1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Buck Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Tin, Gold
Map
XML
JSON
KML
C
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 10308728
Record type Site
Current site name Buck Creek
Alternate or previous names Left Fork, West Fork, Peluk Creek, Upper Buck Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -167.51443, 65.64226 (WGS84)
Relative position Buck Creek is the principal drainage on the east side of Potato Mountain (TE024) and the principal source of placer cassiterite production in this area. From headwaters against Potato Mountain, the stream drains 4 miles eastward to its mouth on Grouse Creek. Important tributaries to Buck Creek include Sutter Creek (TE021), Iron Creek (TE022) in the headwaters of Sutter Creek, Left Fork, West Fork, Peluk Creek, and upper Buck Creek. This is locality 29 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the name 'Buck Cr.' and 'Peluk Cr.'.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Teller C-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Teller NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Teller(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Shishmaref(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Wales Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Tin Critical Primary
Gold Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 123
USGS model code 39e
Deposit model name Alluvial placer Sn

Nearby scientific data

(1) -167.51443, 65.64226
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Bedrock in the headwaters of Buck Creek is thermally metamorposed thin-bedded metapelite, metasandstone, and minor impure metacarbonate rocks of unknown but probable Paleozoic age. These rocks makeup the relatively resistant upland of Potato Mountain that is interpreted to be underlain at depth by biotite granite (Hudson and Reed, 1997, p. 454). Significant lode tin deposits are present in the headwaters of Buck Creek and its tributaries (Mulligan, 1965). Placer cassiterite occurs throughout the active drainage of Buck Creek, from its headwaters against Potato Mountain to its mouth about 4 miles eastward on Grouse Creek. The alluvial gravels have been mined by two small bucket-line dredges along the present stream channel from the mouth at Grouse Creek westward for 15,000 feet. Hand mining took place for 1,500 feet further upstream. As noted by Mulligan (1965, p. 14-15), Buck Creek seems to contain a small amount of gravel for the size of its valley. The thickness of the gravel section is commonly only 4 to 6 feet and widths are about 200 feet. The gravels are well-sorted, contain few boulders over 1 foot in diameter, and little clay (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 5). Overburden varies from 0 to 14 feet thick in USBM churn-drill holes. The grade of the productive gravel has been estimated to have averaged 2.9 pounds of tin per cubic yard (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 21). Grades as high as 9.5 pounds of tin per cubic yard were identified locally by USBM churn-drilling (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 11). Here as elsewhere on western Seward Peninsula, the gravels are fozen except along active steam courses.
  • Age = Quaternary

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Most of the 1,124 short tons of tin produced from the Potato Mountain area (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 4) came from the placers of Buck Creek.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Post-mining churn drilling by the USBM identified small areas containing up to 5 pounds of tin per cubic yard (Heide and Rutledge, 1949).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The lower 15,000 feet of Buck Creek was mined by two small bucket-line dredges. Another 1,500 feet of the creek above the dredged area was mined by hand methods. Post-mining churn-drilling by the USBM included 86 holes along the main drainage of Buck Creek and additional holes on tributaries.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Heide, H.E. and Rutledge, F.A., 1949, Investigations of Potato Mountain tin placer deposits, Seward Peninsula, northwestern Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 4418, 21 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., and Sainsbury, C.L., 1972, Metallic mineral resource map of the Teller quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-426, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hudson, T.L., and Reed, B.L., 1997, Tin deposits of Alaska, in Goldfarb, R.J., and Miller, L.D., eds., Mineral Deposits of Alaska: Economic Geology Monograph 9, p. 450-465.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1975, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Teller quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 75-587, 130 p.

  • Deposit

    Mulligan, J.J., 1965, Tin-lode investigations. Potato Mountain area, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 6587, 85 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Heide and Rutledge, 1949

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-MAY-1998 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.