Basin Creek

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 10308968
MRDS ID A012919
Record type Site
Current site name Basin Creek
Related records 10160173, 10002066

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.28708, 64.68139 (WGS84)
Relative position This alluvial placer gold mine is on Basin Creek, an east tributary to Nome River. About 7,000 to 8,000 feet of Basin Creek, between elevations of 150 and 350 feet, have been placer mined. The map location is 0.6 mile upstream of the mouth of Basin Creek, about where it enters the Nome River floodplain, in the NW1/4 section 28, T. 9 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is locality 112 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]). The location is accurate to within about 500 feet.

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)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tungsten Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Hematite Ore
Ilmenite 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) -165.28708, 64.68139

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Gold was discovered on Basin Creek by 1900 (Brooks and others, 1901). At least 1 mile of the creek has been extensively placer mined, much by a small floating dredge. The partly crystalline gold was in a 150-foot-wide paystreak consisting of coarse gravels on bedrock and in crevices in bedrock. From top to bottom, the unconsolidated section included 2 feet of soil, 3 feet of rounded gravel, 12 feet of coarse, angular gravel containing more than 30 percent clasts greater than 10 inches in diameter, clay on bedrock, and 0.5 to 1.5 feet of fractured bedrock (Collier and others, 1908). Heavy mineral concentrates contained ilmenite, hematite, and scheelite. Coats (1944) later reported that the amount of placer scheelite in Basin Creek was negligible. The gold was approximately 900 fine (Purington, 1905). This mine continued to be active, at least for the purposes of tourist visits, at least until the 1970's. Bedrock is mainly marble, probably of Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994). Bundtzen and others (1994) determined that albite-bearing mafic schist was in thrust contact with the marble about at the head of the paystreak in Basin Creek.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Production until about 1906 was about 1,450 ounces of gold (Moffit, 1913). Total production until 1996 is believed to be less than 20,000 ounces.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Extensive placer mine tailings are present along about 1 mile of Basin Creek upstream from the Nome River floodplain. Road construction materials have also been mined from the patented claims in Basin Creek. Mining since about 1960 has been mainly by a bucket line dredge with about 1.5-cubic-foot buckets. This dredge was constructed, and has been operated, by the Engstrom family.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Deposit Other Comments = Basin Creek has been one of the most productive creeks on the east side of the Nome River in the Nome district.

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.