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Osborn Creek

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 10100993
MRDS ID A012940
Record type Site
Current site name Osborn Creek
Related records 10257713

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.12855, 64.55651 (WGS84)
Relative position This alluvial placer gold mine is on Osborn Creek, an east tributary to Nome River. More than 3.2 miles of Osborn Creek, between elevations of 75 and 150 feet, have been placer mined. This location is the approximate midpoint of the placer workings, at the south edge of the SW1/4 section 5, T. 11 S., R. 32 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is locality 120 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
Gold 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 Metamorphic Rock > Schist
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.12855, 64.55651
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold was discovered on Osborn Creek in 1900. Except in an area just above St. Michaels Creek (NM277), Osborn Creek placer deposits mostly have gravel walls and paystreaks are floored by clay-rich false bedrock. Gravel was composed mostly of schist, marble, and quartz. Boulders of greenstone and granite (orthogneiss?) are abundant. Granite boulders believed by Collier to come from the Kigluaik Mountains were found as high as 800 feet on the 1,000-foot-tall mountain south of Willow Creek (Collier and others, 1908, p. 171).? Shallow placer deposits were mined for about 5 miles above the mouth of the Osborn Creek. Gravels probably contained about 2.50 to 4.50 dollars in gold (gold at 20.67 dollars per ounce; Collier and others, 1908, p. 171). Gravels were about 5 to 6 feet thick above a false bedrock in a pay section 100 feet wide. Gold was mostly coarse and well rounded, although some pieces were angular. A copper-bearing lode, reported to contain as much as 2 ounces of gold per ton (Smith, 1908), occurs above Osborn Creek (NM278), but much of the placer gold is probably reworked from coastal plain deposits.? Small-scale mining began about 1903 (Collier and others, 1908, p. 171-172) and was almost continuous up to WW II. Dredging was nearly continuous in two periods, from 1913 to 1924 and from 1928 to 1940 (Cobb, 1978 [OFR 78-93]). Larger scale mining developed by about 1911 with dredging and hydraulic mining (Smith, 1912; Chapin, 1914; Eakin, 1915 [B 622-I. p. 360-373]). The early period of dredging lasted until about 1924 (Smith, 1926). In 1928 another dredge was moved in from the Solomon River (Smith, 1930 [B 813]), and dredge mining occurred in most years at least through 1940 (Smith, 1942).? Bedrock in lower Osborn Creek is marble and schist, probaby of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Bundtzen and others, 1994).
  • 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 Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Although production data are not available, the continuity and extent of mining operations suggest that Osborn Creek was one of the more productive creeks in the Nome area.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Extensive placer tailings on Osborn Creek start about 0.2 mile downstream of the mouth of St. Michaels Creek (NM277) and continue upstream for about 3.2 miles. Most of these tailings are probably the result of dredge operations that were almost continuous between 1911 and 1940. Gold was discovered in the creek in 1900, and small-scale mining began by about 1903.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Moffit, 1913

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

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.