1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Black Creek

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
Map
XML
JSON
KML
C
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Alteration
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Links to other databases
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10000677
MRDS ID A011301
Record type Site
Current site name Black Creek
Alternate or previous names Wagner and associates, Wagner lode
Related records 10282776

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -147.23276, 63.17963 (WGS84)
Relative position The map site of this prospect is at an elevation of about 4,100 feet on the west side of Eldorado Creek, about 0.4 mile south of Black Creek. It is in the SE1/4 of sec. 18, T. 20 S., R. 3 E., of the Fairbanks Meridian. The prospect is shown as site 21 in Smith, 1981.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Matanuska-Susitna(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Healy A-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Mount Hayes SW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Healy(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Susitna River(hydrologic unit)

Susitna River(hydrologic accounting unit)

South Central Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Gold Ore
Pyrite Ore
Pyrrhotite Ore
Calcite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Pyritization; silicification; and local iron staining.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Nearby scientific data

(1) Kgu
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Black Creek prospect explores one of several mineral deposits in a belt south of Valdez Creek. The Valdez Creek area is underlain by pre-Upper Triassic pelitic clastic rocks, minor tuff, limestone lenses, and conglomerate. The rocks apparently vary abruptly in regional metamorphosed grade, from prehnite-pumpellyite through greenschist and amphibolite, to granulite. These rocks are intruded by Upper Jurassic alkali gabbro and by dioritic intrusions of Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary age (Smith, 1981).? the bedding and foliation of the strata strike about N 75 E and dip steeply northwest. Strike-slip faults having a similar orientation are also present, particularly on the south side of Valdez Creek (Smith, 1981). On the north side of the creek, a northwest-dipping thrust fault in part explains an apparent 'telescoping' of the metamorphic rocks.? the Black Creek deposit apparently consists of sulfide-bearing, locally auriferous quartz veins in sheared, brecciated, and altered sedimentary and dioritic intrusive rocks. The sulfide minerals include arsenopyrite, pyrite, and pyrrhotite. Recurrent movement along faults, pulses of hydrothermal alteration, and recurrent injection of quartz veins has produced complex geology in the prospect area (Smith, 1981). The prospect area is rust stained in the vicinity of the adit due to the oxidation of iron sulfide minerals. There is a gold and arsenic geochemical anomaly around the prospect area.? Smith (1981) mapped an old adit consisting of about 200 feet of underground workings. He reported argillite, metagraywacke and dioritic intrusive rock, all displaying varying degrees of shearing, quartz veining, and brecciation. Samples on ten foot intervals contained gold values as high as 120 parts per million. Underground development which terminated in 1998, did not find gold values of economic interest. No drilling has been done.
  • Age = Late Cretaceous or Early Tertiary, because the quartz veins cut dioritic intrusions that are probably that age.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Valdez Creek

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = One adit and short drifts totaling 220 feet in length. Samples of this adit contained 4 ppm to 86 ppm gold (Smith, 1981). There is another adit and a small mill on the property.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Smith, 1970

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein (Cox and Singer, 1987; model 36a)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 07-APR-2000 D.L. Stevens Stevens Exploration Management Corporation

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.