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Gold Cord

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Copper, Lead, Tungsten, 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 10308766
MRDS ID A011613
Record type Site
Current site name Gold Cord
Alternate or previous names Gold Cord Mining, Milling, and Power Co., Golden Bear Mining Co.
Related records 10282532, 10000942

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -149.28869, 61.79656 (WGS84)
Relative position At headwaters of East Fork Fishhook Creek, marked with an adit symbol and labeled 'Gold Cord Mine' on the Anchorage D-7 1:63,360-scale topographic map. Accurate within 400 ft. Locality 14 of Cobb (1972) and locality 11 of MacKevett and Holloway (1977).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Matanuska-Susitna(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Anchorage D-7(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Anchorage NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Anchorage(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Lower Susitna River(hydrologic unit)

Susitna River(hydrologic accounting unit)

South Central Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Copper Secondary
Lead Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary
Zinc Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Pyrite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Tetrahedrite Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • Wall-rock alteration is intense and consists of replacement by the usual hydrothermal minerals in the district - chlorite, pyrite, sericite, ankerite, and a little calcite (Ray, 1933).

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Nearby scientific data

(1) -149.28869, 61.79656
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The principal vein mined is in a shear zone as much as 25 ft wide in Late Cretaceous quartz diorite of the Willow Creek Pluton. The Willow Creek Pluton is a zoned pluton: the outer part consists of hornblende quartz diorite and lesser hornblende tonalite; the core consists of hornblende-biotite granodiorite, and lesser hornblende-biotite quartz monzodiorite and biotite quartz monzonite. Quartz is present along the foot wall and hanging wall which are separated by sheared quartz diorite, some of which is essentially unaltered. The vein strikes about N 10 W, and dips 30 to 42 W (Ray, 1933). Numerous other shear zones are present and are generally about 3 to 4 ft wide. These contain reticulating quartz veins and mineralized, altered quartz diorite (Chapin, 1920). Wall-rock alteration is intense and consists of replacement by the usual hydrothermal minerals in the district - chlorite, pyrite, sericite, ankerite, and a little calcite (Ray, 1933). Workings in the Gold Cord mine are probably the most difficult in the mining district. Due to the relatively greater number and arrangement of post-mineralization faults. The most important of the faults is the Gold Cord Fault, a major transverse fault striking N 65 W, and dipping 80 to 85 SW. This fault system is about 40 feet wide on the 100 and 400 levels but is 120 feet wide on the 200 level of the mine. The fault material is mostly comminuted, strongly altered quartz diorite. A number of minor transverse faults also cut the vein. These normal faults trend northwesterly and dip steeply to the northeast; displacements are generally less than 15 feet. The geology is further complicated by several normal and reverse faults (Ray, 1954). The property north of the Gold Cord Fault may prove favorable due to the absence of any major faults. Ore grade ranged from about 0.1 to 9 oz/ton Au. Most assay values were between 0.75 and 4 oz/ton Au (converted from dollar values given in Ray (1933)). During a 1984 U.S. Bureau of Mines investigation (Kurtak, 1986), a 1.8-ft-wide sample across a quartz vein in the 4,900 ft adit (late 1940's workings) contained 13 ppm gold (0.38 oz/ton).
  • Age = Late Cretaceous or younger; veins cut the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Willow Creek

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = From discovery through 1949, mainly between 1931 and 1938, the Gold Cord lode produced around 16,000 ounces of gold (Stoll, 1997).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = First staked in 1915 by Byron and Charles Bartholf. Development work appears to have been sporatic for many years, records indicate 'real' activity began around 1931 (Ray, 1954). By 1933 the camp consisted of a mill (crusher, 10-ton Denver mill, amalgamating plates, and a small concentration table), shops, and living quarters(Ray, 1933). The bulk of the gold produced from the mine was during the six year period from the winter of 1931 through 1937 (Stoll, 1997). Ray (1954) reports that the mine was developed by at least 2,500 ft of workings on several levels over a vertical distance of 200 ft. In 1947 and 1948 two veins near the top of the mountain above the Gold Cord mine were explored by drifting, but no significant amount of gold was found. The property has been drilled in attempts to locate faulted-out sections of vein and prospect adits driven on other veins have not been particularly successful. The property north of Gold Cord Fault may prove favorable due to the absence of any major faults. Ore grade ranged from about 0.1 to 9 oz/ton Au. Most assay values between 0.75 and 4 oz/ton Au (assay converted from dollar values reported by Ray (1933)). One batch of 11 tons of ore contained 10.9 oz (1 oz/ton) of gold (Brooks, 1925). During a 1984 U.S. Bureau of Mines investigation (Kurtak, 1986), a 1.8-ft-wide sample across a quartz vein in the 4,900 ft adit (late 1940s workings) contained 13 ppm gold (0.38 oz/ton). In 1998, Dan Renshaw continued driving a new adit in search of favorable ore at the Gold Cord mine.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Ray, 1954

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Low-sulfide Au-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a)
Deposit Other Comments = The site has also been referenced in the literature as Golden Bear Mining Co. and (Gold Cord) Mining, Milling, and Power Co.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 30-JUL-1998 D.P. Bickerstaff; S.W. Huss U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

External references

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.