Galena Bay Mining Co. (Vesuvius Valley)

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Copper, Zinc, Silver, Gold
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 10307354
Record type Site
Current site name Galena Bay Mining Co. (Vesuvius Valley)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -146.59654, 60.87759 (WGS84)
Relative position This site represents several prospects in a roughly circular, half-mile-square, area at about 2000 feet elevation on the northeast face of Bells Butte. The area is in the N1/2 secs. 26 and 35, T. 11 S., R. 8 W., of the Copper River Meridian. The location is accurate to within 1000 ft. This area of prospects is shown in Cobb (1972: MF-392) as sites #9 and #10; in Jansons and others it is shown as site C-83.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Valdez-Cordova(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Cordova D-7(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Cordova NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Cordova(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Eastern Prince William Sound(hydrologic unit)

Prince William Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

South Central Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Tatitlek Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Chugach National Forest(National Forest)

National Forest FS(Type of land area)

FS(Federal land areas administered by FS)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Copper Primary
Zinc Critical Primary
Silver Secondary
Gold Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Chalcopyrite Ore
Pyrite Ore
Pyrrhotite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Calcite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 90
USGS model code 24a
Deposit model name Massive sulfide, Cyprus
Mark3 model number 11

Nearby scientific data

(1) Togv

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The country rocks at these prospects are mafic volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks of the Tertiary Orca Group (Nelson and others, 1985). The deposit consists of shear-zone-hosted masses of calcite, quartz, chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, and sphalerite. Capps and Johnson (1915) reported that most of the ore was found in numerous 1- to 20-ft.-wide shear zones in pillow basalt (greenstone). The shear zone containing most of the early workings is 1000 ft. long. Jansons and others (1984) collected chip samples that contained 58 ppm to 13% Cu, 46 ppm to 2% Zn, and <0.1 ppm to 32.8 ppm Ag; their grab samples contained 80 ppm to 6.1% Cu, 790 ppm to 20.1% Zn, and 1.1 ppm to 20 ppm Ag. Small amounts of gold were reported in earlier assays (Capps and Johnson, 1915).
  • Age = Probably Tertiary based on the age of the host rocks.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Copper River

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Inferred reserves of 5,800 tons @ 7.9% Cu, 1.3% Zn, and 5 ppm Ag (Jansons and others, 1984).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Capps and Johnson (1915) reported nine adits with a total of about 3000 ft. of underground workings, and some open cuts and buildings. The longest (2200 ft) adit was caved by the early 1980s (Jansons and others, 1984). Jansons and others (1984) collected chip samples that contained 58 ppm to 13% Cu, 46 ppm to 2% Zn, and <0.1 ppm to 32.8 ppm Ag; their grab samples contained 80 ppm to 6.1% Cu, 790 ppm to 20.1% Zn, and 1.1 ppm to 20 ppm Ag. Small amounts of gold were reported in earlier assays (Capps and Johnson, 1915).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Jansons and others, 1984

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Cyprus massive sulfide (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 24a)
Deposit Other Comments = Nelson and others (1985) interpret the country rocks as accreted ocean crust. Crowe and others (1992; 1993) and Sainsbury (1993) discuss the genesis of the volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in this area.. Chugach Alaska Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska has control of these lands.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUN-00 S.W. Nelson U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

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

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.