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Cooper Gulch (placer and M. Charles lode occurrence)

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 10002059
MRDS ID A012910
Record type Site
Current site name Cooper Gulch (placer and M. Charles lode occurrence)
Related records 10112035

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.38383, 64.55539 (WGS84)
Relative position This site is in Cooper Gulch on the south side of Anvil Mountain. The site includes alluvial placer gold deposits in upper and lower Cooper Gulch and a calcite lode in upper Cooper Gulch (Cathcart, 1922, figure 18, location 1). The map location is about half way up the gulch from the inland margin of the coastal plain and just inside the north boundary of section 12, T. 11 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian. This is locality 103 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome C-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(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
Limonite Ore
Calcite 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) -165.38383, 64.55539
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Upper Cooper Gulch was placer mined by rocker and hydraulic methods and produced a small amount of gold between 1900 and 1916 (Cobb, 1978 [OFR 78-93]). A small area near a bench where the gulch merges with the coastal plain apparently yielded good returns in gold (Moffit, 1913). Unconsolidated materials included 8 to 10 feet of low-grade gravel below 1 to 4 feet of overburden. Boulders in hydraulic tailings were mostly marble along with some greenstone and granite (Collier and others, 1908). Bedrock is mostly marble and schist that probably are of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Till and Dumoulin, 1984; Bundtzen and others, 1994).? An ancestral Cooper Gulch may have been the source of gold on Fourth Beach (NM249) into shallow alluvial deposits on the coastal plain. Moffit (1913, p. 123-124) thought the lower Cooper Gulch deposit unusual enough to classify it as a 'gravel-plain placer'. The gold on lower Cooper Gulch mainly lay on clay streaks but also was distributed throughout the section. The deposit may have been a fan or delta from ancestral Cooper Gulch into the Third Beach sea.? the M. Charles lode was also reported from near the head of Cooper Gulch on the west side (Cathcart, 1922, figure 18, location 1). A short tunnel on the west bank of Cooper Gulch follows a fault zone about 4 feet wide containing brecciated schist replaced by ferruginous calcite; there is abundant limonite but no evidence of gold. Cathcart (1922) inferred the former existence of sulfide minerals from the limonite.
  • 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 Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = One hydraulic pit was 100 by 300 feet in size in 1903 (Collier and others, 1908). An attempt was made to mine the lower Cooper Creek deposit by dredging (Moffit, 1913). Upper Cooper Gulch was mined by hand methods.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Hawley, C.C. Hawley Resource Group
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Travis L. Hudson Hawley Resource Group

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.