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Rocky Mountain Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, 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 10308932
MRDS ID D002571
Record type Site
Current site name Rocky Mountain Creek
Related records 10009530

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.20699, 64.76949 (WGS84)
Relative position Rocky Mountain Creek is an east tributary to upper Nome River. It is about 2 miles south of Christian Creek (NM073). Tailings extend about one-half mile along Rocky Mountain Creek, beginning just east of the Nome-Taylor road. The location is accurate; the coordinates are the mid-point of the placer tailings. The mine is locality 108 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome D-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tin Critical Primary
Tungsten Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
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) -165.20699, 64.76949
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The lower part of Rocky Mountain Creek was placer mined for gold, probably after WW II. The area was actively prospected for tungsten and other strategic metals during World War II (Coats, 1944), and native gold and small amounts of cassiterite were present with scheelite in heavy mineral concentrates. Rocky Mountain Creek was one of three creeks in the Nome area identified by Anderson (1947) as having notable amounts of cassiterite. Anderson (1947) inferred that the placer cassiterite was derived from the same veins that hosted scheelite. Lode occurrences identified above the placer mine in the Rocky Mountain Creek drainage include the Lindfors (NM080) and Spring (NM078) antimony prospects and the Thomson (NM077) antimony and zinc prospect identified by Hummel (1962 [MF 248]). Coats (1944) reported a narrow vein, mostly composed of quartz and albite but also with about 3 percent scheelite, in Rocky Mountain Creek above the placer. This scheelite occurrence may be locality 34 of Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) near the head of the creek (NM076). Bedrock in the Rocky Mountain Creek drainage is a metasedimentary schist and marble sequence (Hummel, 1962 [MF 248]).
  • Age = Holocene.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Rocky Mountain Creek was worked as a placer mine on a small scale relatively late in the history of the district. It is not mentioned as a placer prospect in reports earlier than World War II.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Coats, 1944

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 22-OCT-99 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group

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.