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Mammoth Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Copper, Molybdenum, Lead, 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 10308814
MRDS ID A012226
Record type Site
Current site name Mammoth Creek
Related records 10282343, 10001478

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -145.20794, 65.53073 (WGS84)
Relative position The location is the approximate center of a broad placered area extending along the entire length of the creek from the confluence of Mastodon and Independence Creeks to Crooked Creek, a distance of about 4 miles.

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 C-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle NE(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
Copper Secondary
Molybdenum Secondary
Lead Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Allanite Ore
Galena Ore
Gold Ore
Molybdenite 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) -145.20794, 65.53073
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Bedrock along Mammoth Creek is mainly quartzite schist and mica schist intruded by granitic bodies and cut by numerous quartz veins (Prindle, 1905; Mertie, 1938). About 12 feet of locally-derived gold-bearing gravel is overlain by 3 feet of overburden. Gold in upper valley is fairly coarse and light colored. Fineness is about 840, increasing downstream. The source of gold is believed to be quartz veins and mineralized zones in the bedrock (Mertie, 1938). Samples of granite talus contained allanite, galena, molybdenite, scheelite, iron sulfide minerals, garnet, topaz and hematitic copper carbonate minerals (Nelson and others, 1954). In 1906, a small steam shovel capable of handling 50 cubic yards of gravel per hour was installed on Mammoth Creek, and a 9.5 km long ditch was built in 1908 to bring water from Bonanza Creek for hydraulic mining. The largest hydraulic plant in the Circle district was used in mining the entire length of Mammoth Creek from Mastodon to Porcupine Creeks (Ellsworth, 1910; Ellsworth and Parker, 1911). In 1915 the Berry Dredging Company installed a dredge on the creek. It worked upstream along several parallel paths, was dismantled, carried downvalley, and reassembled several times during the following 35 years (Yeend, 1991). The main channel of the creek is completely mined (Menzie and others, 1983). In the 1980's, as many as four separate mining plants were operating along the creek in an attempt to clean the bedrock better than it had been by dredging, as well as to wash pockets of gravel left unmined along the channel margin. In addition, the thin mantle of colluvium on the channel sides yielded some gold following the stripping of the barren overlying ice-rich muck (Yeend, 1991). Gold was discovered on Mammoth Creek in 1894. Yields were 0.3 to 0.5 ounces of gold per man per day by the 'shoveling-in' method of mining (Dunham, 1898). The early miners recovered a few 3 and 4 ounce nuggets from gravel that yielded values of 0.1 to 0.15 ounces per cubic yard (Prindle, 1905). Detailed production records have not been published.

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 = Gold was discovered on Mammoth Creek in 1894. Yields were 0.3 to 0.5 ounces of gold per man per day by the 'shoveling-in' method of mining (Dunham, 1898). The early miners recovered a few 3 and 4 ounce nuggets from gravel that yielded values of 0.1 to 0.15 ounces per cubic yard (Prindle, 1905). Detailed production records have not been published.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = In 1906, a small steam shovel capable of handling 50 cubic yards of gravel per hour was installed on Mammoth Creek, and a 9.5 km long ditch was built in 1908 to bring water from Bonanza Creek for hydraulic mining. The largest hydraulic plant in the Circle district was used in mining the entire length of Mammoth Creek from Mastodon to Porcupine Creeks (Ellsworth, 1910; Ellsworth and Parker, 1911). In 1915 the Berry Dredging Company installed a dredge on the creek. It worked upstream along several parallel paths, was dismantled, carried downvalley, and reassembled several times during the following 35 years (Yeend, 1991). The main channel of the creek is completely mined (Menzie and others, 1983). In the 1980's, as many as four separate mining plants were operating along the creek in an attempt to clean the bedrock better than it had been by dredging, as well as to wash pockets of gravel left unmined along the channel margin. In addition, the thin mantle of colluvium on the channel sides yielded some gold following the stripping of the barren overlying ice-rich muck (Yeend, 1991).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Menzie and others, 1983.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = See also Mastodon Creek, ARDF no. CI037, Independence Creek, ARDF no. CI029 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.