1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Difficult Creek

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Copper, Zinc
Map
XML
JSON
KML
C
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Alteration
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  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 10307712
Record type Site
Current site name Difficult Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -152.87763, 60.15045 (WGS84)
Relative position The occurrence located on a small ridge at an elevation of 1,850 feet overlooking Difficult Creek , it is in NE1/4 of section 26, T. 1 N., R. 20 W., of the Seward Meridian. Difficult Creek drains into Tuxedni Bay which is on the west side of Cook Inlet. This location is accurate to within 300 feet.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Kenai Peninsula(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Kenai A-8(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Kenai SW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Kenai(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Tuxedni-Kamishak Bays(hydrologic unit)

Western Cook Inlet(hydrologic accounting unit)

South Central Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Lake Clark National Park(National Park)

National Park NPS(Type of land area)

NPS(Federal land areas administered by NPS)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Copper Primary
Zinc Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Chalcopyrite Ore
Gold Ore
Pyrite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Anhydrite Gangue
Barite Gangue
Calcite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) The Difficult Creek occurrence has alteration characteristics of a Kuroko type massive sulfide deposit that includes sulfate alteration, and silification.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 184
USGS model code 28a
Deposit model name Massive sulfide, kuroko
Mark3 model number 93

Nearby scientific data

(1) -152.87763, 60.15045
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Difficult Creek occurrence is within the lower Jurassic Talkeetna Formation, an approximately 2,575 meter thick sequence of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks (Determan and Hartsock, 1966). The volcanic section near the prospect is structurally bounded on the west by the Bruin Bay Fault, a major fault system traceable for over 500 kilometers. On the east, the volcanics are unconformably overlain by upper Jurassic marine sediments (Determan and Hartsock, 1965). The Talkeetna Formation is intruded by rocks of the Aleutian range -Talkeetna Mountain plutonic belt approximately 23 km southwest of the prospect. These intrusives which consist dominantly of coarse-grained quartz diorites and quartz monzonites have been dated between 175 and 145 m.y. ( Steefel, 1987). . At Difficult Creek, the Talkeetna Formation has been divided into three major groups (Steefel, 1987). The lowest group consist of purple and green andesite flows and breccia which locally show well-developed pillows. The middle group that host the mineralization, consists of coarse-grain felsic breccias, reworked volcaniclastic rocks, crystal tuffs, and dacite flows. The upper group consists of polymitic andesitic breccias and conglomerates with minor amounts of andesitic flows. . The mineralization consists of strataform massive sulfides layers and lens which contain pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite. There are no published assay results for this occurrence. William Ellis (personal communication, 1999) speculates that this occurrence is a Kuroko type massive sulfide deposit.
  • Age = Jurassic massive sulfide.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Reboubt

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The occurrence was discovered by Anaconda Minerals in 1982 as part of a exploration program at the Johnson River prospect. To date there has been detailed mapping, stream and soil geochemical surveys, and surface trenching and sampling. No assay results are available.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Kuroko massive sulfide (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 28a)
Deposit Other Comments = This occurrence is owned by Cook Region Native Association.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 15-APR-99 Jeff A. Huber U.S. Geological Survey

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.