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Melsing 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. 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 10001813
MRDS ID A012623
Record type Site
Current site name Melsing Creek
Alternate or previous names Basin Creek, Benson Gulch
Related records 10208834

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -163.65635, 64.90044 (WGS84)
Relative position Melsing Creek is a north tributary to the Niukluk River; its mouth is at Council. Placer mining occurred on the lower 1.1 miles of the drainage, between elevations of about 85 and 125 feet, and a dredge operated for a time several miles up from the mouth of Melsing Creek (D. Grybeck, oral communication, 1999). This is locality 123 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 D-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Council Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
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) -163.65635, 64.90044
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The gravels of Melsing Creek are generally thin, ranging from 1.5 to 8 feet thick. Several feet of gravel carried gold in places but better grades were present on or in bedrock (Collier and others, 1908) A clay false bedrock is at least locally present and low terraces adjacent to the active drainage were also gold-bearing. There is little documentation but a dredge operated in upper Melsing Creek, probably in section 36, prior to WW II (D. Grybeck, oral communication, 1999). Bedrock in Melsing Creek is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage but an impure schistose Ordovician marble is the bedrock just to the east in the Basin Creek drainage (Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Council

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer mining took place for many years along Melsing Creek between the time of discovery in 1898 (Brooks and others, 1901) and 1938 (Smith, 1939, B 910-A). Much of the mining was by dredging and the entire lower 1.1 miles of Melsing Creek and nearby parts of its tributary Basin Creek have been worked. There is also some indication of dredging in upper Melsing Creek.

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

    Collier, A. J., Hess, F.L., Smith, P.S., and Brooks, A.H., 1908, The gold placers of parts of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, including the Nome, Council, Kougarok, Port Clarence, and Goodhope precincts: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 328, 343 p.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S. 1939, Mineral industry in Alaska in 1937: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 910-A, p. 1-113.

  • 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.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1939, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1937: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 910-A, p. 1-113.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

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.