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Little Squaw Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Arsenic, Lead, 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. Host and associated rocks
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Links to other databases
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10001768
MRDS ID A012557
Record type Site
Current site name Little Squaw Creek
Related records 10282316

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -148.16329, 67.56974 (WGS84)
Relative position The Little Squaw Creek placer mine is approximately 2 miles southeast of the southeast end of Squaw Lake. Placer mining has taken place on the lower portion of the creek, generally in the SW1/4 sec. 26, T. 32 N., R. 3 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian, and as shown on fig. 2 in Chipp (1970). The location is accurate within a 1/2-mile radius.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Chandalar C-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Chandalar N(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Chandalar C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Arsenic Critical Secondary
Lead Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

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

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Metavolcanic Rock > Mafic Metamorphic Rock > Greenstone

Nearby scientific data

(1) -148.16329, 67.56974
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Little Squaw Creek drains an area of auriferous quartz veins of the Chandalar district (CH040 through CH042) that are the presumed source of the placer gold. Mertie (1925, p. 254-259, 263) described the complex glacial history for the creek. The creek was dammed by ice in the North Fork Chandalar River valley during part of Pleistocene, and this damming resulted in both pre- and post-glacial channel and bench deposits along Little Squaw Creek. The creek and bench gravels are mixed, with no distinct boundaries. The upper part of the drainage is described as having gold on bedrock, while farther downstream the pay streak runs onto false bedrock in glacial gravels (Mertie, 1925). Post-glacial deposits, mainly along the lower course of the stream, are composed of 25 to 50 ft of glacial till overlain by 55 to 100 ft of gravel. The pre-glacial deposits, mainly along the upper stream course, are about 35 ft deep, with coarse gold in the upper 2 to 3 ft of bedrock. The placer concentrates contain, in addition to gold, a variety of other minerals, including pyrite, hematite, arsenopyrite, scheelite, galena, and monazite.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Not determined

Mining district

District name Chandalar

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Significant production but exact figures are unavailable.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Alaska Construction and Oil (1984) reported that Canadian Barranca Ltd., Inc., the operator in 1984, considered placer reserves in Tobin Creek, Little Squaw Creek, and two additional unnamed creeks in the area to be at least 100,000 ounces with potential for as much as 500,000 ounces.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Surface and underground workings. Mostly small-scale drift mining in the old channels. Gold was discovered on Little Squaw Creek in 1905, and mining was reported in most years through 1940, with further activity noted as late as the mid-1980s. In 1983, bulk sampling indicated average grades of $11 to $16 per cubic yard (gold at $400 per ounce) (Alaska Construction and Oil, 1984). Average fineness of the gold was reported as 848 (Mertie, 1925, p. 258).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mertie, 1925

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = See also: Big Creek (CH043), Tobin Creek (CH048), Mikado Mine (CH045), Little Squaw Mine (CH040). Placer concentrates contain 0.002 to 0.003 percent eU (White, 1952).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 17-NOV-1999 J.M. Britton U.S. Geological Survey

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.