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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 10308785
MRDS ID A013391
Record type Site
Current site name Rainy Creek
Related records 10282753, 10002461

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -160.14275, 60.0093 (WGS84)
Relative position This placer mine is in the southeast corner of the Bethel A-4 quadrangle. It is in the headwaters of Rainy Creek, an east tributary to upper Eek River. The placer mine workings are present over about 3/4 mile of Rainy Creek and the coordinate location is the approximate midpoint of the workings, just downsteam from the mouth of Arsenic Creek (BH001). This is locality 7 of Cobb (1972 [MF 455]) and of Hoare and Cobb (1977). It is in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge and the Togiak Wilderness.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Bethel(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bethel A-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bethel SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bethel 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 Primary

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) -160.14275, 60.0093
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = About 0.7 mile of upper Rainy Creek has been placer mined (Rutledge, 1948, fig. 3). This includes operations both above and below the mouth of Arsenic Creek, a small south tributary to Rainy Creek with identified lode mercury mineralization (BH001). A small part of the placer deposit extends downstream into the Goodnews Bay quadrangle (GO012). The upper drainage does not appear to have been glaciated and the gravels are locally derived. The placer operations recovered both gold and cinnabar. About 2,000 pounds of cinnabar were recovered and shipped, mostly from Rainy Creek below the mouth of Arsenic Creek. Some cinnabar was recovered from above the mouth of Arsenic Creek; a possible bedrock source for this cinnabar was identified on the south side of Rainy Creek, 1.25 miles above the mouth of Arsenic Creek (Rutledge, 1948, p. 7). Bedrock in upper Rainy Creek and its tributaries is clastic sedimentary rocks of the mid-Cretaceous Kuskokwim Group locally cut by mafic dikes or sills (Rutledge, 1948; Box and others, 1993).
  • 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 Bethel

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = About 2000 pounds of cinnabar were recovered from the placer operation (Malone, 1962). No figures are available on gold production.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Open-cut placer workings are present along about 0.7 mile of the creek. Mining occurred sometime between 1920 and 1946.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Rutledge, F.A., 1948, Investigations of the Rainy Creek mercury prospect, Bethel district, Kuskokwim region, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 4361, 7 p.

  • Deposit

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

  • 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

    Box, S.E, Moll-Stalcup, E.J., Frost, T.P., and Murphy, J.M., 1993, Preliminary geologic map of the Bethel and southern Russian Mission quadrangles, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2226-A, 20 p., scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bethel quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-455, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Rutledge, 1948

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 24-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.