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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Hot Air Bench

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 10308601
Record type Site
Current site name Hot Air Bench
Alternate or previous names Last Chance Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -147.30576, 63.20253 (WGS84)
Relative position The Hot Air Bench gold placer prospect is on the south side of Valdez Creek on the prominent terrace between White Creek and Lucky Gulch. This site also includes a placer mine in a small gulch locally called Last Chance Creek, which is a tributary of Valdez Creek. The map site is just inside the north-central border of sec. 11, T. 20 S., R. 2 E., of the Fairbanks Meridian. This location is accurate to within 100 feet.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Matanuska-Susitna(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Healy A-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Mount Hayes SW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Healy(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Susitna River(hydrologic unit)

Susitna River(hydrologic accounting unit)

South Central Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

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) -147.30576, 63.20253
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Hot Air Bench consists mostly of glacial-moraine gravels and of fluvial channels that cross the bench. All of the gravels are auriferous but none is rich enough to mine at this time (1999). A limited cross section is exposed in Last Chance Creek, along the lower portion of the bench, where Valdez Creek fluvial gravels are interbedded with apparently glacial-moraine gravels. In drill holes along the lower portion of the bench there was a large amount of ground water (D. L. Stevens, personal observations).
  • Age = Quaternary. Most of the bench probably consists of moraines from the last phase of valley glaciation.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Valdez Creek

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = There has been very small production.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = In 1986, a reconnaissance-scale drilling program tested these gravels. The Last Chance Creek gulch has been mined sporadically since the early days in the district. The most recent mining was in the mid-1980's. The gold is bright and shiny and some nuggets were found (D.L. Stevens, personal observations).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = This record

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 07-APR-2000 D.L. Stevens Stevens Exploration Management 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.