Balto Creek (Marcus

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Tungsten
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 10308949
MRDS ID A012894
Record type Site
Current site name Balto Creek (Marcus
Alternate or previous names Hunch, Agnes Association)
Related records 10135750, 10002045

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.45668, 64.63528 (WGS84)
Relative position This alluvial placer gold mine is on Balto Creek, an east tributary to Snake River. Placer mining has taken place upstream of the Snake River road crossing and about 1.5 miles west-northwest of Mount Byrnteson. The map location is in the W1/2 section 10, T. 10 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian, and the location is accurate within 500 feet. This is locality 95 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

NTVALL(Federal land areas administered by NTVALL)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
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) -165.45668, 64.63528

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Some placer gold mining occurred on Balto Creek in the early 1900s(Collier and others, 1908; Chapin, 1914 [B 592-L, p. 397-407]). The gold-bearing gravels were as much as 25 feet wide, 4 to 5 feet thick, and extended along the creek for about one-half mile (Moffit, 1913). This narrow drainage also contains some placer scheelite (Coats, 1944; Thorne and others, 1948). Bedrock in the area is graphitic schist that 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).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Some small surface placer mine workings are present.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Moffit, 1913

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (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.