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Auburn Creek (Ravine)

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Mercury
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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 10001843
MRDS ID A012659
Record type Site
Current site name Auburn Creek (Ravine)
Related records 10233264

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.52941, 64.9182 (WGS84)
Relative position Auburn Creek is a headwater tributary to American Creek. This is locality 47 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181). Cobb (1972, MF 445) shows the location to be just upstream of the Solomon D-5 quadrangle boundary but Sainsbury and others (1972, OFR 512) show the location to be further downstream, just inside the Solomon D-6 quadrangle. The location shown by Sainsbury and others (1972, OFR 512) is used here. It is about 0.5 mile upstream from the confluence of Auburn and American Creeks.

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-6(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)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Mercury Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cinnabar Ore
Gold Ore
Garnet Gangue
Ilmenite 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) -164.52941, 64.9182
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Smith (1909) reports that the gravels of Auburn Creek carry gold upstream to headwater reaches but Sainsbury and others (1972) show the location of placer workings to be localized about 0.5 miles upstream from the mouth. The gold was coarse, on clay layers rather than bedrock, and had a fineness of 945. Heavy mineral concentrates contained garnet, ilmenite, magnetite, and cinnabar (Smith, 1909). Marble bedrock contained underground channels (karst ?) that captured surface water and solution-etched boulders were present in stream gravels. Bedrock in the area is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986); marble in this assemblage crops out preferentially along the east side of the Auburn Creek valley.
  • 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 = Small-scale mining occurred here in 1908.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • 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., 1909, Recent developments in southern Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 379-F, p. 267-301.

  • 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.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Smith, 1909

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.