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

Gold Dust Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Iron, Titanium, Tungsten
Map
XML
JSON
KML
B
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Mineral occurrence model information
  8. Host and associated rocks
  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 10001470
MRDS ID A012219
Record type Site
Current site name Gold Dust Creek
Related records 10257740

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -145.481, 65.41778 (WGS84)
Relative position Location is the approximate center of a placered area about 2500 ft long by 500 ft wide trending N 50 W along Gold Dust Creek. Gold Dust Creek is a tributary to Birch Creek, originating on the southwest flank of Mastodon Dome.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Circle B-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Circle C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Iron Secondary
Titanium Critical Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Hematite Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Scheelite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Gravel

Nearby scientific data

(1) -145.481, 65.41778
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Most of Gold Dust Creek flows within the Upper Quartzite and Upper Schist units described by Wiltse and others (1995). The Upper Schist is a mixed unit of variably garnetiferous pelitic quartz-muscovite schist, muscovite-quartz schist, chlorite-quartz-muscovite schist, and layers tens of meters thick of garnetiferous, calcareous albite-porphyroblastic muscovite-chlorite schist. The Upper Quartzite unit is a prophyroblastic albite-chlorite-muscovite-quartz schist.? Gravel clasts in the creek are subangular to subrounded and are commonly as much as 30 cm in diameter. The area of mined gravel is approximately 70 m wide for most of the creek length, with an average gravel thickness of 4 m. Average gold values were 0.007 to 0.01 ounces per cubic yard (Menzie and others, 1983). Concentrates include ilmenite granules up to 0.5 cm, hematite nodules up to 2 cm, along with pyrite and scheelite (Menzie and others, 1983). Galena-bearing boulders have been found in previously placer mined creek gravels by John Mitchell in the late 1980's.? Mining was reported shortly after drilling in 1936 (Mertie, 1938, p. 231). There were two active placer operations during 1975, but little is known about productivity (Eberlein and others, 1977, p. 20). Simple sluicebox operations used in the early 1980's were moderatly to highly efficient in recovering coarse gold, but low in recovering fine gold. As a result, research by the local miners led to the use of a sophisticated washing plant with jigs. Gold in the 120 to 400 mesh range was routinely recovered with the new system (Yeend, 1991). In 1995, Alpine Exploration Co. conducted 1400 feet of reverse circulation drilling to explore veins found during earlier placer mining (Bundtzen and others, 1995). About 8 km of the ll km long creek has been mined, but the upper 3 km has a steep gradient and contains little gravel, and so it remains unmined (Yeend, 1991).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Circle

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Average gold values were 0.007 to 0.01 ounces per cubic yard (Menzie and others, 1983). There were two active placer operations in 1975 but little is known of productivity (Eberlein and others, 1977, p. 20).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Mining was reported shortly after drilling in 1936 (Mertie, 1938, p. 231). There were two active placer operations during 1975. Simple sluicebox operations used in the early 1980's were moderatly to highly efficient in recovering coarse gold, but low in recovering fine gold. As a result, research by the local miners led to the use of a sophisticated washing plant with jigs. Gold in the 120 to 400 mesh range was routinely recovered with the new system (Yeend, 1991). In 1995, Alpine Exploration Co. conducted 1400 feet of reverse circulation drilling to explore veins found during earlier placer mining (Bundtzen and others, 1995). About 8 km of the ll km long creek has been mined, but the upper 3 km has a steep gradient and contains little gravel, and so it remains unmined (Yeend, 1991).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Yeend, 1991; Menzie and others, 1983.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 09-SEP-98 C.J. Freeman Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 09-SEP-98 J.R. Guidetti Schaefer Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 09-SEP-98 Clements, A.S. Avalon Development 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.