Lynx Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity 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 10309000
MRDS ID A011880
Record type Site
Current site name Lynx Creek
Related records 10001177

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -156.67344, 66.97954 (WGS84)
Relative position The Lynx Creek placer mine is about 1.2 mile above its confluence with Kogoluktul River. The deposit extends from NE1/4, section 9 to S1/2 section 3, T. 18 N., R. 10 E., of the Kateel River Meridian. The main workings were in sections 9 and 10. The location is plotted from description in Bundtzen and others (1986) and Mayfield and Grybeck (1978), location 33.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Shungnak D-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Shungnak NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Shungnak(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Kobuk River(hydrologic unit)

Kobuk-Selawik Rivers(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

NANA Regional Corporation, Incorporated(ANCSA Region)

ANCSA Region NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold 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) -156.67344, 66.97954

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The upper portion of Lynx Creek is underlain by lower Paleozoic mica schist and the lower portion of the creek is underlain by lower to mid Paleozoic granite gneiss. Placer gold occurs mostly on the mica schist bedrock beneath eight feet of overburden. The overburden consists of two feet of vegetation and muck and six feet of gravel. The gravel is up to one inch in diameter with numerous small boulders. The ground is thawed and bedrock is soft and decomposed. One to 2 feet of bedrock are mined with the gravel. The gold is of two types. About half is in small nuggets and the rest is fine, rounded grains. It was worth about $17.20 per ounce in 1931. The ground yielded between $0.273 to $0.375 per cubic yard of material. No gold has been found on the gneiss bedrock (Reed, 1931).
  • 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 Shungnak

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Deposit probably is mined out.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = A one- to two-man operation mined on the creek for at least 28 years from the early 1900's to the early 1930's (Reed, 1931).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Reed, 1931

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Deposit Other Comments = Stream gradient approximately 300-500 feet per mile.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 16-DEC-99 Williams, Anita U.S. Geological Survey

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.