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Bulk Gold (West)

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Antimony, Arsenic
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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. 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 10307936
Record type Site
Current site name Bulk Gold (West)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.2907, 64.79049 (WGS84)
Relative position The Bulk Gold prospect of Altar Resources consisted of a large block of State claims south of Dorothy Creek, southeast of Stewart River, and west of Nome River. Because ot the size of the claim block, it is divided in two parts by the section line that separates sections 14 and 23 from sections 13 and 24, T. 8 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. The west block includes the Hed & [and] Strand mine (NM070). The coordinates are the center of the large block of claims that covers all of sections 14 and 23 and the east part of section 15.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

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

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Antimony Critical Primary
Arsenic Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Gold Ore
Stibnite Ore
Calcite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Quartz veining and apparently some disseminated pyrite and arsenopyrite in nearby schist.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.2907, 64.79049
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Bulk Gold prospect was identified from stream sediment sampling and soil samples collected between 1994 and 1998 (Daniel Lajack, written communication,1999). The geochemical work was followed by trenching and two short diamond drill holes in 1998. Work on the prospect has been done by Altar Resources and Teck Exploration Company. Teck Exploration Company ran a soil survey that extended from west of the Hed & [and] Strand mine (NM070) to past the head of Dorothy Creek in the east Bulk Gold prospect). Soils collected above the Hed & [and] Strand mine contained as much as 550 ppb gold, 884 ppm arsenic and 66 ppm antimony. Upper Dahl Creek, above the Hed & [and] Strand claims, was highly anomalous in gold, arsenic, and antimony. A sample in the saddle at the head of Dahl Creek contained 1.65 grams of gold per tonne, 9,510 ppm arsenic and 48 ppm. This saddle area was trenched and drilled in 1998. Four pits were dug at 300-foot intervals across the saddle. Bedrock samples from these pits contained 575 to 1,210 ppb gold and from 3,960 to 10,000 ppm arsenic. Anomalous results were also found in 30-foot and 50-foot diamond drill holes. Although antimony is somewhat anomalous in the samples and antimony occurrences have been identified in the area (NM066 to NM070), the prospect is mainly characterized by elevated gold and arsenic values. The west part of the Bulk Gold prospect is mainly underlain by massive marble and feldspathic epidote-bearing schist. The epidote-bearing schist may be part of a regional mafic metavolcanic assemblage that has an Ordovician protolith (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) mapped an approximately east-west, high-angle fault in Dahl Creek; the fault is upthrown on the south side. Earlier authors, including Mertie (1918 [B 662-I, p. 425-449]) and Cathcart (1922) noted a nearby metamorphosed granite body as possibly related to the mineralization at the Hed & [and] Strand mine, and Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) and Bundtzen and others (1994) mapped granitic orthogneisses in the area. The area is too complex to decipher with 1:63,360-scale mapping. The metamorphic rocks in this area are part of the Nome Group derived from Proterzoic to early Paleozoic protoliths (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). The Nome Group underwent regional blueschist facies metamorphism in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). The blueschist facies rocks were recrystallized to greenschist facies or higher metamorphic grades in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Hudson and Arth, 1983; Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998). Lode gold mineralization on Seward Peninsula is mostly related to the higher temperature metamorphism in the mid-Cretaceous (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993 [thesis]; Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997).
  • Age = Mid-Cretaceous; structures controlling deposits post-date regional metamorphism; mineralization could be similar in age to many lode gold deposits of Seward Peninsula.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Work has consisted of stream sediment sampling, followed by soil geochemistry and some trenching and drilling in 1998.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = This report

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Possibly disseminated and stratabound in metamorphic rocks, or in low sulfide Au-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a).
Deposit Other Comments = the project found widespread anomalies including a strong gold-arsenic system in upper Dahl Creek. Controls on mineralization are not defined.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 22-OCT-99 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group

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.