Boer Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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 10002032
MRDS ID A012879
Record type Site
Current site name Boer Creek
Related records 10160433

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.3022, 64.86373 (WGS84)
Relative position Boer Creek is a south tributary of the Hudson River, a headwater tributary of Nome River. The mine is about 1.25 miles west-southwest of where Dickens Creek crosses the Nome-Taylor road. The mine is in Boer Creek at an approximate elevation of 850 feet. The location is accurate within about 1,000 feet. Boer Creek is locality 81 of Cobb (1972 [MF 468], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome D-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(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

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
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Plutonic Rock > Granitoid > Granite

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.3022, 64.86373

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold mining took place on Boer Creek in 1901-02 when about 135 ounces of gold were produced (Collier and others, 1908). The recovered gold was of two types: one valued at about 16 dollars per ounce and one valued at 18 dollars per ounce (gold at 20.67dollars per ounce). The paystreak was narrow and nearly confined to the creek bed; gravel in the creek was from 18 inches to 8 feet thick. The upper part of the creek contained a iron-cemented ferricrete gravel which also contained placer gold. When the placer was visited by Moffit in 1905-06, it was producing gold from a small hydraulic plant operated on a residual placer on weathered graphitic schist, which Moffit believed furnished all or most of the placer gold (Moffit, 1913, p. 76, 100).? Boer Creek is underlain by the graphitic, calcareous schist unit of Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) that consists predominantly of slightly graphitic, calcareous quartz schist. Regional mapping suggests that these schists have been upgraded to lower amphibolite facies and are biotite-bearing (Sainsbury, Hummel, and Hudson, 1972; Bundzten and others, 1994). According to Collier and others (1908, p. 182), the bedrock at the mine was a chloritic schist cut by numerous glassy quartz veins. The bedrock could be part of the Nome Group derived from Precambrian to early Paleozoic protoliths (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). The Nome Group underwent regional blueschist facies metamorphism in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). The blueschist facies rocks were recrystallized to greenschist facies or higher metamorphic grades in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Hudson and Arth, 1983; Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998). Lode gold mineralization on Seward Peninsula is mostly related to the higher temperature metamorphism in the mid-Cretaceous (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993 [thesis]; Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = About 135 ounces of gold of 770 and 870 fineness were produced in 1901-02 (Collier and others, 1908).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The deposit was mined on a small scale in 1901 and 1902 when it produced about 135 ounces of gold of 770 and 870 fineness. It was shut down in 1903 pending the completion of the Campion Ditch, but it was again operated as a small hydraulic mine in 1906. It has been inactive for many years.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 22-OCT-99 Hawley, C.C. Hawley Resource Group
Reporter 22-OCT-99 Travis L. Hudson Hawley Resource Group

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.