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Lucky Shot

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Copper, Lead, Tellurium, Zinc
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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 10000933
MRDS ID A011601
Record type Site
Current site name Lucky Shot
Alternate or previous names Willow Creek Mines Inc.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -149.40769, 61.77844 (WGS84)
Relative position On the slope of the northwest side of Craigie Creek, 1.8 miles northeast of the junction of Craigie Creek and Willow Creek. Marked with adit symbols and labeled 'Lucky Shot Mine' on the Anchorage D-7 1:63,360-scale topographic map. Locality 5 on plate IV of Chapin (1921), locality 3 from Cobb (1972), and locality 3 of MacKevett and Holloway (1977).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Matanuska-Susitna(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Anchorage D-7(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Anchorage NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Anchorage(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Lower 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
Copper Primary
Lead Secondary
Tellurium Critical Secondary
Zinc Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Gold Ore
Pyrite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Tetrahedrite Ore
Telluride Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Wall rock is intensely chloritized, sericitized, and ankeritized. Reported to be no gold in wall rock (Ray, 1933). Wall-rock alteration seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954).

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) -149.40769, 61.77844
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Quartz veins cut quartz diorite of the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton, which is jointed and sheeted near the surface, but has less developed structures underground. The Willow Creek Pluton is a zoned pluton: the outer part consists of hornblende quartz diorite and lesser hornblende tonalite; the core consists of hornblende-biotite granodiorite, and lesser hornblende-biotite quartz monzodiorite and biotite quartz monzonite. According to Ray (1933), auriferous quartz veins are in a block about 1,200 ft wide between two major northeastward-dipping transverse faults. Quartz veins are generally 2 to 4 ft wide and have an approximate strike of N 80 E, and an average dip of 40 N . Veins appear to belong to a single system that is displaced by major cross faults. In places the vein system branches in the hanging wall, while the footwall is marked by slickensides separating lode from fresh, unaltered country rock . Lode is cut off to the east by a fault which is estimated to have offset the vein by 600 to 700 feet to the east, as indicated by identification of the same vein in workings of the adjacent War Baby mine (ARDF number AN003). Veins contain two generations of quartz, marked by the evidence of crumpling of earlier generation and recementation by later generation. Some quartz is deposited in fissures and some in open spaces, while thick quartz lenses appear sporatically, which were likely caused by repeated movement along fissures. Gold is in well defined ore shoots associated with pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, galena, and tellurides (Ray, 1933). Wall-rock alteration seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954).
  • Age = Late Cretaceous or younger; veins cut the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Willow Creek

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Production records were combined for the Lucky Shot and the War Baby mine (ARDF number AN003). Both mines were simultaneously operated by Willow Creek Mines. Stoll (1997) estimated the total amount of gold recovered from the Lucky Shot - War Baby vein on the northwest wall of Craigie Creek valley to be 252,000 ounces.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Staked in 1918 or earlier. Taken under option by Willow Creek Mines in 1918. Development commenced in 1918 with open pits and a short tunnel. Considered to be one of the major gold producers of the district from 1923 to 1942, except for 1923 and 1928 when fires damaged the surface plant. Development included several open cuts and probably about a mile of underground workings plus stopes, with the average stope width of 4 to 6 ft. Surface improvements consisted of a mill and power plant, assay shop, bunk houses to hold 100 men, and machine and blacksmith shops. The mills capacity in 1931 was 35 tons per day. Old tailings were cyanided starting around 1936 (Smith, 1938). Only the main crosscuts were accessible in 1950.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Ray, 1933

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Low-sulfide Au-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a)
Deposit Other Comments = the combined Lucky Shot - War Baby production of 252,000 ounces of gold makes it (them) the number one producer of gold in the district. A small amount of copper was also produced. Deposit has striking similarity to Mother lode and Grass Valley lodes of California.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 30-JUL-1998 D.P. Bickerstaff U.S. Geological Survey
Reporter 30-JUL-1998 S.W. Huss U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

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

Current status (per MSHA)

StatusNonProducing since 04/22/2022
MSHA mine ID5001458
Mine name (MSHA)Lucky Shot Mine
Current operatorContango Lucky Shot Alaska, LLC
Current controller (parent)Contango Ore Inc
Mine typeUnderground (Metal / non-metal)

Inferred by coordinate + name similarity (582 m, 1.00 match). Confirm against MSHA if precision matters — non-USGS-curated cross-references may occasionally point at a neighbouring mine.

Open MSHA's Mine Data Retrieval System for inspections, accidents, and violations for this mine.

External references

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.