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Rock Creek Valley

Prospect in Lincoln county in Wyoming, United States with commodity Copper
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Public Land Survey System information
  6. Commodities
  7. Host and associated rocks
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Geologic structures
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mineral rights holdings
  12. Land status
  13. Links to other databases
  14. Bibliographic references
  15. General comments
  16. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10254715
MAS/MILS ID 560230118
Record type Site
Current site name Rock Creek Valley
Alternate or previous names Rock Creek, Unidentified Occurrence, Unknown

Comments on the site identification

  • Two entries in Osterwald (1966, p. 56) appear to be duplicates. Citations and page numbers to Veatch, 1907, p. 50a and p. 163 confirm that, especially when compared with plates XXIII and III. Note that there is no such page 50a in Veatch. Perhaps Osterwald meant the facing page inserted in the PP, "Geologic column in that part of southwestern Wyoming shown on pl. III", under the oldest unit, Weber quartzite.

Geographic coordinates

Point of reference Ore Body
Geographic coordinates: -110.82361, 41.91778 (WGS84)
Elevation 2140
Location accuracy 500(meters)
Relative position In NW quarter of Sec. 4. 3 prospects with copper carbonate showings are plotted on pl. XXIII of PP-56. Rock Creek, a tributary of Bear River, is 15 mi W of Kemmerer and 6 mi N of Nugget Station on the Oregon Short Line RR (Union Pacific). Within quarter section, or 400 m.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Lincoln(county)

Wyoming(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

The Rock Slide(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Kemmerer(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Ogden(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Bear(hydrologic unit)

Upper Bear(hydrologic accounting unit)

Bear(hydrologic subregion)

Great Basin(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Bureau of Land Management(Bureau of Land Management WY)

Bureau of Land Management WY BLM(Type of land area)

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Wyoming Lincoln

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
6th Principal 022 N 118 W 4 NW4 of NW4 Wyoming

Comments on the location information

  • In NW quarter of Sec. 4. 3 prospects with copper carbonate showings are plotted on pl. XXIII of PP-56.
  • Wilson and Heran (USGS) went looking for this "deposit" 6-aug-2010. We Were unable to locate anything matching these descriptions from Rock Creek and Watercress Canyons, but we did not climb the hill to the NE, as we were unaware at the time (due to vague location and high inaccuracy of the points in the database) that that was the most likely to have found any trace of these old reported workings.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Copper Primary

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Metasedimentary Rock > Quartzite
    Rock unit name Weber Quartzite

Economic information

Geologic structures

Type of structure Local
Structure name Rock Creek Anticline

Comments on the geologic information

  • Brecciated sandstone just below the "Permo-carboniferous" redbeds contain copper-carbonates. (Osterwald, 1966, p. 56) "These beds here form a rather flat-topped anticline with very steeply dipping flanks. The western flank appears to be somewhat faulted at the point of the change in dip from the slightly inclined beds of the crest of the anticline to the highly dipping beds of the flank. The copper carbonates have been found along and just east of this structural break." (Veatch, 1907, p. 163)

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Operation type Underground
Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic
Significant No

Mineral rights holdings

Type of mineral rights Unknown

Land status

Ownership category BLM Administrative Area

Comments on development

  • "The main group of openings here are horizontal tunnels in the slightly dipping beds. The same amount of labor in shafts along the probably fault line would be more likely to yield results." (Veatch, 1907, p. 163)

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral Resources of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Bull. 50 [revised ed.], p. 56.

  • Deposit

    Veatch, 1907, Geography and geology of a portion of southwestern Wyoming with a special reference to coal and oil: USGS PP-56, p. 163, pls. XXIII, XXVI.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
General Definitely classified as "abandoned". According to Veatch, 1907, there were a number of tunnels along the fault line.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 1983-11-18 South Dakota School of Mines U.S. Bureau of Mines
Updater 2009-03-06 Wilson, Anna B. U.S. Geological Survey Merged old records on 10-dec-2008. (W032893 and 0560230140 =10206357). Revised 24-aug-2010, site visit attempted 6-aug-2010.
Reporter 1983-08-01 Barari, Rachel A. U.S. Geological Survey W032893 = newMRDS 10081158, merged and deleted.
Reporter 1983-11-18 SDSM South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Beyond USGS

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

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