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Upper Dry Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Tungsten
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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. 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 10002086
MRDS ID A012945
Record type Site
Current site name Upper Dry Creek
Alternate or previous names Bear Creek (Gulch)
Related records 10184481

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.34799, 64.55095 (WGS84)
Relative position This record describes gold placer deposits in Dry Creek upstream from the Nome coastal plain to the divide at the head of the creek. The map location is at an elevation of about 275 feet, just north of the center of section 7, T. 11 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It coincides approximately with locality 126 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463]).

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
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Limonite Ore
Magnetite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Garnet Gangue
Quartz Gangue

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 Metamorphic Rock > Metavolcanic Rock > Mafic Metamorphic Rock > Greenstone
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Schist

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.34799, 64.55095
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Dry Creek heads in high-level, gold-bearing gravels at the saddle between upper Dry Creek and Wet Gulch (NM248). Gold in uppermost Dry Creek was mined from 2-foot-thick gravels on a thin clay layer resting directly on schist bedrock. Mining began as early as 1900 when 1,200 ounces of gold were produced (Brooks and others, 1901). Significant early production also came from an east-side bench, 50 feet above the creek, where a 0.5- to 4-foot-thick pay streak was 20 to 60 feet wide; this pay was very rich. It commonly ran about 0.5 ounce of gold per cubic yard but in places exceeded 2.5 ounces of gold per cubic yard (Collier and others, 1908). Pay gravel was locally cemented by iron oxide (limonite) and buried by 20 to 50 feet of gravel, slide rock, fine sand, muck, and silt. The heavy-mineral concentrate contained garnet, ilmenite, magnetite, and scheelite. Gold was also mined from Bear Creek (or Gulch), a tributary to upper Dry Creek on the Anvil Mountain side.? Placer gold was mined extensively from Hotel Gulch downstream to an elevation of about 180 feet where Dry Creek enters the Nome coastal plain, just above the trace of Third Beach (NM258). The deposit was mined as recently as 1996. Extensive tailings suggest also that an ancestral Dry Creek probably flowed southwesterly at the point that the creek leaves the mountain front.? Bedrock along Dry Creek is mainly platy to massive marble with some felsic schist occurs near Bear Creek (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Bundtzen and others, 1994).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Most of the workings on upper Dry Creek are surface cuts. Tailings on Dry Creek where it enters onto the Nome coastal plain suggest that considerable dredging may have taken place there between 1920 and 1938. The east-side bench may have been at least partly mined by underground workings.

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.