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Gold Hill

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 10308578
Record type Site
Current site name Gold Hill

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -147.95295, 64.84966 (WGS84)
Relative position Gold Hill is a prominent area of dredged ground about 1.5 miles long that extends to both sides of the Parks Highway about 2.5 miles east of the town of Ester. It is centered at about the intersection of section 3, 4, 9 and 10, T. 1 S., R. 2. W., Fairbanks Meridian, and the dredge tailings are prominent on the Fairbanks D-2 topographic map.

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)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

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) -147.95295, 64.84966
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Early workers, notably Prindle and Katz in 1913 indicated the presence of a gold placer on their map here but without details in their text. The discovery of gold here and the early mining was certainly carried out by drift mining because here, as most of the of the placer ground in the Ester area, the auriferous gravel was capped by a thick deposit of barren gravel and frozen reworked wind-blown silt or loess (called muck by miners) that had washed down into the Cripple Creek valley. Later after the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company consolidated ground in the Ester area and began dredging on Ester Creek (FB034), they washed the muck off the auriferous gravel in this area, thawed the gravel, and prepared the ground for dredging. In 1950, they moved Dredge 6 from near the mouth of Eva Creek via a canal to this area which by then was well known as the Gold Hill area. Dredge 6 worked here until the spring of 1958, when it was moved overland to Sheep Creek (FB052) (Boswell, 1979; R.L.Chapman, USGS, unpublished memorandum, 1978). The paleodrainage here is obscured by the thick muck that originally blanketed the gravel in the valley, and it is unclear whether the Gold Hill placer represents a continuation of the Ester Creek (FB034) or Cripple Creek (FB070) channels, or both. And it is not impossible that some of the gold here was contributed from the drainages and lode deposits ofnthe east side of Ester Dome.
  • Age = Quaternary placer.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Fairbanks

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Production figures are not available, but considerable gold must have produced during dredge operations from 1950 to 1957.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Early workers, notably Prindle and Katz in 1913, indicated the presence of a gold placer on their map here but without details in their text. The discovery of gold here and the early mining must certainly have been carried out by deep drift mining because here, as on most of the placer ground in the Ester area, the auriferous gravel was capped by a thick deposit of barren gravel and frozen reworked wind-blown silt or loess (called muck by miners) that had washed down into the Cripple Creek valley. Later after the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company consolidated ground in the Ester area and began dredging on Ester Creek (FB034), they washed the muck off the auriferous gravel in this area, thawed the gravel, and prepared the ground for dredging. In 1950, they moved Dredge 6 from near the mouth of Eva Creek via a canal to this area which by then was well known as the Gold Hill area. Dredge 6 worked here until the spring of 1958, when it was moved overland to Sheep Creek (FB052) (Boswell, 1979; R.L.Chapman, USGS, unpublished memorandum, 1978).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Boswell, 1979

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 and 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.