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Kiwalik Flats

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 10003171
MRDS ID A015706
Record type Site
Current site name Kiwalik Flats
Alternate or previous names Keewalik Flats
Related records 10136093

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.91339, 65.9194 (WGS84)
Relative position The Kiwalik Flats placer mine is on the east bank of the Kiwalik River, about a half-mile northeast of Candle. The coordinates are for the approximate center of the area of mine tailings shown on the Candle D-6 map. The map site is in section 18, T. 6 N., R. 15 W., of the Kateel River Meridian. Cobb, 1972 (MF-389), location 19.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Candle D-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Candle N(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Candle(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
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) -161.91339, 65.9194
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold occurs in river gravels in buried paleo-channels of the Kiwalik River at the confluence of Candle Creek. The deposit is overlain by an average of 16 feet (range from 0 to 50 feet in thickness) of frozen, organic-rich silt and clay. The pay gravel varies from 5 to 23 feet thick (average of 13 feet). Concentrates contain garnet, pyrite, and magnetite. Bedrock is quartz-mica schist.? the property was extensively explored from 1935 to 1940. A portion of the property was dredged in the mid 1940's. The area was re-evaluated in the mid-1980's and mined with a drag line from 1988 through 1991.
  • 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 production information

  • Production Notes = Production from 1988 through 1991 was approximately 9,900 ounces of gold (Shaffer, 1997).

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Based on calculations from drilling by Arctic Circle Exploration in 1940, remaining reserves on the Kiwalik Flats were 43,130 ounces of gold in 2.35 million cubic yards of gravel, overlain by with 3.36 million cubic yards of overburden (Shaffer, 1997).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The Kiwalik Flats mine area was extensively explored by shafts and churn drill holes in 1935 by Keewalik Mining and in 1940 by Arctic Circle Exploration. A small portion of the deposit was dredged by the mid-1940's. In the early 1980's, the dredge tailings were reworked. In 1984, a program of 5 churn drill holes was completed to verify previous results and recalculate reserves. The 1984 drilling program determined that the upper 7 feet of gravel was mostly barren and that by stripping it as waste the grade of the deposit could be increased from 0.0237 ounces of gold per cubic yard to 0.0463 ounces per cubic yard. The area was mined by drag line from 1988 through 1991 by GHD (Douglas Culp, personal communication, 1998). In 1989, GHD processed 98,000 cubic yards of pay gravel. In 1991, GHD's last year of production, 15,000 cubic yards of overburden were stripped and 70,000 cubic yards of gravel were washed. The pay gravel is below water level so gravel must be removed from the pit for washing.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1973, Placer deposits of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1374, 213 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Candle, Holy Cross, Norton Bay, Nulato, and Unalakleet quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-866, 102 p.

  • Deposit

    Muntzert, J.K., 1983, Kiwalik Flats Placer Gold Deposit: unpublished report, 35 p. (Report held by NANA Regional Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska, and Berg and Wetlesen, Guelph Mills, Pennsylvania).

  • Deposit

    Muntzert, J.L., 1986, Kiwalik Flats placer gold deposit, Preliminary report on results of 1984 drilling program: unpublished report, 42 p. (Report held by NANA Regional Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska, and Berg and Wetlesen, Guelph Mills, Pennsylvania).

  • Deposit

    Bundtzen, T.K., Swainbank, R.C., Deagen, J.R. and Moore, J.L., 1990, Alaska's mineral industry 1989: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Special Report 44, 100 p.

  • Deposit

    Shaffer, W.L., 1997, Memo to Earl Beistline; subject: Kiwalik Flats: Unpublished report dated March 5, 1997, 2 p. (Report held by NANA Regional Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska, and Berg and Wetlesen, Guelph Mills, Pennsylvania).

  • Deposit

    Gault, H.R., Killeen, P.L., West, W.S. and others, 1953, Reconnaissance for radioactive deposits in the northwestern part of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska 1945-47 and 1951: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 250, 31 p.

  • Deposit

    Cass, J.T., 1959, Reconnaissance geologic map of the Candle quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-287, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Candle Quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-389, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Bundtzen, T.K., Swainbank, R.C., Wood, J.E., Clough, A.H., 1991 (1992), Alaska's Mineral Industry 1991: Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Special Report 46, 89 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Muntzert, 1986; Shaffer, 1997

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Deposit Other Comments = River gradient under 25 feet per mile.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 12-JAN-00 Williams, Anita U.S. Geological Survey

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.