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Harris Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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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 10001874
MRDS ID A012695
Record type Site
Current site name Harris Creek
Related records 10257602

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.58339, 65.62433 (WGS84)
Relative position Harris Creek is the principal north tributary to the North Fork of Kougarok River. The mouth of Harris Creek is about 3.7 miles upstream from the Nome-Taylor road crossing of North Fork. Sainsbury and others (1969) show placer mine workings on the main channel of Harris Creek starting at the mouth and continuing upstream for 4.3 miles. This is locality 35 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; OFR 75-429).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bendeleben C-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bendeleben(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Imuruk Basin(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

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Garnet Gangue

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) -164.58339, 65.62433
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Gold was discovered in gravels of Harris Creek by 1900 and placer mining started here by 1901 (Collier, 1902; Collier and others, 1908). Sainsbury and others (1969) show placer mine workings on the main channel of Harris Creek starting at the mouth and continuing upstream for 4.3 miles. A dredge operated on at least parts of this drainage. The lower 2 miles of the stream channel crosses Paleozoic marble bedrock and the upper 2-plus miles crosses Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks (Sainsbury and others, 1969; Till and others, 1986). Some auriferous bench gravels are reported along upper parts of the creek. The Harris Creek channel gravels are locally thin, 6 feet or less, and covered by up to 6 feet of muck. Gold was rough and concentrated on broken and fractured limestone (marble) bedrock. Garnet was present in some placer concentrates. This area has undergone at least two cycles of erosion and placer development. The garnet in placer concentrates was probably derived from headwater areas where schist is present.
  • Age = Quaternary; the area has probably undergone at least two cycles of erosion and placer development.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Kougarok

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Sainsbury and others (1969) show placer mine workings on the main channel of Harris Creek starting at the mouth and continuing upstream for 4.3 miles. A dredge operated on at least parts of this drainage.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Sainsbury and others, 1969

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 15-MAR-1999 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.