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Upper Tuluksak River

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Platinum
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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 10002482
MRDS ID A013418
Record type Site
Current site name Upper Tuluksak River
Related records 10161070

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -159.92894, 61.01626 (WGS84)
Relative position The Tuluksak River flows southwest past Nyac to the Kuskokwim River. About 2.5 miles of the river upstream of where it crosses the south boundary of the Russian Mission A-3 quadrangle have been placer mined. This placer deposit continues downstream into the Bethel quadrangle. The map site is at the approximate midpoint of the mapped placer workings in the Russian Mission quadrangle. It is in the NE1/4 sec. 28, T. 11 N., R. 60 W., of the Seward Meridian. It is included in locality 17 of Hoare and Cobb (1972, 1977).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Bethel(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Russian Mission A-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Russian Mission SE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Russian Mission(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Kuskokwim Delta(hydrologic unit)

Lower Kuskokwim River(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Calista Corporation(ANCSA Region)

ANCSA Region NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Platinum Critical Secondary

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

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Alluvium
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Holocene

Nearby scientific data

(1) -159.92894, 61.01626
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold dredging has taken place over at least 2.2 miles of upper Tuluksak River in the Russian Mission quadrangle. This placer deposit and dredge operation continued downstream into the Bethel quadrangle (BH014) for another 3 miles. The dredged area is as much as 1,500 feet wide. Mining on this river started as early as 1909 and continued, with a hiatus for WWII, until 1964 and later (Hoare and Cobb, 1977). Some platinum was produced along with the gold, and Joesting (1942) reported that asbestos and graphite were dredged from bedrock. A significant part of the bedrock in the drainage is hornfels in Jurassic volcanic rocks surrounding a mid-Cretaceous granitic pluton (Box and others, 1993).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Mining district

District name Aniak

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Dredge tailings are present along at least 2.2 miles of the Tuluksak River in the Russian Mission quadrangle. The tailings are shown on the U.S. Geological Survey topographic map (1954 edition) of the area. Mining may have continued further upstream, inasmuch as the deposit is essentially continuous with the placer deposit on California Creek (RM034). Mining took place during the periods 1909-1940, 1946-1964, and in the 1980's.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Maddren, A.G., 1915, Gold placers of the lower Kuskokwim with a note on copper in the Russian Mountains: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 622-H, p. 292-360.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J M., and Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Russian Mission quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-444, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Cobb, E.H., 1977, Mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bethel, Goodnews, and Russian Mission quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-156, 98 p.

  • Deposit

    Box, S.E, Moll-Stalcup, E.J., Frost, T.P., and Murphy, J.M., 1993, Preliminary geologic map of the Bethel and southern Russian Mission quadrangles, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2226-A, 20 p., scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J M., and Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Russian Mission quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-444, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Hoare and Cobb, 1977

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 10-JUN-01 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology
Reporter 10-JUN-01 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.