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Kayak Island

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Copper, Lead, Zinc, Silver, Barium-Barite, Molybdenum, Nickel
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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 10307887
Record type Site
Current site name Kayak Island

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -144.42281, 59.90051 (WGS84)
Relative position This occurrence is near the mouth of a small creek on the east side of Kayak Island. The map site is at an elevation of about 100 feet, 2.2 miles southwest of Pyramid Peak, on the south boundary of section 6, T 23 S, R 6 E, of the Copper River Meridian. The occurrence is sample locality 021 of Goldfarb and others (1989), and it is accurately located.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Valdez-Cordova(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Middleton Island D-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Kayak Island(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Middleton Island(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Bering Glacier(hydrologic unit)

Gulf of Alaska(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southeast Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

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
Lead Primary
Zinc Critical Primary
Silver Secondary
Barium-Barite Critical Secondary
Molybdenum Secondary
Nickel Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Barite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Pyrite Ore
Sphalerite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 208
USGS model code 31a
Deposit model name Sedimentary exhalative Zn-Pb
Mark3 model number 13

Nearby scientific data

(1) -144.42281, 59.90051
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = This occurrence is representative of several localities on Kayak Island where stream sediments and heavy-mineral concentrates contain highly anomalous amounts of barium and zinc and less anomalous amounts of silver, copper, lead, molybdenum, and nickel (Goldfarb and others, 1989). At this locality, stream sediments contain 0.5 ppm silver, 150 ppm boron, 5,000 ppm barium, 20 ppm molybdenum, 150 ppm nickel, and weakly anomalous levels of cobalt, copper, scandium, and zinc. The heavy-mineral concentrates from these stream sediments contain 10,000 ppm strontium and 2,000 ppm zinc. Barite is abundant in heavy-mineral concentrates from stream sediments on Kayak Island, and it is generally accompanied by pyrite, sphalerite (zinc concentrations to 20,000 ppm), 10 to 30 percent iron, and 150 to 700 ppm nickel (Goldfarb and others, 1989; Pickthorn and others, 1985). Concentrates with anomalous copper and lead contain microscopic chalcopyite and galena. The barite and base metals are derived from weathering of Tertiary sandstone, siltstone, and glacial-marine deposits of the Poul Creek and Yakataga Formations (Plafker, 1974). The Eocene to Miocene Poul Creek Formation contains interbedded mafic pyroclastic and flow rocks in its upper part and is locally intruded by mafic dikes and sills. Soil sampling on Kayak Island suggests that many of the stream-sediment and heavy-mineral concentrate anomalies are spatially associated with the upper Poul Creek Formation, which contains mafic igneous rocks (Pickthorn and others, 1985).
  • Age = Probably late Tertiary, the age of the upper Poul Creek and Yakataga Formations.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Yakataga

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = A reconnaissance stream-sediment and heavy-mineral concentrate geochemical survey (Goldfarb and others, 1989) and follow-up soil geochemical survey (Pickthorn and others, 1985) have been completed on Kayak Island.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Plafker, George, 1974, Preliminary geologic map of Kayak and Wingham Islands, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 74-82, 1 sheet, scale 1:31,680.

  • Deposit

    Pickthorn, W.J., Goldfarb, R.J., O'Leary, R.M., Sutley, S.J., and Weaver, S.C., 1985, Kayak Island-Analysis of a geochemical anomaly, in Bartsch-Winkler, Susan, and Reed, K.M., eds., The U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska-Accomplishments during 1983: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 945, p. 82-83.

  • Deposit

    Goldfarb, R.J., O'Leary, R.M., Sutley, S.J., and Trip, R.B., 1989, Geochemical survey of the Cordova and Middleton Island quadrangles, southcentral Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1865, 32 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Goldfarb and others, 1989

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Sedimentary-exhalative Zn-Pb ? (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 31a)

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.