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Pinnell River

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 10001887
MRDS ID A012713
Record type Site
Current site name Pinnell River
Related records 10257862

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -163.0873, 65.87743 (WGS84)
Relative position Pinnell River is a major north-flowing tributary to Inmachuk River. Placer gold mining has taken place below the mouth of Old Glory Creek (BN063), especially the 3,000 feet of the active channel above the mouth (on Inmachuk River, BN067). This is part of location 72 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; 1975; OFR 75-429).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bendeleben D-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bendeleben C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Goodhope-Spafarief Bay(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

NANA Regional Corporation, Incorporated(ANCSA Region)

ANCSA Region 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) -163.0873, 65.87743
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold production started on Pinnell River by 1903 (Moffit, 1905). The main channel was worked intermittently up to the late 1930's, primarily by hydraulic operations (Cobb, 1975). A terrace gravel, capped by basalt, is preserved along the west side of the Pinnell River valley in this area. Gold in the active floodplain of Pinnell River is, at least in part, probably reworked from these terrace gravels. Most of the bedrock in the area is a metasedimentary schist and marble sequence of Lower Paleozoic age (Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Quaternary; two or more cycles of placer development have occurred in the area.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairhaven

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Surface, open-cut placer mine workings are present, especially along the lower part of the stream. Some dredging may have taken place near the mouth as well.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1975, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 75-429, 123 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

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-417, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Moffit, F.H., 1905, The Fairhaven gold placers, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 247, 85 p.

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.