Unnamed (on Geyser Creek)

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Arsenic, Copper, Mercury, Lead, Sulfur, Zinc

Sections on this page

Identification information
Geographic coordinates
Site location context
Geographic areas
Commodities
Materials information
Alteration
Mineral occurrence model information
Nearby scientific data
Economic information about the deposit and operations
Mining district
Links to other databases
Bibliographic references
General comments
Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID	10308465
Record type	Site
Current site name	Unnamed (on Geyser Creek)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates:	-168.45237, 53.20907 (WGS84)
Relative position	This site is located in central Umnak Island along the drainage of Geyser Creek about midway between Geyser Bight and Russian Bay (Nye and others, 1992, locality H; Christie, 1974, anomaly 36?). Site location is accurate to within 1/2 mile.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Aleutians West(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Umnak A-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Umnak Island(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Umnak(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Fox Islands(hydrologic unit)

Aleutian Islands(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Tanadgusix 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
Arsenic Critical	Secondary
Copper	Secondary
Mercury	Secondary
Lead	Secondary
Sulfur	Secondary
Zinc Critical	Secondary

Materials information

Materials	Type of material
Gold	Ore
Pyrite	Ore
Sulfur	Ore
Quartz	Gangue

Alteration

(Local) Byers (1959) described the alteration as consisting of fine-grained aggregates of quartz, chlorite, pyrite, and adularia(?). Simpson (1985) and Randolph and Ellis (1989) described the alteration as advanced argillic with up to 10 percent pyrite. Randolph (1990) also noted silica seen locally as veinlets, vugs, and rare calcedonic stockworks.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code	104
USGS model code	25a
Deposit model name	Hot-spring Au-Ag
Mark3 model number	45

Nearby scientific data

(1)	-168.45237, 53.20907	ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

Geologic Description = This site is an active geothermal area along Geyser Creek in which hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pots are common (Randolph and Ellis, 1989). Pleistocene volcanic flows, tuffs, and volcaniclastics of andesitic composition have been intensely argillized by the geothermal activity (Nye and others, 1992). Four exploration companies have examined and sampled this site at various times. This sampling of the altered rocks has produced values of up to 418 ppm arsenic, 652 ppm copper, 0.64 ppm gold, 92 ppm lead, > 5 ppm mercury, 4 ppm molybdenum, 4.7 ppm silver, and 345 ppm zinc. Nye and others (1992) report that the thermal waters are rich in boron (60 ppm) and arsenic (6 ppm).
Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status	Occurrence

Comments on exploration

Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name	Aleutian Islands

Comments on the workings information

Workings / Exploration = This site has been examined and sampled by Duval-Quintana, Kennecott, Amax, and Battle Mountain Exploration. Christie (1974) reported values of up to .02 ppm gold, 4 ppm molybdenum, 1.2 ppm silver, and 47 ppm zinc from 6 samples of altered rock. Nine samples collected by Kennecott contained up to 250 ppm arsenic, 0.2 ppm gold, and 2.8 ppm mercury (Simpson, 1986). . Randolph and Ellis (1989) sampled this site as well as a zone along a north-flowing tributary which flows into Geyser Creek at this site (named Fumarole Creek by Nye and others, 1992). They reported values in 20 samples of up to 418 ppm arsenic, 652 ppm copper, 638 ppb gold, 92 ppm lead, > 5 ppm mercury, 1.5 ppm silver, and 345 ppm zinc. Six samples of quartz plus clay gave values to up to 72 ppm arsenic, 186 ppb gold, 2.6 ppm mercury, and 4.7 ppm silver. A panned sample taken at the intersection of the two drainages contained 5 small colors and 2 samples of nearby altered rocks contained 140 and 638 ppb gold. . Randolph and Ellis (1989) state that the samples collected by Amax were similar in value to those collected by Battle Mountain Exploration.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency	Database name	Acronym	Record ID	Notes
USGS	Alaska Resource Data File	ARDF	UK003

Bibliographic references

Deposit

Byers, F.M, 1959, Geology of Umnak and Bogoslof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1028-L, p. 267-369, 3 map sheets, scale 1:63,360, 1:96,000, 1:300,000.
Deposit

Christie, J.S., 1974, Aleut-Quintana-Duval 1974 joint venture, final report: Unpublished Quintana Minerals Corporation report, 24 p., 3 appendices, 2 maps. (Report held by the Aleut Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska.)
Deposit

Randolph, D.B., and Ellis, W.T., 1989, Unalaska project, 1989 final report: Battle Mountain Exploration Company, Alaska District, 41 p., 5 appendices, 11 plates, various scales. (Report held by the Aleut Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska.)
Deposit

Randolph, D.B., 1990, Unalaska, 1990 final report: Battle Mountain Exploration Company, 72 p. (Report held by the Aleut Native Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska).
Deposit

Nye, C.J., Motyka, R.J., Turner, D.L., and Liss, S.A., 1992, Geology and geochemistry of the Geyser Bight geothermal area, Umnak Island, Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Report of Investigation 92-1, 85 p., 2 map sheets, scale 1/24,000.
Deposit

Simpson, D.F., 1986, Aleutian Islands project, 1985 final report: Kennecott-Alaska Exploration Company, 54 p. (Report held by the Aleut Native Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska).

Comments on the references

Primary Reference = Randolph and Ellis, 1989

General comments

Subject category	Comment text
Deposit	Model Name = Hot-spring Au-Ag (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 25a)
Deposit	Other Comments = Simpson (1986) considered this an active system, still depositing gold and altering country rocks. He found no ore grade zones and concluded it was unlikely that a deposit of significant size exists at the site. Battle Mountain Exploration (Randolph and Ellis, 1989) located numerous geochemically anomalous areas within the occurrence, but essentially agreed with previous interpretations.. This site is on land selected by the Aleut Native Corporation.

Subject category

Comment text

Deposit

Model Name = Hot-spring Au-Ag (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 25a)

Deposit

Other Comments = Simpson (1986) considered this an active system, still depositing gold and altering country rocks. He found no ore grade zones and concluded it was unlikely that a deposit of significant size exists at the site. Battle Mountain Exploration (Randolph and Ellis, 1989) located numerous geochemically anomalous areas within the occurrence, but essentially agreed with previous interpretations.. This site is on land selected by the Aleut Native Corporation.

Reporter information

Type	Date	Name	Affiliation	Comment
Reporter	27-JAN-00	S.H. Pilcher	U.S. Geological Survey

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.