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

Sweetcake Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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. 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 10001819
MRDS ID A012629
Record type Site
Current site name Sweetcake Creek
Related records 10111707

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -163.7444, 64.93127 (WGS84)
Relative position Sweetcake Creek is a north tributary to Ophir Creek (SO053). The mouth of Sweetcake Creek (not named on current USGS topographic maps) is about 0.8 miles upstream of the confluence of Ophir Creek and the Niukluk River. Placer mining took place in the lower mile of Sweetcake Creek at elevations of about 150 feet. This is locality 119 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

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

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

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Schist

Nearby scientific data

(1) -163.7444, 64.93127
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The first placer mining in the Ophir Creek area occurred on Sweetcake Creek soon after gold was discovered here in 1898 (Collier and others, 1908). A stratigraphic section near the mouth of Sweetcake Creek included, from top to bottom: 5 feet of fine micaceous sand, 2 feet of gravel and sand, and 1 foot of angular schist, pay gravel on bedrock (Collier and others, 1908). The gravels of Sweetcake Creek contained abundant mineralized quartz and calcite fragments. It is reported that gold worth $36,000 (about 1,800 ounces) was recovered in 1898 from one claim (Collier and others, 1908) and total production from the creek is probably a few thousand ounces (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181). The lower part of Sweetcake Creek crosses a low bench as it nears Ophir Creek but early mining was on a narrow paystreak along the active drainage. Bedrock in the area is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (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 production information

  • Production Notes = It is reported that gold worth $36,000 (about 1,800 ounces) was recovered in 1898 from one claim (Collier and others, 1908) and total production from the creek is probably a few thousand ounces (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Small-scale surface mining took place before WW I over the lower mile of the creek.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • 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

    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 = 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.