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Upper Cache Creek Placers

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Platinum, Uranium, Thorium, Tin, 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. Nearby scientific data
  8. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  9. Mining district
  10. Links to other databases
  11. Bibliographic references
  12. General comments
  13. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10000916
MRDS ID A011580
Record type Site
Current site name Upper Cache Creek Placers
Alternate or previous names Spruce Creek, Short Creek, Rambler Creek, Lucky Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -150.98835, 62.48982 (WGS84)
Relative position ALONG CACHE CREEK BETWEEN RAMBLER AND WILSON GULCH

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Matanuska-Susitna(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Talkeetna B-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Talkeetna SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Talkeetna(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Yentna River(hydrologic unit)

Susitna River(hydrologic accounting unit)

South Central Alaska(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Comments on the location information

  • LOCATION GIVEN IS APPROXIMATE CENTER OF MOST PRODUCTIVE AREA: DREDGE OPERATION MINED STREAM PLACERS FROM JUST ABOVE WINDY CR. TO BELOW NUGGET CR; SEE: GENERAL COMMENTS LAND STATUS VALUE CALCULATED 6-94 USING GIS OVERLAY ANALYSIS WITH BLM 1:2,500,000 SCALE OWNERSHIP STATUS MAP (1991).

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Platinum Critical Secondary
Uranium Tertiary
Thorium Tertiary
Tin Critical Tertiary
Tungsten Critical Tertiary

Comments on the commodity information

  • RADIOACTIVITY DUE TO U AND TH IN ZIRCON, MONAZITE AND URANOTHORIANITE IN PLACERS

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Monazite Ore
Platinum Ore
Garnet Gangue
Ilmenite Gangue
Magnetite Gangue
Pyrite Gangue
Quartz Gangue
Cassiterite Unknown
Scheelite Unknown
Zircon Unknown

Nearby scientific data

(1) -150.98835, 62.48982
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • PLACERS OF CACHE CR. ARE HOLOCENE STREAM AND BENCH DEPOSITS OF WELL-WASHED GRAVELS DERIVED FROM GLACIAL DEBRIS; TRANSITIONAL WITH DEPOSITS OF GLACIO-FLUVIAL ORIGIN ; MAJOR.UNITS: MIOCENE COAL-BEARING SEDIMENTS COMPOSED OF SANDSTONES, CONGLOMERATES, CLAY SHALE AND COAL SEAMS; MIDDLE MEMBER OF THE KENAI FORMATION ; REG.COM: PROBABLY FORMED FROM GLACIAL DEBRIS WHICH HAS LOCALLY BEEN SUBJECTED TO STREAM SORTING; THE COARSENESS OF THE GOLD, SUBANGULAR SHAPE AND UNIFORM FINENESS INDICATE CLOSE PROXIMITY TO SOURCE

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic
Deposit size Small
Significant No
Discovery year 1906

Mining district

District name Yentna/Cache Creek

Comments on the production information

  • PRODUCTION, COMBINED FOR CACHE CR., PETERS CR, AND DUTCH CR., IS ESTIMATED AT ABOUT 170,000 OZ BETWEEN 1905 AND 1970, USGS MF-870-D; DOMINANT PRODUCTION BETWEEN 1916 AND 1926 IN YENTNA DISTRICT WAS FROM THE CACHE CR. DREDGE, WHICH WAS PROBABLY LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISTRICT'S PEAK PRODUCTION OF 10,788 OZ IN 1922, USGS OFR 311, P. 3-4

Comments on the workings information

  • PROBABLY MORE THAN HALF OF THE GOLD IN CACHE CREEK HAS BEEN MINED, USBM OFR 24-78, P. 4-114

Comments on development

  • DREDGE OPERATED FROM 1916 TO 1926 BETWEEN WINDY CR. AND NUGGET CR.; 65 BUCKETS OF 7.5 CF CAPACITY ABLE TO PROCESS 2000 CY OF MATERIAL DAILY; HYDRAULIC MINING ON BENCHES

Reference information

Bibliographic references

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit SHALLOW STREAM GRAVELS 3 TO 7 FT DEEP, AVE: 4.5 FT WITH WELL DEFINED, DISCONTINUOUS PAY STREAK 150 TO 300 FT WIDE; BENCH PLACER 7 TO 35 FT THICK WITH GOLD THROUGHOUT, BUT MOSTLY CONCENTRATED ON BEDROCK
Deposit SECONDARY DRAINAGES ON WHICH MINING HAS BEEN DONE: SPRUCE CR., DOLLAR CR., WINDY CR., SHORT CR., CHEECHAKO GULCH, FALLS CR., THUNDER CR., RAMBLER CR., LUCKY CR., NUGGET CR., AND GOLD CR.; RECENT BENCH AND ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS LIKE THOSE AT CACHE CR. HAVE BEEN THE MAIN PRODUCERS OF PLACER GOLD IN THE YENTHA DISTRICT; LARGE VOLUME, LOW GRADE AND THE OVERALL COARSENESS OF THE GOLD FAVOR LARGE-SCALE, HIGH CAPACITY OPERATIONS SUCH AS DREDGING ; INFO.SRC : 1 PUB LIT; 2 UNPUB REPT
Deposit THIS SITE NAME WAS CREATED BY THE REPORTER OR OTHER USGS EMPLOYEE BASED ON PROXIMITY TO SOME MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC FEATURE.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 01-FEB-1985 Leonard, Kenneth R. (Elliott, R. L.) 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.