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

Christmas Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Tungsten
Map
XML
JSON
KML
B
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 10002189
MRDS ID A013087
Record type Site
Current site name Christmas Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -136.34213, 59.39974 (WGS84)
Relative position Christmas Creek is an informally named, north flowing creek that intersects Glacier Creek at an elevation of between 1,100 feet and 1,200 feet. The location is shown near the mouth of the creek in the SE1/4, section 35, T. 28 S., R. 53 E. of the Copper River Meridian. Mine workings extend to head of Christmas Creek, 1.6 miles to the south. It is shown as locations 15 to 18 in figure 7 of Hoekzema and others (1986).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Haines(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Skagway B-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Skagway SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Skagway C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Chilkat-Skagway Rivers(hydrologic unit)

Northern Southeast Alaska(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southeast Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Scheelite 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
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Holocene
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Alluvium
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Till

Nearby scientific data

(1) -136.34213, 59.39974
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = According to Hoekzema and others (1978), the lower portions of Christmas Creek were placer mined sporadically in the early 1900's and the late 1970's but the total production has only been about 200 ounces of gold. The creek is a small, steep, north-flowing tributary to Glacier Creek and has a gradient of 1,000 feet per mile. Four reconnaissance samples of alluvial gravels from old mining cuts near the junction with Glacier Creek indicated a relatively equal distribution of gold through 8 feet of gravel that averaged 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. The placer gold is rough and nuggety and panned-concentrate samples also contained garnet, magnetite, and zircon. Fine-grained, well-worn 'glacial' gold was panned from the lower 6 feet of of glacial till exposed in Christmas Creek and, apparently, contrasts with the placer gold in the alluvial gravels. Christmas Creek is the only locality in the Porcupine area where gold has been recognized in glacial till.? Placer gold in the Porcupine area is generally considered to be derived from a northwest-trending zone of auriferous quartz-sulfide veins in metasediments in the Skagway B-4 quadrangle (Wright, 1904 [B 225 and B 236]; Eakin, 1918 and 1919; MacKevett and others, 1974). However, Hoekzema and others (1986) speculate that the placer gold in Christmas Creek may have been derived from stratiform volcanogenic mineral deposits in metavolcanic rocks.
  • 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 Juneau (Skagway subdistrict)

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Total production is estimated at 200 ounces of gold (Hoekzema and others, 1986).

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = According to Hoekzema and others (1986), the identified resources are largely restricted to the lower 0.5 miles of the creek. The lowermost section of the creek in the vicinity of previous workings is estimated to contain 12,000 cubic yards of gravel that contain 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. An additional resource of up to 30,000 cubic yards is estimated to occur farther upstream.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The lower portion of Christmas Creek was placer mined with a small hydraulic plant in 1910 and this property was patented in 1916. A small heavy equipment operation worked the area in the late 1970's with meager results (Hoekzema and others, 1986).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Hoekzema and others, 1986

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 04-FEB-2001 T.C. Crafford T. Crafford & Associates

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

External references

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.