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Blue Moon Mazeppa

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Antimony, Zinc
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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. Nearby scientific data
  8. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  9. Mining district
  10. Links to other databases
  11. Bibliographic references
  12. General comments
  13. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10002947
MRDS ID A015441
Record type Site
Current site name Blue Moon Mazeppa
Alternate or previous names Pioneer, Blue Bell

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -147.41102, 65.06662 (WGS84)
Relative position The mine is located on Chatham Creek , 1/4 mile below the mouth of Tamarack Creek. Accuracy is within 1,000 feet. SE1/4SE1/4 sec. 19, T. 3 N., R. 2 S., of the Fairbanks Meridian.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Fairbanks North Star(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Livengood A-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Circle SW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Livengood(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Antimony Critical Secondary
Zinc Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Gold Ore
Pyrite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Stibnite Ore

Nearby scientific data

(1) -147.41102, 65.06662
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Mineralization on the Blue Moon Mazeppa prospect consists of at least three separate types of mineralization (Freeman, 1992). Gold-bearing quartz shear zones of the Blue Moon shaft consist of thin quartz-bearing shear zones (6 inches to 3 feet wide) that contain free gold, pyrite, arsenopyrite, stibnite and minor sphalerite; grades are up to 4 ounces of gold per ton (Prindle, 1910). A large proportion of the free gold is disseminated within pyrite and arsenopyrite grains.? Massive coarse-grained stibnite mineralization was also uncovered on the Blue Moon Mazeppa prospect. The stibnite lode uncovered was reported to be 8 feet wide and was exposed over 100 feet of strike length (J. Taylor, oral commun., 1986).? the third style of mineralization on the Blue Moon Mazeppa prospect is present only as float on a dump excavated during placer operations along Chatham Creek. Boulders of tabular gray to white marble contain coarse-grained cubic pyrite and blackjack sphalerite in grains up to a centimeter across and minor galena and boulangerite (Freeman, 1992).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairbanks

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = A one ton shipment of ore from the prospect on April 17, 1909 contained $50 per ton in gold (2.4 ounces of gold per ton) (Prindle, 1910). Prospecting on the prospect continued in 1910 but no production was recorded (Brooks, 1911). Several shipments of ore form the Blue Moon shaft were custom milled in Fairbanks and returned values ranging from $50 to $100 per ton in gold (2.4 to 4.8 ounces of gold per ton) (Times Publishing Company, 1912). Over the period extending from November, 1912 through the middle of 1913 the Pioneer Mining Company mill treated approximately 200 tons of ore from the Blue Moon shaft (Chapin, 1914). The ore ran $50 to $100 per ton in free milling gold (2.4 to 4.8 ounces of gold per ton). Total production for the prospect is unknown.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The property was located as the Blue Bell lode in 1903 and development work began in 1909 with a 24 foot shaft. This shaft was flooded with water seepage from Chatham Creek and was abandoned (Smith, 1913, B 525; Prindle, 1910). A second shaft was sunk approximately 100 feet upslope from the first shaft and reached a depth of 85 feet before it too was abandoned due to heavy water influx (Prindle, 1910). In 1912, approximately 100 feet uphill from these shafts, the Blue Moon shaft was sunk to a depth of 60 feet. By December, 1912, the shaft had been sunk to a depth of 100 feet, 150 feet of drift had been driven and 5 stopes were opened for production. The eastern drift was longer than the western drift and only a small amount of water had been encountered in the workings (Smith, 1913; B 525). Over the period extending from November, 1912 through the middle of 1913, the Pioneer Mining Company mill treated approximately 200 tons of ore from the Blue Moon shaft (Chapin, 1914). The ore ran $50 to $100 per ton in free milling gold (2.4 to 4.8 ounces of gold per ton). ? the Pioneer Quartz Mining Company mill consisted of a five-stamp Joshua Hendy mill utilizing 1000 pound stamps dropping at a rate of 100 times per minute. The rock was trammed from the mine 300 feet to the northwest where it was screened with undersize going directly to the feed bins and oversize going through a Joshua Hendy jaw crusher. Minus-40 pulp from the stamps fed onto 20 feet of amalgamation plate which fed an amalgam trap and a 6-foot-long riffle box (Chapin, 1914). Tailings from the mill contained $0.50 to $3.00 per ton in gold (0.02 to 0.1 ounces of gold per ton). Stamp sand concentrates were not saved. By the summer of 1913, the mill had closed and the Blue Moon shaft was inaccessible (Chapin, 1914). In 1914, the mill was dismantled and moved to the Hi Yu mine (Stewart, 1922). By 1931, the shaft house had been torn down and the prospect was idle (Hill, 1933).? In 1986, the Blue Moon shaft was marked by a 50 foot diameter depression centered on the shaft collar (Freeman, 1992). The upper 50 feet of overburden surrounding the shaft has been removed by placer operations (Freeman, 1992).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Freeman, 1992

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Gold-quartz-sulfide shear zones; carbonate replacements; and stibnite lenses.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 04-MAY-1999 C.J. Freeman Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 04-MAY-1999 J.R. Guidetti Schaefer Avalon Development Corporation

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.