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Esperanza 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 10001899
MRDS ID A012727
Record type Site
Current site name Esperanza Creek
Related records 10184538

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -163.80341, 65.79935 (WGS84)
Relative position Esperanza Creek is a south tributary to Goodhope River. This location is very approximate and is arbitrarily chosen on the lower part of the creek at an elevation of 250 feet, 3.1 miles north of the continental divide. It is locality 55 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; 1975; OFR 75-429).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bendeleben D-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bendeleben C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Goodhope-Spafarief Bay(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve(National Preserve)

National Preserve NPS(Type of land area)

NPS(Federal land areas administered by NPS)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

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) -163.80341, 65.79935
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Gold was discovered on Esperanza Creek in 1907-1908 (Smith, 1909). Gold is present in the narrow main channel where gravels are exposed between muck banks. The exact location of this discovery and the small amount of mining is not known. It is assumed to be along the lower part of the creek where the stream valley is narrow. There is extensive surficial cover in this area and bedrock, exposed locally on uplands, is mostly part of a schistose impure marble assemblage of probable Paleozoic age( Sainsbury, 1975; Till and others, 1986) . At least part of this bedrock assemblage is probably equivalent to Ordovician impure marble known elsewhere on Seward Peninsula (Till and others, 1986). Quaternary/Tertiary basalt flows locally cap the valley walls in this area.
  • Age = Quaternary

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairhaven

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Small surface placer mine workings are probably present; probably mostly accomplished by hand.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1975, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 75-429, 123 p.

  • Deposit

    Sainsbury, C.L., 1975, Geology, ore deposits, and mineral potential of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 73-75, 108 p., 3 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-417, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1909, Recent developments in southern Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 379-F, p. 267-301.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Cobb, 1975 (OFR 75-429)

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.