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Whalen Shaft

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Silver, Gold, Copper, Bismuth, Tungsten
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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 10090726
MRDS ID D002709
Record type Site
Current site name Whalen Shaft

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -154.76989, 63.21642 (WGS84)
Relative position The Whalen Shaft is located in Section 24, T. 26 S., R. 21 E., of the Kateel River Meridian, about 500 feet (152 m) from the Whalen Glory Hole near the old airstrip. Reporter visited the site in 1997.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Medfra A-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Medfra S(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Medfra C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Takotna River(hydrologic unit)

Upper Kuskokwim River(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Silver Primary
Gold Primary
Copper Primary
Bismuth Critical Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Allanite Ore
Gold Ore
Malachite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Silver Ore
Kyanite Gangue
Pyroxene Gangue
Tremolite Gangue
Zircon Gangue

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 59
USGS model code 18b
Deposit model name Skarn Cu
Mark3 model number 8

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone

Nearby scientific data

(1) -154.76989, 63.21642
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Whalen Shaft is mainly a tactite with gold-polymetallic mineral values. Ore from tactite contained the following: 25 percent biotite; 10 percent pyroxene; 10 percent tremolite; 10 percent carbonate; and 10 percent malachite (Herreid, 1966). The tactitie zone averaged: 1.24 ounces/ton gold, 2.9 ounces/ton silver, 1.11 percent copper, and 0.05 percent bismuth (Herreid, 1966). Age of mineralization is unknown, but probably related to the 68.0 Ma Nixon Fork monzonite pluton (Bundtzen and Miller, 1997).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name McGrath

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Specific production figures are not known; the gold-copper production was lumped with the Nixon Fork Mine (MD062).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The Whalen Shaft was driven to an unknown depth, but not below the water table, which was at about 400 feet.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Herreid, 1966

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Copper-Gold skarn (Cox and Singer, 1986; model no. 18b)
Deposit Other Comments = See Nixon Fork Mine (MD062).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 07-JUN-98 Bundtzen, T.K. Pacific Rim Geological Consulting

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.