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Porcupine Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, 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. 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 10001491
MRDS ID A012238
Record type Site
Current site name Porcupine Creek
Related records 10136339

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -145.50684, 65.54779 (WGS84)
Relative position The location is the center of a placered area that extends for about 1500 ft along Porcupine Creek. The area was mined in the 1930's, just upstream from the mouth of Yankee Creek. The location of more recent mining includes areas both up and downstream from the older placers.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Circle C-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Circle C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tin Critical Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore
Gold Ore
Scheelite 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 > Schist > Mica Schist

Nearby scientific data

(1) -145.50684, 65.54779
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Bedrock underlying Porcupine Creek is the Lower Schist unit described by Wiltse and others (1995) as a slightly calcareous quartz-muscovite schist, porphyroblastic-albite-quartz-chlorite-muscovite schist, and lesser amounts of quartzose porphyroblastic-albite-chlorite schist and chlorite schist.? Placers mined in 1936 consisted of about 13 feet of gravel overlain by about 2 feet of muck. Gravel being mined in the 1980's was 3 to 8 meters thick with a paystreak 30 to 70 meters wide. The gravel is composed mostly of bedrock material. Most pebbles do not exceed a foot in diameter; however, some boulders as large as 3 feet in diameter have been recovered in mining operations. Gold is found mainly on and in bedrock and is coarse, ragged and shotty (Mertie, 1938). Numerous nuggets, some up to 2 to 3 ounces, have been found, but these had considerable amounts of attached quartz (Mertie, 1938). A four ounce nugget was recently recovered, and an 8 and one half ounce nugget was reported recently that is the largest nugget known from the area (Menzie and others, 1983, p. 50). Weighted mean of gold mined in 1934 and 1935 shows a fineness of 822 Au and 172 Ag (Mertie, 1938). Along with the gold, cassiterite and scheelite also can be found (Menzie and others, 1983, p. 50). ? Placer gold was discovered in the 1890's but mining was intermittent and on a small scale until the 1930's. Hydraulic operations began in 1932 and a drag-line excavator was used to handle the tailings. Some mining occurred in the late 1950's and (or) early 1960's. Two operations were active in 1975 and activity was reported in 1980 and 1981 (Menzie and others, 1983, p. 50). Placer operations by Mack Rite and Harold Dunham were conducted in 1991 (Bundtzen and others, 1991, p. 32). Paul and Company conducted various actvities in 1992, including stripping, exploration, sluicing and reclamation (Swainbank and others, 1992). Paul and Company continued mining in 1993 and 1994. In 1994, they mined approximately 85,000 cubic yards (Swainbank and others, 1994, p. 28).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Circle

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Yields were from 0.01 to 0.0125 ounces per cubic yard (Yeend, 1991).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer gold was discovered in the 1890's but mining was intermittent and on a small scale until the 1930's. Hydraulic operations began in 1932 and a drag-line excavator was used to handle the tailings. Some mining occurred in the late 1950's and (or) early 1960's. Two operations were active in 1975 and activity was reported in 1980 and 1981 (Menzie and others, 1983, p. 50). Placer operations by Mack Rite and Harold Dunham were conducted in 1991 (Bundtzen and others, 1991, p. 32). Paul and Company conducted various actvities in 1992, including stripping, exploration, sluicing and reclamation (Swainbank and others, 1992). Paul and Company continued mining in 1993 and 1994. In 1994, they mined approximately 85,000 cubic yards (Swainbank and others, 1994, p. 28).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Menzie and others, 1983.

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 09-SEP-98 C.J. Freeman Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 09-SEP-98 J.R. Guidetti Schaefer Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 09-SEP-98 Clements, A.S. Avalon Development Corporation

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.