Whoopee Creek

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Lead, Zinc, Silver, Gold, Copper
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Nearby scientific data
  8. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  9. Mining district
  10. Links to other databases
  11. Bibliographic references
  12. General comments
  13. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10003374
MRDS ID A106130
Record type Site
Current site name Whoopee Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -157.85559, 68.22955 (WGS84)
Relative position Location plotted is locality 652 of Jansons and Parke (1981, p. 189), in T33N, R3E; near the head of a small tributary of an unnamed fork of the Aniuk River, 10.5 mi (16.8 km) due east of the south end of Feniak Lake and 1.0 mi (1.6 km) north of hill 2873; located to within 2000 ft (610 m).?

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

North Slope(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Howard Pass A-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Howard Pass SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Howard Pass C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Noatak River(hydrologic unit)

Noatak River-Lisburne Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Noatak National Preserve(National Preserve)

National Preserve NPS(Type of land area)

NPS(Federal land areas administered by NPS)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Lead Primary
Zinc Critical Primary
Silver Secondary
Gold Secondary
Copper Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Galena Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Quartz Gangue

Nearby scientific data

(1) -157.85559, 68.22955

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Sphalerite and galena in brecciated siltstone and shale of volcanic-bearing facies of Lower Mississippian Kayak Formation in structural window below thrust sheet of dominantly Upper Devonian Kanayut Conglomerate. The mineralized zone is about 20 ft wide and has a N65E trend of unknown extent. ??

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Noatak

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Samples collected by the U.S. Bureau of Mines contain up to 0.24%Cu, 44% Pb, 46% Zn, 4.4 ppm Au, 460 ppm Ag, and 3700 ppm Cd (Jansons and Parke , 1981, p. 188).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Jansons, Uldis, and Parke, M.A., 1981, 1978 mineral investigations in the Misheguk Mountain and Howard Pass quadrangles: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 26-81, 193 p.

  • Deposit

    Ellersieck, I.F., Jansons, Uldis, Mayfield, C.F., and Tailleur, I.L., 1982. The Story Creek and Whoopee Creek lead-zinc-silver occurrences, western Brooks Range, Alaska, in Coonrad, W.L., ed., The United States Geological Survey in Alaska: Accomplishments during 1980: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 844, p. 35-38

  • Deposit

    Jansons, Uldis, 1982, Zinc-lead occurrences in and near the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report MLA 121-82, 55 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Jansons and Parke (1981)

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Lode; sediment-hosted vein and breccia vein Pb-Zn-Ag
Deposit Other Comments = See MAS/MILS Sequence #'s 0020200007 and 0020200029 (USBM, 1995)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 30-SEP-1996 J.M. Schmidt U.S. Geological Survey
Reporter 30-SEP-1996 J.H. Dover U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

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

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.