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

Blacksand Island Beach

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Titanium, Iron, Zirconium
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. Host and associated rocks
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Mining district
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10097537
MRDS ID A013403
Record type Site
Current site name Blacksand Island Beach
Related records 10136755

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -139.50223, 59.41663 (WGS84)
Relative position The Blacksand Island placer extends for about 3.5 miles along the southwest shore of the island immediately northeast of the mouth of the Ahrnklin River. It is back of the Blacksand (Spit) placer (YA008).The coordinate location given is the approximate midpoint of the placer. The placer continues for about an equal distance (1.75 miles) northwesterly in the Yakutat B-5 quadrangle. The deposit is given as location 8 in Cobb (1972).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yakutat(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Yakutat B-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Yakutat SW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Yakutat C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Dezadeash River(hydrologic unit)

Gulf of Alaska(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southeast Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Tongass National Forest(National Forest)

National Forest UND(Type of land area)

UND(Federal land areas administered by UND)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Titanium Critical Primary
Iron Secondary
Zirconium Critical Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Material = Gold (native)

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Magnetite Ore
Rutile Ore
Zircon Ore
Garnet Gangue

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Glacial Sediment
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Holocene

Nearby scientific data

(1) -139.50223, 59.41663
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Blacksand Island placer is in the depositional drainage area of the Ahrnklin River, hence possibly deltaic. The island could also be, in part, an older beach deposit that formed before Blacksand Spit. Irregular beach concentrates of black sand occur with interlocked magnetite-ilmenite and small amounts of gold.
  • Age = Holocene

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Yakutat

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Very minor production took place in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The occurrence is one of the older placer deposits reported along the coast. Minor and generally unsuccessful mining activity was reported by Blackwelder (1907, p. 86-87); Thomas and Berryhill (1962) reported that there was some private churn drilling done about 1957, but the results are unknown. Foley and others (1995) reported analytical results from one sample--no. 276. The sample contained 0.63 percent titanium in a spiral concentrate split and did not contain gold in either the head- or spiral-concentrate splits.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Blackwelder, Eliot, 1907, Reconnaissance on the Pacific Coast from Yakutat to Alsek River: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 314, p. 82-88.

  • Deposit

    Thomas, B.I., and Berryhill, R. V., 1962, Reconnaissance studies of Alaskan beach sands, eastern Gulf of Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 5986, 40 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1979, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bering Glacier, Icy Bay, Middleton Island, and Yakutat quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 79-1246, 41 p.

  • Deposit

    Foley, J.Y., La Berge, R.D., Grosz, A.E., Oliver, F.S., and Hirt, W.C., 1995, Onshore titanium and related heavy mineral investigations in the eastern Gulf of Alaska region, southern Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 10-95, 125 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Yakutat quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-408, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Thomas and Berryhill, 1962.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Riverine delta and beach deposit
Deposit Other Comments = Information is lacking about the private drilling that was reported by Thomas and Berryhill in 1962. It is assumed, from the sparsity of recent work, that the grade of the deposit is low.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 15-APR-99 Hawley, C.C. 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.