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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Sugar

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 10002076
MRDS ID A012932
Record type Site
Current site name Sugar

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.34633, 64.58484 (WGS84)
Relative position The Sugar placer mine is at an elevationof about 600 feet in the east headwaters of Deer Gulch and 4,000 feet south-southwest of the summit of King Mountain. The map location is just inside the north boundary of section 31, T. 10 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is included in locality 117 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 C-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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.34633, 64.58484
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Sugar mine is one of several near the divide between upper Anvil Creek (NM236) and Dexter Creek (NM303) at surface elevations of about 450 to 600 feet, where high-level gravels were placer mined for gold. These deposits were in gravels that ranged from a few feet to more than 200 feet thick and commonly were very rich (Brooks and others, 1901; Collier and others, 1908). The richest pay was near bedrock and in decomposed or fractured bedrock. The high-level gravels were mined mostly by drifting, but some hydraulic mining also took place. At the Sugar mine, as at the nearby Snowflake mine (NM241), the pay streaks were staked. There was a 10-foot-thick pay section on an older gravel surface at a depth of about 100 feet. Drilling through the older gravel reached bedrock at 205 feet, where gold was present on the bedrock surface (Collier and others, 1908). A 100-foot-deep shaft 300 feet southeast of the Sugar mine, penetrated 4 feet of muck and silt, 25 feet of loose blue gravel containing gold colors, 51 feet of decomposed schist, 10 feet of washed gravel and schist, and 20 feet of schist; several exploration workings were driven off this shaft. About 100 feet southwest of this shaft, a 40-foot-deep prospect pit encountered 20 feet of brown gravel, 4 feet of blue clay and gravel, and 16 feet of yellow sandy clay and gravel. The high-level gravels were originally interpreted to be alluvial deposits in stream channels of former drainage systems, but more recent interpretations describe them as glacial outwash-related material (Cobb, 1973 [B 1374]; Nelson and Hopkins, 1972). The presence of erratic granite boulders and other exotic rock types suggests a glacial origin, but the exotic clasts are commonly in near-surface materials and not distributed throughout the high-level gravels (Moffit, 1913). The origin of the high-level gravels thus still seems in question. The richness of some of the placers suggests extensive reworking, proximity to lode sources, or both.? Bedrock is mostly marble, in contact with graphitic schist nearby to the north, probably of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 MF 247]; Sainsbury, Hummel, and Hudson, 1972 [OFR 72-326]; Nelson and Hopkins, 1972; Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Bundtzen and others, 1994).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Production from the high-level gravels of the general area totaled about 100,000 ounces by 1903 (Collier and others, 1908).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The workings at the Sugar mine were underground and included a shaft about 100 feet deep.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Hawley, C.C. Hawley Resource Group
Reporter 10-JUL-00 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.