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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

West Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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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. 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 10001800
MRDS ID A012607
Record type Site
Current site name West Creek
Related records 10160118

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.45938, 64.67625 (WGS84)
Relative position West Creek is a west tributary to Shovel Creek (SO017). Placer mining took place over about the lower 1.5 miles of the creek, between elevations of 175 to 300 feet. This is locality 87 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

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

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

NTVALL(Federal land areas administered by NTVALL)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Gold Ore
Pyrite Ore
Garnet Gangue
Magnetite Gangue

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) -164.45938, 64.67625
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer mining took place over about the lower 1.5 miles of the West Creek, between elevations of 175 to 300 feet. Gold-bearing gravels were 3 to 4 feet thick on bedrock; gold coarseness increased upstream. Crevices and cracks in marble bedrock locally controled gold deposition and gold was concentrated on a false clay bedrock in places. A 0.2 ounce gold nugget with quartz was found embedded in schist and heavy mineral concentrate contained arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, garnet, magnetite, and pyrite (Brooks and others, 1901). Bedrock is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Sainsbury and others, 1972, OFR 511; Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer mining was mostly by small-scale methods but a dryland-dredge on tracks operated in 1908-11. Some open-cut (dozer ?) mining took place in the 1930's (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Brooks, A.H., Richardson, G. B., and Collier, A. J., 1901, Reconnaissance in the Cape Nome and Norton Bay regions, Alaska, in 1900: U.S. Geological Survey Special Publication, p. 1-180.

  • Deposit

    Sainsbury, C.L., Hudson, T.L., Ewing, R., and Marsh, W.R., 1972, Reconnaissance geologic maps of the Solomon D-5 and C-5 quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 511, 12 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic resources map of the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-445, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-181, 185 p.

  • Deposit

    Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Brooks and others, 1901

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-AUG-1999 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

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.