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Rainy Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Mercury
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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 10308579
Record type Site
Current site name Rainy Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -160.15275, 59.9993 (WGS84)
Relative position This mine is in the headwaters of Rainy Creek, an east tributary to Eek River, that flows northwest into the Bethel A-4 quadrangle. Only a small part of uppermost Rainy Creek is in the Goodnews Bay quadrangle. The map site is at an elevation of about 1,650 feet on Rainy Creek in the northeast corner of the Goodnews Bay D-4 quadrangle. This is locality 19 of Hoare and Cobb (1977) and of Cobb and Condon (1972).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Bethel(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Goodnews Bay D-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Goodnews Bay NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Goodnews Bay C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Kuskokwim Delta(hydrologic unit)

Lower Kuskokwim River(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Togiak National Wildlife Refuge(National Wildlife Refuge)

National Wildlife Refuge FWS(Type of land area)

FWS(Federal land areas administered by FWS)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Mercury Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cinnabar Ore
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) -160.15275, 59.9993
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Mining took place on a very small part of Rainy Creek in the Goodnews Bay quadrangle. Most of the placer mining along this creek was upstream to the northeast in the Bethel quadrangle (BH002; Hoare and Cobb, 1977, p. 44). Gold was discovered on the creek in 1911 and a little mining was reported in subsequent years until WW II. Some mining continued into WW II because cinnabar, a strategic mineral, was recovered with gold, especially below Arsenic Creek, an east tributary in the Bethel quadrangle. A total of 2,000 pounds of cinnabar and 6 flasks of mercury were reported to have been produced from the creek (Malone, 1962). The amount of mining that took place in the Goodnews Bay quadrangle is minor. Bedrock in the Rainy Creek drainage is sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous Kuskokwim Group (Hoare and Coonrad, 1978).
  • Age = Holocene.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Bethel

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Some surface workings may be present.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Malone, Kevin, 1962, Mercury occurrences in Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Circular 8131, 57 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., and Condon, W.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Goodnews quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-447, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Cobb, E.H., 1977, Mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bethel, Goodnews, and Russian Mission quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-156, 98 p.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Coonrad, W.L., 1978, Geologic map of the Goodnews and Hagemeister Island quadrangles region, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-9-B, two sheets, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Hoare and Cobb, 1977

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = The Rainy Creek mine is within the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge and Togiak Wilderness.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 20-MAR-2001 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

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