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Big Hurrah

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Copper, Tungsten, Zinc
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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. Alteration
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  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 10309012
MRDS ID A012593
Record type Site
Current site name Big Hurrah
Related records 10233038, 10001791

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.23827, 64.64731 (WGS84)
Relative position The Big Hurrah mine is located on the south side of Big Hurrah Creek (SO022) and the east side of Little Hurrah Creek at an elevation of about 275 feet. It is about 1/4 mile southeast of the confluence of Little and Big Hurrah Creeks. It is locality 17 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Solomon C-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(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
Silver Secondary
Copper Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary
Zinc Critical Secondary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Gangue = carbonate

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Electrum Ore
Gold Ore
Pyrite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Albite Gangue
Quartz Gangue
Sericite Gangue

Alteration

  • Silicification, carbonatization, and development of quartz-carbonate stockworks.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Nearby scientific data

(1) -164.23827, 64.64731
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Big Hurrah mine is the only productive lode gold mine on Seward Peninsula. Gold-quartz veins in slaty graphitic schist produced about 27,000 ounces of gold (Read and Meinert, 1986) primarily between 1903 and 1907, when a 20-stamp mill was in operation (Smith, 1908). The ore that was mined averaged a little less than 1 ounce gold per ton (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181); six samples collected underground in 1952 from the 70 foot level contained 0.08 to 5.2 ounces Au per ton and 0.5 to 17.2 ounces Ag per ton (Asher, 1969, DGGS R33). The mill tailings were cyanided and there were attempts to restart underground mining in the 1950's. A fire and unstable ground prevented further underground work and all workings are now flooded. However, considerable core drilling and surface trenching has taken place in more recent years, primarily in the 1980s. Read and Meinert (1986) describe five types of veins: 1) quartz +/- carbonate lenses, 2 to 7 cm thick, locally contain minor sphalerite, chlorite and arsenopyrite; 2) quartz, carbonate, pyrite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite form tabular veins 2 to 5 mm thick; 3) ribbon quartz veins up to 4 m wide (average 0.5 m wide) occupy NW-trending faults and contain more than 90 % quartz, dolomite, albite, sericite, scheelite, arsenopyrite, pyrite and native gold; the total sulfide content is less than 2 to 3 percent and scheelite is less than 1%; 4) quartz-albite +/- arsenopyrite veins 5 to 25 cm wide contain up to 25% albite, up to 20% arsenopyrite and minor gold; thought to be syngenetic; 5) post-mineralization carbonate-quartz veinlets 2 to 3 mm thick that cut all other vein types. Coats (1944) estiimated that the scheelite content of gold ore that remained in the bins was 0.25 percent by volume. Some veins are up to several hundred feet long; the larger veins strike northwest and dip southwest (Asher, 1969, DGGS R33). Fluid inclusion data from these veins indicate multiple generations of fluids; early veins contain CO2-CH4 and later veins are rich in H2O-NaCl. Homogenization temeratures vary from 390 to 90 degrees C. The available data suggest the gold-bearing fluids were produced by regional metamorphic processes. The country rock is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Sainsbury and others, 1972; Till and others, 1986) that includes a distinctive black, very fine-grained, graphitic schist that early workers called the Hurrah Slate in this area. The Big Hurrah veins are probably similar in age to some other gold-quartz veins of southern Seward Peninsula. The other southern Seward Peninsula lode gold deposits formed as a result of mid-Cretaceous metamorphism (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993, Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997) that accompanied regional extension (Miller and Hudson, 1991) and crustal melting (Hudson, 1994). This higher temperature metamorphism was superimposed on high pressure/low temperature metamorphic rocks of the region.
  • Age = Cretaceous

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 = The Big Hurrah mine is the only productive lode gold mine on Seward Peninsula. The gold-quartz veins in slaty graphitic schist produced about 27,000 ounces of gold (Read and Meinert, 1986) primarily between 1903 and 1907, when a 20-stamp mill was in operation (Smith, 1908).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = A 60-degree inclined shaft extended to the 250 feet level; there are about 1,800 feet of lateral workings developed off it on the 70, 150, and 250 foot-levels. In 1954, a 105-foot-long sublevel was driven at 20 feet below the 150-East level (Asher, 1969, DGGS R33). Surface prospecting pits and trenches are widespread including many dug in the 1980's.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Read and Meinert, 1986

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Gold-quartz vein in metamorphic rocks; low sulfide-Au quartz vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-AUG-1999 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

External references

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.