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Graphite Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Graphite
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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. Alteration
  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 10003194
MRDS ID A015734
Record type Site
Current site name Graphite Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.53833, 65.03929 (WGS84)
Relative position Graphite Creek flows northward across the Kigluaik Mountain front 0.9 miles northeast of Glacier Canyon Creek and 0.5 miles northeast of Ruby Creek. This creek is not identified by name on USGS topographic maps; its name comes from a location map made by Coats (1944). Its mouth is on the east shore of Windy Cove on Imuruk Basin, 0.75 miles northeast of the mouth of Glacier Canyon Creek. The graphite deposits are at about 750 feet elevation at the abrupt break in slope on the north side of the mountain front, just upslope of the surface trace of the active Kigluaik normal fault. The graphite -bearing rocks are in the footwall of this fault. This location was not shown by Cobb and Sainsbury (1972) but Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the name 'Graphite Cr.'.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Teller A-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben SW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Teller(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Imuruk Basin(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Graphite Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Graphite Ore
Amphibole Gangue
Biotite Gangue
Garnet Gangue
Muscovite Gangue
Plagioclase Gangue
Pyrrhotite Gangue
Quartz Gangue
Sillimanite Gangue
Sphene Gangue
Zircon Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Some shearing and deformation of graphite-rich lenses has accompanied faulting and oxidation of disseminated pyrrhotite has led to orange-staining of graphite-bearing rocks but other types of alteration are not identified.

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Schist

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.53833, 65.03929
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Flake graphite occurs as disseminations and high-grade tabular lenses within amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks (Coats, 1944). The metamorphic rocks are primarily biotite-quartz schist with some sillimanite and garnet (Sainsbury, 1972). Small granitic plugs, dikes, and sills locally intrude the metamorphic rocks. The graphite-bearing schists are sharply bound to the north by the recently active Kigluaik fault, the principal fault along which late Cenozoic uplift of the Kigluaik Mountains has taken place (Hudson and Plafker, 1978). The graphite-bearing schists strike approximately parallel to the mountain front and dip north between 25 and 65 degrees. They form a zone along the mountain front that is 200 to 400 feet thick and possibly 20,000 feet long (Hudson, 1981; also see Christophosen Creek locality to the west and Graphite Creek locality to the east). To the south, the graphite-bearing schists are in conformable contact with other amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks. The latter appear to be feldspathic and contain much less graphite. The graphite-bearing schists make up two general sequences; (1) a heterogeneous sequence of garnet-sillimanite-biotite-quartz schist with disseminated graphite and graphite-rich lenses, and (2) a more evenly layered biotite-quartz schist with disseminated graphite. The latter contains disseminated pyrrhotite and commonly weathers orange.? West of Graphite Creek a 30 foot-long pit exposes a garnet-bearing schist with disseminated graphite and graphite-rich lenses. A 13-foot section here contained 3 feet of garnet -bearing schist with graphite and a 3.5 foot thick high-grade graphite lense with quartz stringers. A sample of the garnet-bearing schist contained 12% graphite of which 80% was coarser than 30 mesh per inch and a sample of the graphite-rich material contained 59% graphite of which 83% was coarser than 30 mesh per inch (Coats, 1944). A 25-foot thick zone containing disseminated graphite and a 3-foot wide high-grade lense is exposed on the east side of Graphite Creek. Twenty foot of this section is estimated to contain 10% disseminated graphite. This zone has been traced eastward on the surface for a distance of 480 feet and where it is well exposed, a 3- to 4-foot wide high-grade lense is present (Coats, 1944). ?
  • Age = The metamorphism that has developed coarse graphite in these rocks is Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous in age.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Non-metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Most of the graphite shipments reported for the Alaska Graphite Company may have come from this locality. These shipments include 35 tons (1907) and 100 tons (1916 or 1917) of hand-sorted, high-grade material (Mertie, 1918; Harrington, 1919; Coats, 1944). Coats (1944) reports that about 50 tons were recovered in 1916 from the 30-foot long pit on the west side of Graphite Creek.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = the few miles of strike between the area of the Christophosen Creek deposit and the Graphite Creek deposit to the east has been estimated to contain 65,000 tons averaging about 60% graphite (Coats, 1944). This zone has also been estimated to contain, overall, more than 10 million tons of 10% or more graphite (Weiss, 1973).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Surface pits, including one 30-feet long from which 50 tons of high-grade material were recovered, are present. Exploration activity in the general area took place as recently as 1994 (Swainbank and others, 1995).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Coats, 1944

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Flake graphite in disseminations and tabular lenses within amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-MAY-1998 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

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