Cape Darby

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities REE, Uranium, Tungsten
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 10009561
MRDS ID D002606
Record type Site
Current site name Cape Darby

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -162.79933, 64.38434 (WGS84)
Relative position This occurrence is on the east coast of Golovin Bay. It is on a sea cliff 3.3 miles southeast of Golovin Mission and 4.1 miles northeast of Cape Darby. This is occurrence 136 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Solomon B-2 NW(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Solomon SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Federal lands

Golovin 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
REE Critical Primary
Uranium Primary
Tungsten Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Allanite Ore
Monazite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Biotite Gangue
Epidote Gangue
Fluorite Gangue
Hematite Gangue
Ilmenite Gangue
Magnetite Gangue
Zircon Gangue

Nearby scientific data

(1) -162.79933, 64.38434

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = West (1953) collected slope wash or detrital material from a small drainage at this locality. A heavy mineral concentrate obtained from the sample material (concentration ratio approximately 1,200:1) contained 0.049 percent equivalent uranium. The minerals identified in this concentrate included allanite, scheelite, monazite, fluorite, hematite, ilmentite, magnetite, epidote, biotite, and zircon. The bedrock here is an amphibolite facies, metasedimentary assemblage that forms a regional selvage between the Darby pluton to the east the the Kachauik pluton to the west (Miller and others, 1972; Till and others, 1986). The Darby pluton, is a large mid-Cretaceous granodiorite and granite body that has elevated background levels of uranium and thorium (Miller an Bunker, 1976; Johnson and others, 1979; Till and others, 1986). The Kachauik pluton is a composite syenite to granodiorite body, locally cut by nepheline syenite dikes, that is slightly older than the Darby pluton ( 99.9 +/- 3 Ma; Miller and others, 1972; Miller, 1972; Miller and Bunker, 1976). Parts of the Kachauik pluton contain U, Th, and REE mineralization near nepheline syenite dikes (Miller and others, 1976). Many of the minerals identified in the heavy mineral concentrate from this location are known accessory minerals in the Darby pluton.
  • Age = Mid-Cretaceous; K/Ar ages for the Darby pluton are 88.3 +/- 1.5 and 92.8 +/- 2.6 Ma (Berry and others, 1976). A K/Ar age for the Kachauik pluton is 99.9 +/- 3 Ma (Miller and others, 1972; Miller and Bunker, 1976).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Council

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The reconnaissance sampling by West (1953) is the only work known in the area.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = West, 1953

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Disseminated; the heavy mineral concentrate is from a sample of detrital materials.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-AUG-1999 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

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.