Seattle Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Tungsten, Gold
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 10308947
MRDS ID A012889
Record type Site
Current site name Seattle Creek
Related records 10209252, 10002040

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.38669, 64.69539 (WGS84)
Relative position This small placer mine is on Seattle Creek, a small southwest-flowing tributary to Snake River. A small amount of placer mining has taken place upstream of the Snake River road crossing of Seattle Creek. The map location is near the center of section 24, T. 9 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. This is locality 91 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 C-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

Sitnasuak Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Tungsten Critical Primary
Gold Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
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) -165.38669, 64.69539

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Seattle Creek was examined during WW II and found to contain possibly important amounts of placer scheelite (Coats, 1944). Bedrock in the area includes graphitic mica schist, marble, and calc-muscovite schist, units that are probably of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Sainsbury, Hummel, and Hudson, 1972 [OFR 72-326]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Bundtzen and others, 1994). The placer ground in Seattle Creek is underlain only by granitic orthogneiss of uncertain age. This rock underlies about 800 feet of upper Seattle Creek and is cut off on the south by a steep, northwest-striking fault (C.C. Hawley, written communication for Kennecott Exploration Company, 1995). The parts of the creek underlain by orthogneiss contain quartz boulders. About 300 feet of the creek upstream of the fault--on orthogneiss bedrock--was worked by hand methods.
  • 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 Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = About 300 feet of upper Seattle Creek was worked by shovel-in methods.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = This report

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer containing scheelite and gold (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 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.

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.