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Kugruk River

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. 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 10307273
Record type Site
Current site name Kugruk River

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -162.4544, 65.87238 (WGS84)
Relative position Kugruk River is a major north-flowing drainage in the northeast Bendeleben quadrangle. The mouth of Kugruk River is east of Deering on Kotzebue Sound. This mine is approximately located as on Kugruk River, 1 to 3 miles upstream of Chicago Creek, (BN068), an east tributary. This is locality 63 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; 1975; OFR 75-429).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bendeleben D-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bendeleben(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Goodhope-Spafarief Bay(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

NANA Regional Corporation, Incorporated(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

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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -162.4544, 65.87238
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = At this location, Kugruk River is a meandering stream in a 3,000 to 4,000 foot-wide floodplain. The elevation of the floodplain is less than 100 feet but some river terraces are present locally. A 30-foot high bench just above the mouth of Chicago Creek is reported to be auriferous (Roehm, 1941, p. 111). Placer mining for gold began as early as 1903 and initially included drift operations. Mining was variably located to be 1 to 3 miles upstream of Chicago Creek (BN068), an east tributary. Some dredging took place and an abandoned dredge was reported to be present by Cobb (1975). Between 1903 and 1905, gold production worth $150,000 (over 8,000 ounces) was reported from a crescent-shaped paystreak on Discovery claim (Henshaw, 1909). The gold was finer at the ends of the paystreak than in the middle. The depth to bedrock on Discovery claim was 12 to 14 feet including overburden. Henshaw (1909) descibes a section 0.75 mile from Kugruk River near Discovery claim that included two gravel intervals. This section (from top down) was: 25 feet of clear ice, 60 feet of muck, 8 feet of reddish gravel, 3 feet of muck, and 10 feet of blueish gravel on schist bedrock. One mile above Chicago Creek, gravels were 8 to 10 feet thick on schist and marble bedrock; overburden was 5 to 7 feet thick (Henshaw, 1910). Bedrock in the area is mostly covered by tundra but it is probably part of a Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986). Tertiary coal-bearing sediments are locally exposed along Kugruk River upstream from Chicago Creek.
  • Age = Quaternary; two or more cycles of placer deposit development are indicated. The low elevation of the Kugruk River floodplain here indicates that Quaternary sea level fluctuations may have influenced the character of the placer deposits.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairhaven

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Between 1903 and 1905, gold production worth $150,000 (over 8,000 ounces) was reported (Henshaw, 1909). This production was probably from drift mining.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Both drift mining and dredging have take place here.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Henshaw, F.F., 1909, Mining in the Fairhaven precinct: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 379, p. 355-369.

  • Deposit

    Henshaw, F.F., 1910, Mining in Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 442, p. 353-371.

  • Deposit

    Roehm, J.C., 1941, Preliminary report on certain potential placer mining areas on Seward Peninsula - economic aspects and problems: Territory of Alaska, Department of Mines unpublished manuscript, 146 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1975, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 75-429, 123 p.

  • Deposit

    Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-417, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Cobb, 1975 (OFR 75-429)

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 15-MAR-99 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.