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  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Intermediate Beach

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. 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 10002097
MRDS ID A012961
Record type Site
Current site name Intermediate Beach
Alternate or previous names Clam Shell Beach
Related records 10136075

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.39521, 64.52067 (WGS84)
Relative position Intermediate Beach is a buried marine placer gold deposit on the Nome coastal plain about 1.5 miles inland from the modern beach at Nome. It is in an area where surface elevations are about 100 feet, and it extends, probably discontinuously, from west of Bourbon Creek about 3 miles southeast to Otter Creek. It was extensively placer mined over a half mile section northwest of Bourbon Creek. The map location is the approximate midpoint of this half mile section, in the west-central part of section 24, T. 10 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian. Intermediate Beach is locality 143 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)

Federal lands

Sitnasuak Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Gold Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Magnetite Ore
Pyrite Ore
Garnet 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 > Schist
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Pleistocene

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.39521, 64.52067
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Intermediate Beach is a buried marine abrasion platform placer deposit as much as several hundred feet wide. The gravel is 6 to 12 feet thick, with 1-3 feet of pay gravel on bedrock. The elevation of the deposit is about 20 feet above sea level. Depth of burial is about 20 to 60 feet (Moffit, 1913; Nelson and Hopkins, 1972).? the deposit terminates abrubtly to the west. It appears to diminish in grade to the east at about Bourbon Creek, but it may continue eastward as a low-grade deposit through the head of Peluk Creek and lower parts of Otter and Florence Creeks (Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942, p. 36). The pay gravel contained abundant fragments of graphitic schist; locally, clam shells were so abundant that it was called the Clam Shell beach (Moffit, 1913, p. 118). The clams (mollusks) included species now living off Japan and some that only live south of present winter ice in the Bering Sea. Dall concluded that the climate in Intermediate Beach time was warmer than now at Nome (Dall, in Moffit, 1913, p. 45). Intermediate Beach appears to have formed when marine currents lowered an aurifeous platform during a Pleistocene transgression that formed Third Beach.? Intermediate Beach was discovered in the winter of 1905-1906 (Smith, 1908; Moffit, 1913). The deposit was dredged extensively between Center and Bourbon Creeks after the development of cold-water thawing. (Center Creek is not named on the 1970 edition of the topographic map but is probably the drainage paralleling the northeast runway of the Nome airport.)

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 = The deposit was drift mined after 1906. After the development of cold-water thawing in the 1920's, it was dredged, especially between Bourbon and Center Creeks.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1908, Investigations of mineral deposits of Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 345, p. 206-250.

  • Deposit

    Moffit, F.H., 1913, Geology of the Nome and Grand Central quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 533, 140 p.

  • Deposit

    Metcalfe, J.B., and Tuck, Ralph, 1942, Placer gold deposits of the Nome district, Alaska: Report for U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Co., 175 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-463, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Nelson, C.H., and Hopkins, D.M., 1972, Sedimentary processes and distribution of particulate gold in the northern Bering Sea: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 689, 27 p., 1 plate.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File report 78-93, 213 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Moffit, 1913

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Marine gold placer deposit; marine abrasion platform concentration (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39).

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.