Wonder Gulch

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Mercury, Lead
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Nearby scientific data
  8. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  9. Mining district
  10. Links to other databases
  11. Bibliographic references
  12. General comments
  13. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10001911
MRDS ID A012741
Record type Site
Current site name Wonder Gulch
Related records 10111788

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.7353, 65.31432 (WGS84)
Relative position Wonder Gulch is a tributary on the north side of Coffee Creek. The mouth of Wonder Gulch on Coffee Creek is at the Nome-Taylor road crossing at almost mile 75. This occurrence is on Wonder Gulch about 1,500 feet upstream form the mouth. The lower 1,500 feet of Wonder Gulch has been placer mined and this section of the drainage is included with the Coffee Creek mine (BN003). This is locality 5 of Cobb (1972; MF 417).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bendeleben B-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben SW(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

Bering Straits Native Corporation(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
Mercury Secondary
Lead Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cerussite Ore
Cinnabar Ore
Gold Ore
Pyromorphite Ore

Nearby scientific data

(1) -164.7353, 65.31432

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The early descriptions of a residual gold placer on schist bedrock is believed to be at this location. This residual placer contains angular, spongy, and bright gold in 4 to 7 feet of angular schist and quartz and adjacent weathered schist bedrock (Collier and others, 1908). Small amounts of cinnabar, cerussite, and pyromorphite are present in placer concentrate from Wonder Gulch (Anderson, 1947). Sainsbury and others (1969) indicate that an attempt to mine an auriferous quartz ledge here was unsuccessful. Large iron-stained quartz boulders are present in the upper part of the placer on Wonder Gulch (Sainsbury and others, 1969). Bedrock here is part of a low grade Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Possibly mid-Cretaceous; this is the age of some lode gold deposits on southern Seward Peninsula. The southern Seward Peninsula lode gold deposits formed as a result of mid-Cretaceous metamorphism (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993, Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997) that accompanied regional extension (Miller and Hudson, 1991) and crustal melting (Hudson, 1994). This higher temperature metamorphism was superimposed on high pressure/low temperature metamorphic rocks of the region.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Kougarok

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Open-cut mining of a residual placer has exposed weathered schist and angular surface debris of auriferous quartz and schist.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

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

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Gold-bearing quartz veins and schist
Deposit Other Comments = Also see Coffee Creek (BN003).

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.

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.