., (eds), 2016, Rare Earth and Critical Elements in Ore Deposits: Society of Economic Geologists, Inc., Reviews in Economic Geology, Volume 18, p. 137-164.
rhenium (Re)	Unclassified	≈800,000,000 t	0.04 grams per metric ton	32.1 metric tons Re	Jan 1, 2017	John and others (2017), Pages 46-47, Table P2 — John, D.A., Seal, R.R., II, and Polyak, D.E., 2017, Rhenium, chap. P of Schulz, K.J., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., Seal, R.R., II, and Bradley, D.C., eds., Critical mineral resources of the United States—Economic and environmental geology and prospects for future supply: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1802, p. P1– P49, http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/pp1802P.
molybdenum (Mo)	Probable	24,000,000 t	0.09 percent	21,600 metric tons Mo	Jan 1, 2016	Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (2017), Page 29 — Freeport-McMoRan Inc., 2017, Annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016: Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 10-K, 220 p., accessed June 5, 2017 at https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/831259/000083125917000012/a2016form10-k.htm.
molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)	Unclassified	77,100,000 t	0.7 percent	324,000 metric tons Mo	Jan 1, 1931	Butler and Vanderwilt (1933), Page 231 — Butler, B.S., and Vanderwilt, J.W., 1933, The Climax Molybdenum Deposit Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 846-C, p. 196-237.
tungsten trioxide (WO3)	Unclassified	151,000,000 t	0.03 percent	36,000 metric tons W	Jan 1, 1952	Paley and others (1952), Page 162 — Paley, W.S., Brown, G.R., Bunker, A.H., Hodgins, Eric, and Mason, E.S., 1952, Resources for Freedom, Volume 1, Foundations for Growth and Security, A Report to the President by The President's Materials Policy Commission: United States Government Printing Office, Washington.
molybdenum (Mo)	Proven	146,000,000 t	0.16 percent	234,000 metric tons Mo	Jan 1, 2016	Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (2017), Page 29 — Freeport-McMoRan Inc., 2017, Annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016: Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 10-K, 220 p., accessed June 5, 2017 at https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/831259/000083125917000012/a2016form10-k.htm.

Recorded production

Climax, Climax Mine: produced 903,000 metric tons of molybdenum (Mo) at 0.23111 percent, containing about 2,080 metric tons Mo, 1911–2016 (Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (2017); U.S. Bureau of Mines (1932-1959); American Metal Climax (1957-1969); American Metal Climax (1972-1973); Amax (1974-1992); Cyprus-Amax (1993-1995); Wallace and others (1968); Schwochow and Hornbaker (1985))
Climax, Climax Mine: produced 1,540 metric tons of tin (Sn), containing about 1,540 metric tons Sn, 1911–1995 (U.S. Bureau of Mines (1932-1959); American Metal Climax (1957-1969); American Metal Climax (1972-1973); Amax (1974-1992); Cyprus-Amax (1993-1995); Wallace and others (1968); Schwochow and Hornbaker (1985))
Climax, Climax Mine: produced 20,100 metric tons of tungsten trioxide (WO3), containing about 16,000 metric tons W, 1911–1995 (U.S. Bureau of Mines (1932-1959); American Metal Climax (1957-1969); American Metal Climax (1972-1973); Amax (1974-1992); Cyprus-Amax (1993-1995); Wallace and others (1968); Schwochow and Hornbaker (1985))

Exploration and site history

Active — Intermittent production, 1918–2016 (Butler and Vanderwilt (1933))
Discovery — Molybdenum discovered, 1895–1900 (Butler and Vanderwilt (1933))

Record imported from USGS USMIN ver. 4.0 (June 2019). Developments after that date appear on facility records, not here; see the methodology.

Sources

U.S. Geological Survey · published Jun 1, 2019 · retrieved Aug 12, 2026 · archive unavailable: Wayback snapshot 20260427015518 of the ScienceBase item exists but the archive service returned 503 on verification 2026-08-12; recheck on a weekly pass