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Wheel Creek

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Barium-Barite
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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 10307975
Record type Site
Current site name Wheel Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.64148, 64.64578 (WGS84)
Relative position Wheel Creek is a small west tributary to Penny River. The mouth of Wheel Creek is about 4.2 miles up Penny River from the Nome-Teller road.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome C-2(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)

Federal lands

Sitnasuak Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Barium-Barite Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore

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) -165.64148, 64.64578
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Gold was panned on Wheel Creek in 1991 during the Kennecott Exploration Company evaluation of the area. Herreid (1970) also reported a barium geochemical anomaly on the creek. The creek apparently follows a steep east-striking fault that cuts through massive marble and graphitic quartzite (Bundtzen and others, 1994). The headwaters of Wheel Creek have the same geologic setting as the headwaters of Hungry Creek (NM149) and May Gulch (NM176), which are known to be gold-bearing.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Very limited stream sediment sampling and panning has taken place here.

Reference information

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = This report

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Deposit Other Comments = Wheel Creek appears too narrow and steep to contain a significant placer deposit, but the occurrence indicates the presence of lode deposits in the drainage.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 12-MAR-00 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.