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Goldstream 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 10308495
MRDS ID A105322
Record type Site
Current site name Goldstream Creek
Related records 10097582

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -147.98407, 64.9166 (WGS84)
Relative position The Goldstream Creek is located in the NE1/4 sec. 17 and NW1/4 sec. 16, T. 1 N., R. 2 W., Fairbanks Meridian. This large open-pit mine is marked on the Fairbanks D-2 NW topographic map; it is approximately 9 miles northwest of Fairbanks. It is in the valley of Goldstream Creek below the mouth of Sheep Creek, which drains the northeast side of Ester Dome.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Fairbanks North Star(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Fairbanks D-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Big Delta NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Fairbanks(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

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) -147.98407, 64.9166
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Bedrock in the drainage near the mouth of Sheep Creek is Fairbanks Schist, consisting of quartz-muscovite schist, quartzite, and chlorite-quartz schist, and bleached feldspathic quartzose schist (Newberry and others, 1996). The mine, which is near the mouth of Sheep Creek, consists of predominantly frozen ground with a few scattered, thawed bog holes and a thawed area running the length of the old F.E. Co. stripping drain (May and Bundtzen, 1996). Polar Mining Inc. (PMI) ran the placer operation in the Goldstream Creek valley here from 1987 to 1996 and processed gravels through a sophisticated sluice plant (Bundtzen and others, 1988, p. 30; Green and others, 1989, p. 37; May and Bundtzen, 1996). Five hundred additional prospect holes were drilled to further define the ore reserve. At its widest point, PMI's mining cut was more than 1,300 feet wide (May and Bundtzen, 1996). The ore grade in 1995 was 0.00286 ounce of gold per ton, or about 350 tons of frozen gravel were processed for each ounce of gold that was recovered (May and Bundtzen, 1996).
  • Age = Quaternary placer.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairbanks

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = There is no record on the amount of production, but it was clearly substantial.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Polar Mining Inc. (PMI) mined in Goldstream Creek valley at the mouth of Sheep Creek from 1987 to 1996 and processed gravels through a sophisticated sluice plant (Bundtzen and others, 1988, p. 30; Green and others, 1989, p. 37; May and Bundtzen, 1996). Five hundred additional prospect holes were drilled to further define the ore reserve. At its widest point, PMI's mining cut was more than 1,300 feet wide (May and Bundtzen, 1996). PMI used open-pit mining methods, using drilling and blasting to loosen the frozen materials. Overburden stripping was done in the winter; pay gravels were left to thaw during the summer, then hauled by truck to the wash plant (May and Bundtzen, 1996). During the summer of 1991, PMI processed about 600,000 cubic yards and about 1.5 million pounds of explosives were used to blast frozen overburden during the winter (Bundtzen and others, 1992, p. 32). In 1995, PMI moved 3,600,000 cubic yards and washed 505,000 cubic yards of pay gravel (Bundtzen and others, 1996, p. 28). This area has since been reclaimed and PMI now operates on another Goldstream property near Fox (FB085).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = May and Bundtzen, 1996

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 31-JUL-2001 J.R. Guidetti Schaefer Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 31-JUL-2001 C.J. Freeman Avalon Development Corporation

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.