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Independence Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Lead, Tin, Tungsten
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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 10308812
MRDS ID A012213
Record type Site
Current site name Independence Creek
Related records 10136347, 10001464

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -145.21694, 65.48573 (WGS84)
Relative position Independence Creek was mined from just above Harrison Fork to the confluence with Mastodon Creek. The placered areas extend from about 3,000 ft to 6,000 ft upstream of, to about 7,500 ft downstream of, the intersection of the coordinates. Independence Creek is a major fork of Mammoth Creek.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Circle B-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Circle C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Lead Secondary
Tin Critical Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore
Galena Ore
Gold Ore
Scheelite Ore
Wolframite Ore
Xenotime 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) PzPxyqs
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Independence Creek is about 6.5 km long. Below the junction of Independence and Mastodon Creeks, the drainage is known as Mastodon Creek. Bedrock in the Independence Creek drainage is the Lower Schist unit described by Wiltse and others (1995) as a slightly calcareous quartz-muscovite schist and porphyroblastic albite-quartz-chlorite-muscovite schist. The bedrock is cut by numerous quartz veins. Pay gravel was as much as 425 ft wide but generally no more than 325 ft wide. Gravels are 4 ot 5 ft thick and overlain by 0 to 10 ft of muck. The gold is fine-grained and lies mainly within 3 ft of the gravel-bedrock contact. In one part of the creek, weighted mean fineness (eight assays) was 787 Au and 201 Ag. In another part it was 810 Au and 175 Ag (five assays representing 1500 oz of gold) (Mertie, 1938, p. 219-222). Gold fineness increases progressively downstream. The source of gold, according to miners, is localized in the area around Mastodon Dome. Heavy mineral concentrates contain wolframite, xenotime, zircon, garnet, and hematite (Nelson and others, 1954). Drift mining occurred in the early days. A dredge operated near the mouth of Independence Creek for a short time in the 1920's (Mertie, 1938). Most mining was by hydraulic methods. This early mining yielded values of 0.05 to 0.4 ounces per cubic yard (Mertie, 1938). Much of the gravel has been washed at least three times during multiple mining operations spanning 90 years. Recent mining has focused on the margins of the creek under old mine tailings (Yeend, 1991, p. 23).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Circle

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Early mining yielded values of 0.05 to 0.4 ounces per cubic yard (Mertie, 1938).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Drift mining occurred in the early days. A dredge operated near the mouth of Independence Creek for a short time in the 1920's (Mertie, 1938). Most mining was by hydraulic methods. Much of the gravel has been washed at least three times during multiple mining operations spanning 90 years. Recent mining has focused on the margins of the creek under old mine tailings (Yeend, 1991, p. 23).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mertie, 1938; Yeend, 1991.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = See also Mammoth Creek, ARDF no. CI036, Mastodon Creek, ARDF no. CI037 and Miller Creek, ARDF no. CI039.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 09-SEP-1998 C.J. Freeman, J.R. Guidetti Schaefer, A.S. Clements Avalon Development 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.