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

Middleton Island

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 10307886
Record type Site
Current site name Middleton Island

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -146.36712, 59.40776 (WGS84)
Relative position The beach along the bluffs at the southwest end of Middleton Island was the site of small-scale placer gold mining as early as 1901. This is locality 1 of Cobb (1972 [MF 380]; 1979 [OF 79-1246]). It is accurately located.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Middleton Island B-7 NE(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

Middleton Island(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Middleton Island(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Federal lands

Chugach Alaska 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

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Garnet Gangue

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) -146.36712, 59.40776
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Storm waves concentrate garnet-rich heavy mineral sands that contain small amounts of placer gold along the southwest headland of Middleton Island (Brooks, 1913; Reimnitz and Plafker, 1976). Other beaches around the island may also contain small amounts of placer gold. Some mining occurred as early as 1901, and by 1913, about 400 ounces of gold were estimated to have been produced (Brooks, 1913). The recovered gold was fine and flat; the coarsest grain weighed about 0.05 ounce (Brooks, 1913). Later residents of the Middleton Island military facilities conducted recreational placer gold mining on the island beaches (George Plafker, oral commun., 2001). The gold is derived from the reworking of the marine glacial deposits of the upper Cenozoic Yakataga Formation. These rocks make up the bedrock of Middleton Island and much of the surrounding continental shelf (Reimnitz and Plafker, 1976).
  • Age = Holocene.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Prince William Sound

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = About 400 hundred ounces of gold were estimated to have been recovered between 1901 and 1913 (Brooks, 1913).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Very small scale hand mining recovered a few hundred ounces of gold.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Brooks, A.H., 1913, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1912: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 542, 308 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1979, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bering Glacier, Icy Bay, Middleton Island, and Yakutat quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 79-1246, 41 p.

  • Deposit

    Reimnitz, Erk, and Plafker, George, 1976, Marine gold placers along the Gulf of Alaska margin: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1415, 16 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Middleton Island quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-380, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Brooks, 1913

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 12-DEC-01 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.