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

Pine Creek

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Tin
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. Mineral occurrence model information
  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 10001710
MRDS ID A012494
Record type Site
Current site name Pine Creek
Alternate or previous names Pyne Creek
Related records 10233771

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -146.30483, 64.73858 (WGS84)
Relative position Pine Creek, also referred to as Pyne Creek, drains north into Beaver Creek (BD002). The creek is roughly 4.5 miles long and has several tributaries. There are several cabins approximately 2 miles from the mouth of Pine Creek. The Alaska Division of Mining Kardex file system reports placer mining along Pine Creek near the cabins. The approximate center of the mining activity is in NW1/4SW1/4 section 15, T. 2 S., R. 7 E., of the Fairbanks Meridian. A tractor trail and landing strip, approximately 1 mile to the east provide access to the Pine Creek drainage. It is locality 9 of Cobb (1972), who summarized relevant references under the name 'Pine Creek'.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Fairbanks North Star(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Big Delta C-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Big Delta NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Big Delta(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Fort Wainwright(Army Base)

Army Base ARMY(Type of land area)

ARMY(Federal land areas administered by ARMY)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tin Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore
Gold Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -146.30483, 64.73858
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Weber and others (1978) report the bedrock is primarily greenschist facies rocks with some marble, quartzite, and phyllite. Locally, there is an extensive cover of windblown silt and sand that ranges from 0.1 to 50 meters in thickness. In addition, much of the ground in the swampy lowlands of the Chena River and its tributaries is permanently frozen (Foster and others, 1979). Glover (1920?) reported a gold fineness of 748 for Pine Creek. ? Ellsworth and Davenport (1913) report that gold was first mined on nearby Beaver Creek in significant amounts in the winter of 1911-12. Scarce cassiterite was reported in the placer concentrates of Pine Creek by Joesting (1942). Cobb (1977) and Eberlein and others (1977) reported that the presence of gold was assumed. About $3,000 of gold was hydraulically mined from Pine Creek in the late 1930's; which was too small to continue mining and operations shut down (C.F. Shield, unpublished data data, 1979). Ellsworth and Davenport (1913) reported gold mined from nearby Beaver Creek in amounts measured in dollars per foot. The total gold production from Pine Creek is unknown. There are lode claims in the Pine Creek drainage (Menzie and Foster, 1979). The Alaska Division of Mining Kardex file system records active claims on Pine Creek as recent as 1986.
  • Age = Quaternary

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairbanks

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = About $3,000 of gold was produced, which was too small to continue mining and operations shut down (C.F. Shield, unpublished data data, 1979). Ellsworth and Davenport (1913) reported gold mined from nearby Beaver Creek in amounts measured in dollars per foot. The total gold production from Pine Creek is unknown.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Ellsworth and Davenport (1913) report that gold was first mined on nearby Beaver Creek in significant amounts in the winter of 1911-12. Scarce cassiterite was reported in the placer concentrates of Pine Creek by Joesting (1942). Cobb (1977) and Eberlein and others (1977) reported that the presence of gold was assumed. The Pine Creek property was hydraulically placer mined in the late 1930's. There are lode claims in the Pine Creek drainage (Menzie and Foster, 1979). The Alaska Division of Mining Kardex file system records active claims on Pine Creek as recent as 1986.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Ellsworth, C.E., and Davenport, R.W., 1913, Placer mining in the Yukon-Tanana region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 542, 303 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Big Delta quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-388, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1977, Placer deposit map of central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-168B, 64 p., 1 map, scale 1:1,000,000.

  • Deposit

    Eberlein, G.D., Chapman, R.M., Foster, H.L., and Gassaway, J.S., 1977, Map and table describing known metalliferous and selected nonmetalliferous mineral deposits in central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-168-D, 132 p., 1 map, scale 1:1,000,000.

  • Deposit

    Weber, F.R., Foster, H.L., Keith, T.E.C., Dusel-Bacon, C., 1978, Preliminary geologic map of the Big Delta quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-529A, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Menzie, W.D., and Foster, H.L., 1979, Metalliferous and selected nonmetalliferous mineral resource potential in the Big Delta quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-529D, 61 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., and Eberlein, G.D., 1980, Summaries of data on and lists of references to metallic and selected nonmetallic mineral deposits in the Big Delta and Tanacross quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 80-1086, 77 p.

  • Deposit

    Joesting, H.R., 1942, Strategic mineral occurences in interior Alaska: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Pamphlet 1, 46 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Eberlein and others, 1977

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 26-APR-1999 Cameron S. Rombach Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys

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.