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Ketchem Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, REE, 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 10308813
MRDS ID A012215
Record type Site
Current site name Ketchem Creek
Alternate or previous names Holdem Creek
Related records 10001466, 10111754

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -144.74392, 65.48374 (WGS84)
Relative position The location is at the junction of Holdem and Ketchem Creeks. Most mining was on two sites along Ketchem Creek: 1) an area about 0.5 mile long beginning about 0.5 miles below the mouth of Holdem Creek, and 2) a 0.25 mile long area centered near the junction of Holdem and Ketchem Creeks. There has also probably been some mining on Holdem 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-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Circle(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

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

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Allanite Ore
Cassiterite Ore
Gold Ore
Scheelite 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) -144.74392, 65.48374
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Ketchem Creek flows northeast, drains the north slope of Ketchem Dome, and eventually crosses into the Tintina fault zone, approximately 3 miles west of Circle Hot Springs. The western fork is called Holdem Creek. Before entering the Tintina fault zone, both Ketchem and Holdem Creeks are underlain by Tertiary granite bedrock described by Wiltse and others (1995) as a light gray biotite monzogranite to syenogranite. An east-trending mafic dike intrudes the granite on the east side of Ketchem Creek about a quarter of a mile above the junction with Holdem Creek. Most mining has occurred south of the fault zone. This fault zone is exposed by mining and is marked by deep-orange clay-rich gravel. The gravel to the north of the fault has spread laterally and two to three colors per pan can be collected there (Yeend, 1991). Placer gravel in Ketchem Creek varies from 2 to 5 meters in thickness and is commonly overlain by 1 to 2 meters of muck. Gravel in the creek bed near the Hot Springs fault is up to 200 meters in width, most of which has been mined. Gold is concentrated in the lower 1 meter of gravel and is generally coarse and flattened. Nuggets of 1 to 3 ounces have been recovered. Fineness of gold about 0.783 Au and 0.207 Ag (Mertie, 1938). Heavy minerals in the gravel include scheelite, cassiterite, allanite, garnet, sphene and zircon (Wedow and others, 1954, p. 5; Cobb, 1973, p. 122, [B 1374]). Unknown amount of gold was produced by placer mining from 1933 to 1949, 1975, 1981, and throughout the 1990's. Winter drifting and dragline excavators operated in the 1930's; however, large boulders were a serious problem just below the mouth of Holdem Creek. In 1991, Magic Circle, Inc., worked Ketchum Creek for 65 days and processed 17,230 tonnes (19,000 tons) of pay gravel during the season . Greenhorn Mining processed 7,646 cubic meters (10,000 cubic yards) of auriferous pay in the same year (Swainbank and others, 1991). More recent mining has been conducted on Ketchem Creek by Fred Wilkinson (C.J. Freeman, oral commun., 1998).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Circle

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Unknown amount of gold produced by placer mining acitivity from 1933 to 1949, 1975, 1981, and throughout the 1990's. Production reported throughout the 1990's by Ed Lapp and Sons Mining (ESLM), Magic Circle, Inc. and Greenhorn Mining.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer mining occurred from 1933 to 1949, 1975, 1981, and throughout the 1990's. Winter drifting and dragline excavators operated in the 1930's; however, large boulders were a serious problem just below the mouth of Holdem Creek. In 1991, Magic Circle, Inc., worked Ketchum Creek for 65 days and processed 17,230 tonnes (19,000 tons) of pay gravel during the season . Greenhorn Mining processed 7,646 cubic meters (10,000 cubic yards) of auriferous pay in the same year (Swainbank and others, 1991). More recent mining has been conducted on Ketchem Creek by Fred Wilkinson (C.J. Freeman, oral commun., 1998).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Yeend, 1991.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = Ketchem Creek has also been spelled 'Ketchum'.

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.