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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Black Gulch

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 10001870
MRDS ID A012689
Record type Site
Current site name Black Gulch
Related records 10111715, 10257276

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.20532, 65.52127 (WGS84)
Relative position Black Gulch is a small north tributary to Noxapaga River. Grouse Creek (BN017) is 4,000 feet to the west and Buzzard Creek (BN019) is 1,500 feet to the east of Black Gulch. The location of placer workings on this creek is approximate but the stream is only about 3,000 feet long. This is locality 50 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; 1975; OFR 75-429).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

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

Bendeleben NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bendeleben(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Imuruk Basin(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 Unconsolidated Deposit > Gravel

Nearby scientific data

(1) -164.20532, 65.52127
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Gold was discovered soon after the turn of the century on tributaries to the Noxapaga River including Black Gulch (Collier and others, 1908) and mining took place here after WW II (Hopkins, 1963; Cobb, 1975, OFR 75-429). Frozen, stratified peat and silt (muck), 20 to 30 feet-thick, commonly overlies a few feet of auriferous gravel on schist bedrock in the general area (Hopkins, 1963, Figure 8, p. 94). Muck locally contains bones of extinct Pleistocene mammals. Although tundra cover of bedrock is extensive in the area (Till and others, 1986), Hopkins (1963) indicates that quartz-calcite veins are common in schist bedrock of the gold- producing tributaries to the Noxapaga River.
  • Age = Quaternary; an early radiocarbon age on shallow parts of the frozen and stratifed peat and silt of Black Gulch was 8,800 +/- 200 years (Hopkins, 1963, Figure 8). The thin gold-bearing gravels on bedrock here were many feet stratigraphically below the radiocarbon dated deposits.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Kougarok

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Although gold was discovered here at least by 1906 (Brooks, 1907), significant mining seems to have taken place just before WW II (Smith, 1939 (B 910A); 1939 (B917A); 1941) and after (Hopkins (1963).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Surface open-cut placer mining, including dozer and sluice operations, took place on this creek.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Cobb, 1975 (OFR 75-429)

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 15-MAR-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.