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Casadepaga River (Fool Creek)

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 10308269
Record type Site
Current site name Casadepaga River (Fool Creek)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.1523, 64.92132 (WGS84)
Relative position The Casadepaga River is a major west tributary to the Niukluk River. This locality is on the north side of the Casadepaga River, about 4 miles upstream from the confluence of the Casdepaga and Niukluk Rivers and across from Little Dixie Creek. It was referred to as the mouth of Fool Creek by Smith (1910). This is locality 57 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Solomon D-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(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

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Garnet Gangue
Magnetite 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) -164.1523, 64.92132
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The only information specific to this locality along the Casadepaga River is that minor placer production occurred here early in the history of the area. The Casadepaga River is a major west tributary to the Niukluk River. The first 11 miles upstream from the mouth varies from 170 to 270 feet in elevation. The next 8 to 9 miles upstream gains another 150 feet of elevation. The lower 11 miles of the river has a pronouced floodplain over most of its length but in general the river is incised into benches and terraces that have surfaces 30 to 150 feet higher than the present drainage. Gold colors are commonly present throughout bench gravels and mining has commonly taken place where tributaries cross the benches and rework these gravels (Collier and others, 1908). Heavy mineral concentrates from various parts of the drainage commonly contain garnet and magnetite; pyrite accompanied gold at this locality (Smith, 1910). The minor gold production here was from a low schist bedrock bench and some of the gold was fairly coarse; a 0.6 ounce nugget was recovered from spotty concentrations on bedrock. The bench gravels are frozen. Bedrock in this area is Paleozoic marble (particularly on the north side of Casadepaga River) and a pelitic schist assemblage that may be Cambrian or Precambrian in age (Till and others, 1986). In general, bedrock was not exposed by early mining operations along the lower part of this river. As noted by Smith (1910), the depth to bedrock is known to vary from as much as 57 feet at the mouth of Penelope Creek (SO079) to 17 feet a half mile above the mouth of Big Four Creek (SO066).
  • Age = Quaternary; the numerous incised terraces along the Casadepaga River indicate that more than one cycle of erosion and deposition has developed placer deposits in the area. The low elevations of 170 to 270 feet along the first 11 miles of the river, suggest that Quaternary sea level fluctuations could have influenced placer development.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Council

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The only information specific to this locality along the Casadepaga River is that minor placer production occurred here early in the history of the area.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Collier, A. J., Hess, F.L., Smith, P.S., and Brooks, A.H., 1908, The gold placers of parts of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, including the Nome, Council, Kougarok, Port Clarence, and Goodhope precincts: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 328, 343 p.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1910, Geology and mineral resources of the Solomon and Casadepaga quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 433, 234 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic resources map of the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-445, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-181, 185 p.

  • Deposit

    Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Smith, 1910

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-AUG-99 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

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