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

Switch Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Lead
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. Host and associated rocks
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Mining district
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10001490
MRDS ID A012237
Record type Site
Current site name Switch Creek
Related records 10185232

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -144.89486, 65.46752 (WGS84)
Relative position SEE LOCATION COMMENTS

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-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Circle(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Comments on the location information

  • THE LOCATION IS THE APPROXIMATE CENTER OF MINING ON SWITCH CREEK. THE PLACERED AREA EXTENDS ABOUT 3,500 FT UP AND DOWN STREAM FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE COORDINATES. SWITCH CREEK IS A TRIBUTARY OF DEADWOOD CREEK.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Lead Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • SOME REFERENCES REPORT WOLFRAMITE AND/OR CASSITERITE; OTHERS REPORT NO WOLFRAMITE OR CASSITERITE

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Garnet Gangue
Ilmenite Gangue
Limonite Gangue
Magnetite Gangue
Pyrite Gangue
Quartz Gangue
Tourmaline Gangue
Galena Unknown

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Gravel

Nearby scientific data

(1) -144.89486, 65.46752
ListMap

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant No
Discovery year 1905
Year of first production 1906

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Circle

Comments on the production information

  • MINING HAS BEEN REPORTED (SEE WORKINGS/EXPLORATION), HOWEVER, AMOUNT OF PRODUCTION IS UNKNOWN.

Comments on the workings information

  • GOLD HAS BEEN MINED SPORADICALLY ON SWITCH CREEK SINCE 1906. INITIALLY, OPENCUT AND DRIFTING WERE THE ONLY MINING METHODS USED. ONCE HYDRAULIC MINING WAS INTRODUCED IN 1922, IT WAS THE PREDOMINANT MINING METHOD USED ON THE CREEKS THROUGH THE 1930'S (MERTIE, 1938). BOTH SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND WORK TOOK PLACE. DRIFT MINING OCCURRED ON BENCHES WHILE HYDRAULIC MINING WAS USED ON CREEK GRAVELS (MENZIE AND OTHERS, 1983, P. 52).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit SEE ALSO DEADWOOD CREEK, ARDF NO. CI014; USGS OFR 83-170-B, APPENDIX I, NO. 105
Deposit THIS SITE NAME WAS CREATED BY THE REPORTER OR OTHER USGS EMPLOYEE BASED ON PROXIMITY TO SOME MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC FEATURE.
Deposit HEADWATERS OF SWITCH CREEK DRAIN BOTH CRETACEOUS BIOTITE MONZOGRANITE AND CALCAREOUS QUARTZ-MUSCOVITE SCHIST (WILTSE AND OTHERS, 1995). BOTH FLOOD-PLAIN AND BENCH GRAVELS HAVE BEEN MINED. A BENCH ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE CREEK IN THE LOWER VALLEY IS 12 TO 15 METERS ABOVE THE CREEK BED. REMNANTS OF OTHER BENCHES UPVALLEY ARE SITES OF FORMER MINING OPERATIONS (MERTIE, 1938). THE GRAVEL ON THE BENCHES IS COMPOSED OF COBBLES AND A FEW BOULDERS. BOULDERS ARE FAIRLY COMMON IN THE PRESENT VALLEY (YEEND, 1991). GOLD HAS BEEN CONCENTRATED WITHIN THE LOWER 1 METER ABOVE OF BEDROCK. THE LARGEST NUGGET FOUND WAS 4 OUNCES (MERTIE, 1938). WEIGHTED MEAN OF EIGHT ASSAYS SHOWED FINENESS OF 760 AU AND 231 AG (MERTIE, 1938). JOHNSON (1910), REPORTED ARSENOPYRITE IN QUARTZ-FELDSPAR VEINS, AND CONCENTRATES CONTAINING GOLD, ARSENOPYRITE, PYRITE, GALENA, CASSITERITE, ILMENITE, GARNET, TOURMALINE, LIMONITE, AND QUARTZ. GOLD HAS BEEN MINED SPORADICALLY ON SWITCH CREEK SINCE 1906. INITIALLY, OPENCUT
Deposit AND DRIFTING WERE THE ONLY MINING METHODS USED. ONCE HYDRAULIC MINING WAS INTRODUCED IN 1922, IT WAS THE PREDOMINANT MINING METHOD USED ON THE CREEKS THROUGH THE 1930'S (MERTIE, 1938). BOTH SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND WORK TOOK PLACE. DRIFT MINING OCCURRED ON BENCHES WHILE HYDRAULIC MINING WAS USED ON CREEK GRAVELS (MENZIE AND OTHERS, 1983, P. 52).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-JUN-1986 Leonard, Kenneth R. (Elliott, R. L.) U.S. Geological Survey
Updater 01-SEP-1998 C.J. Freeman, J.R. Guidetti Schaefer, A.S. Clements 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.