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Fred Creek (or Fred Gulch--placer)

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Tin
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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 10002035
MRDS ID A012882
Record type Site
Current site name Fred Creek (or Fred Gulch--placer)
Related records 10112358

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.42802, 64.78318 (WGS84)
Relative position Fred Creek is a southern tributary of Stewart River. The creek has been mined in about a half-mile stretch where it leaves the hills northwest of Mount Distin. The placer is mainly in the NE1/4 section 19, T. 8 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. The location is the approximate mid-point of tailings along Fred Creek and is accurate, along the creek, to within about 1,000 feet of the coordinates. This is locality 84 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 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)

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
Tin Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore
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) -165.42802, 64.78318
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Small-scale placer gold mining took place by 1906 in Fred Creek downstream from the basal massive marble (Bundtzen and others, 1994) contact with schist (Moffit, 1913). Hess (1906, p. 157) reported minor cassiterite in Fred Creek,which he thought could have been derived from granitic rocks (orthogneiss) in the Mount Distin region. The physical character of the mine tailings also indicates that the placer deposit has been worked mechanically since 1930. Fred Creek drains across the basal contact of massive marble with metasedimentary schist. The contact is poorly exposed in the creek, but about 600 feet to the southwest, gold-bearing hematitic schist occurs immediately below the massive marble (NM063). This lode prospect seems to be stratabound but also is very close to the projection of a main branch of the Penny River fault, which could also be auriferous.
  • Age = Holocene.

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 workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Fred Creek appears to have been worked in at least two periods. It was mined by 1906 because stream tin was reported by Hess (1906). Moffit (1913) also noted mining below the marble contact. Some of the creek was been worked in more recent years by small-scale mechanical methods; there are a few buildings that have been constructed at least from the 1930's, and some of the tailings appear to be less than 30 years old. The area was explored by Kennecott Exploration Company in 1995; also by Cominco American. Some exploration, mainly for lode gold deposits, took place in 1998 and 1999.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Moffit, 1913

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Deposit Other Comments = Gold in part derived from basal contact zone of massive marble.

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.

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.