Pinnacle Creek

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodity Tin
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 10308427
Record type Site
Current site name Pinnacle Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -166.17445, 65.8923 (WGS84)
Relative position Pinnacle Creek is a north tributary to Crosby Creek with headwaters that extend across the south contact zone into the Ear Mountain granite stock. Ear Mountain is an isolated upland reaching 2,329 feet elevation in the north-central Teller D-3 quadrangle. It is cored by a Late Cretaceous granite stock (Sainsbury, 1972). This is locality 55 and 58 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the name 'Pinnacle Cr.'.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Teller D-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Teller NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Teller C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Shishmaref(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Tin Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 123
USGS model code 39e
Deposit model name Alluvial placer Sn

Nearby scientific data

(1) -166.17445, 65.8923

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Pinnacle Creek crosses the contact zone of the Ear Mountain biotite granite stock. This is a Late Cretaceous (76.7 +/- 2.9 my; Hudson and Arth, 1983, p. 769) composite biotite granite that intrudes an impure and schistose carbonate sequence, with some metapelitic rocks, of unknown but probable Paleozoic age. The country rocks are variably converted to tactite and hornfels around the granite stock (Knopf, 1908, p. 28-29). .A USBM churn-drill in the lower part of the creek at an elevation of approximately 360 feet, returned 0.02 pounds of tin per cubic yard. A sample from this hole contained quartz, calcite, orthoclase, plagioclase, grossularite garnet, idocrase, pyrite, traces of blue tourmaline, brown tourmaline, and epidote. Cassiterite was also identified (Mulligan, 1959, p. 29). Pan concentrate material from the headwaters over granite bedrock contained cassiterite, monazite, zircon and 0.18% eU (Killeen and Ordway, 1955).
  • Age = Quaternary

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = One USBM churn-drill hole was completed on the lower part of the creek at approximately 360 feet elevation (Mulligan, 1959, p. 20).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Killeen and Ordway, 1955; Mulligan, 1959 (USBM RI 5493)

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-MAY-98 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.