1. Mineral Resources
  2. Online Spatial Data
  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

French Creek

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodity Copper
Map
XML
JSON
KML
C
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Host and associated rocks
  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 10001942
MRDS ID A012776
Record type Site
Current site name French Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -162.54335, 65.47937 (WGS84)
Relative position French Creek is a south tributary to Holtz Creek, a west tribuary to Independence Creek. Sainsbury (1975, p. 85) originally described the location as a chalcopyrite vein in a limestone cliff on the north side of the headwaters to Independence Creek. The bedrock geology (Till and others, 1986) that best matches this location description is used here. This location is very approximate, probably within 1 to 2 miles. It is locality 33 of Gamble (1988).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

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

Bendeleben SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bendeleben(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)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Copper Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Chalcopyrite Ore

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone

Nearby scientific data

(1) -162.54335, 65.47937
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Sainsbury (1975, p. 85) describes this occurrence as a 4 inch-wide chalcopyrite vein in a limestone (marble) cliff. This exposure is supposed to be on the north side of the headwaters to Independence Creek and near to a large magnetic anomaly. Till and others (1986) show exposures of Paleozoic marble on both sides of French Creek at this location. This is the only place in the headwaters of Independence Creek that the bedrock geology appears to match Sainsbury's (1975, p. 85) original description.
  • Age = Cretaceous ; Epigenetic mineralization in metamorphic rocks of Seward Peninsula is primarily of Cretaceous age.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairhaven

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = No workings are known at this location.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • 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

    Gamble, B.M., 1988, Non-placer mineral occurrences in the Solomon, Bendeleben, and southern part of the Kotzebue quadrangles, western Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Map MF-1838-B, 13 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Sainsbury, 1975

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Sulfide vein in marble

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.