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Kowkow Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Nickel, Platinum
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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. 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 10103631
MRDS ID M045379
Record type Site
Current site name Kowkow Creek
Related records 10136851

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.44272, 59.46927 (WGS84)
Relative position Kowkow Creek is a south tibutary to Trail Creek, which flows west to Butte Creek in the Faro Creek drainage. The headwaters of Kowkow Creek are on the northwest flank of Island Mountain. This is locality 5 of Hoare and Cobb (1977) and of Cobb and Condon (1972).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Bethel(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Goodnews Bay B-7(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Goodnews Bay(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Goodnews Bay(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Kuskokwim Delta(hydrologic unit)

Lower Kuskokwim River(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Calista Corporation(ANCSA Region)

ANCSA Region NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Nickel Critical Secondary
Platinum Critical Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Ore Material = PGE

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Magnetite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Nearby scientific data

(1) -161.44272, 59.46927
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Kowkow Creek is in the non-glaciated part of the Faro Creek drainage. Placer gold mining started there in 1913 and continued through most years to 1940 (Harrington, 1921; Hoare and Cobb, 1977). The pay is 8 to 15 inches of compacted fine gravel on a clay (with some gravel) false bedrock that is overlain by 3 to 4 feet of dark gravel and 1 to 3 feet of muck (Harrington, 1921, p. 227). The depth to bedrock is not known. Kowkow Creek is one of the principal producers in the Arolik River basin. It was estimated to have contributed a large part of the 1,500 ounces of gold recovered from operations in this basin up to 1919 (Harrington, 1921). Some platinum was recovered along with the gold (Hoare and Cobb, 1977). Nearby uplands are underlain by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks intruded by Jurassic mafic and ultramafic plutons (Hoare and Coonrad, 1978). Stream sediments from drainages in these uplands commonly contain anomalous amounts of nickel (Hessin and others, 1978 (OF 78-9-L).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Mining district

District name Bethel

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Kowkow Creek was mined intermittently from 1913 to 1940. A large part of the 1,500 ounces of gold estimated to have been produced from operations in the Arolik River basin by 1919 came from this creek (Harrington, 1921, p. 221). Total production to date (2001) probably is subtantially more than this amount.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Open-cut placer mine workings are present along a significant part of Kowkow Creek.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., and Condon, W.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Goodnews quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-447, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Cobb, E.H., 1977, Mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bethel, Goodnews, and Russian Mission quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-156, 98 p.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Coonrad, W.L., 1978, Geologic map of the Goodnews and Hagemeister Island quadrangles region, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-9-B, two sheets, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hessin, T.D., Taufen, P.M., Seward, J.C., Quintana, S.J., Clark, A.L., Grybeck, Donald, Hoare, J.M., and Coonrad, W.L., 1978, Geochemical and generalized geological map showing distribution and abundance of nickel in the Goodnews and Hagemeister quadrangles region, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-9-L, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Harrington, G.L., 1921, Mineral resources of the Goodnews Bay region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 714-E, p. 207-228.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Hoare and Cobb, 1977

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 20-MAR-2001 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

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.