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Butte Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Platinum
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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. 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 10308857
MRDS ID M045368
Record type Site
Current site name Butte Creek
Related records 10038091

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.47272, 59.48927 (WGS84)
Relative position Butte Creek is a small east tributary to Faro Creek, a south tributary of Arolik River. Almost a mile of upper Butte Creekhas been placer mined. The map site is at the approximate midpoint of the placer workings, at the southeast corner of section 11, T 8 S, R 27 W, of the Seward Meridian. This is locality 6 of Hoare and Cobb (1977) and of Cobb and Condon (1972).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Bethel(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Goodnews Bay B-7(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Goodnews Bay(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Goodnews Bay(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Kuskokwim Delta(hydrologic unit)

Lower Kuskokwim River(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Calista Corporation(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
Platinum 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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -161.47272, 59.48927
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Butte Creek is in the non-glaciated part of the Faro Creek drainage. Placer gold mining has taken place over about one mile of upper Butte Creek, starting in 1911 and continuing in most years up to 1940 (Hoare and Cobb, 1977, p. 29). About five feet of gravel covered a pay streak on a false clay bedrock like that on Kowkow Creek (GO031). The depth to true bedrock is 15 to 25 feet below the false bedrock. About 3,400 ounces of gold were produced up to 1919 (Harrington, 1921). Some platinum was also recovered with the gold. Platinum recovered from Butte Creek contained 59.07 percent Pt, 15.38 percent Ir, 14.82 percent Os, 9.31 percent Ru, 0.96 percent Rh, and 0.46 percent Pd (Mertie, 1969, table 38). Butte Creek was prospected for platinum in the 1960s by the Goodnews Bay Mining Company (Mertie, 1969, p. 89). Butte Creek is near the faulted contact between Precambrian crystalline rocks and Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks (Hoare and Coonrad, 1978).
  • 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 Bethel

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Placer gold mining has taken place over about one mile of the creek starting in 1911 and continuing in most years up to 1940 (Hoare and Cobb, 1977. p. 29). About 3,400 ounces of gold were produced up to 1919 (Harrington, 1921). The small amount of platinum production from Butte Creek was included in the amount reported by the Goodnews Bay Mining Company for its Salmon River operations in the Hagemeister Island quadrangle (Mertie, 1969).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Open-cut surface mine workings are present along about 1 mile of upper Butte Creek. The creek was prospected for platinum in the 1960s by the Goodnews Bay Mining Company (Mertie, 1969, p. 89).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1969, Economic geology of platinum minerals: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 630, 120 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., and Condon, W.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Goodnews quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-447, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Cobb, E.H., 1977, Mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bethel, Goodnews, and Russian Mission quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-156, 98 p.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Coonrad, W.L., 1978, Geologic map of the Goodnews and Hagemeister Island quadrangles region, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-9-B, two sheets, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Harrington, G.L., 1921, Mineral resources of the Goodnews Bay region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 714-E, p. 207-228.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Hoare and Cobb, 1977

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 20-MAR-2001 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

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.