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Red Creek

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Mercury, Lead, Zinc
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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. Alteration
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Links to other databases
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308704
Record type Site
Current site name Red Creek
Alternate or previous names Wolf Den

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -136.32213, 59.39974 (WGS84)
Relative position The Wolf Den prospect is located on the north slopes of Flower Mountain at an elevation of approximately 2,500 feet; it is 3.9 miles, S22E from Pleasant Camp on the Alaska-British Columbia border. It is in the SE1/4, section 36, T. 28 S., R. 53 E. of the Copper River Meridian. It's location is taken from Still and others (1991). Rubicon Minerals (1998) refers to a Red Creek prospect that is reported to be 3 miles east of the Main Zone/Palmer prospect (SK066), which places it very close to the Wolf Den prospect. The two are combined here, as they may be the same occurrence despite somewhat different descriptions.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Haines(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Skagway B-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Skagway SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Skagway C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Chilkat-Skagway Rivers(hydrologic unit)

Northern Southeast Alaska(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southeast 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
Mercury Secondary
Lead Secondary
Zinc Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Pyrite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • Based on its similarity to the Golden Eagle prospect (SK047) and other occurrences in the area, the tan dike is probably a mafic dike that has been altered to a silica-carbonate rock (Still and others, 1991).

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 85
USGS model code 22c
Deposit model name Polymetallic veins
Mark3 model number 46

Nearby scientific data

(1) -136.32213, 59.39974
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Two different sources, Still and others (1991) and Rubicon Minerals (1998) provide similar locations for prospects with differing names and descriptions. Still and others (1991) describe the Wolf Den prospect as quartz-pyrite-arsenopyrite-sphalerite veins in a tan dike less than 10 feet thick. The veins are up to 0.3 feet thick, extend up to 5 feet in length, and are confined to the dike. Samples from the veins contained up to 11.4 ppm gold and 3,500 ppm zinc. A 5-foot-long chip sample of slate with pyrite bands collected upstream form the dike contained 0.103 ppm gold and 225 ppm zinc. Rubicon Minerals (1998) refers to an unpublished Cominco Alaska report that describes the Red Creek prospect as a, '...rhyolite fragmental with a small two-foot-thick exposure of a massive pyrite breccia in a creek bed.' They also report the discovery of barite and semi-massive pyrite at the site in 1998 and cite samples with 2,080 ppm zinc and 12.83 ppm mercury. Rubicon Minerals (1998) interprets the Red Creek prospect to be the most southeasterly known prospect of a mineral trend that extends to the northwest through the Main Zone/Palmer (SK066), Little Jarvis (SK069), and an unnamed (SK070) prospect. The descriptions for this prospect suggest both a volcanogenic massive-sulfide deposit of probable Late Triassic age (Still, 1984 [OF 118-84]; Newberry and others, 1997), and Cretaceous or younger, auriferous quartz-sulfide veins within a northwest trending zone of quartz-sulfide veining in metasediments (Wright, 1904 [B 225 and B 236]; Eakin,1918 and 1919; and MacKevett and others, 1974).
  • Age = The Wolf Den prospect, if different from Red Creek prospect, may be related to Cretaceous plutonism. The description of Red Creek suggests it is a volcanogenic massive-sulfide deposit correlative with the Late Triassic Windy Craggy and Greens Creek deposits (Still, 1984 [OF 118-84]; Newberry and others, 1997).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active?

Mining district

District name Juneau (Skagway subdistrict)

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The Red Creek prospect was discovered by Cominco Alaska in 1990. Additional prospecting by Rubicon Minerals and its associates in 1998 discovered barite and semi-massive pyrite breccia (Rubicon Minerals, 1998).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Still and others, 1991

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Polymetallic quartz-sulfide vein and/or a volcanogenic massive sulfide. There may be two different types of deposits (Cox and Singer, 1986; models 22c,? 24b?, 28a?.
Deposit Model Number = 22c?, 24b?, 28a?

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 04-FEB-2001 T.C. Crafford T. Crafford & Associates

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.