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Copper Mountain

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Copper, Lead, Silver, 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. 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 10094063
MRDS ID A012792
Record type Site
Current site name Copper Mountain
Related records 10233130

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.2122, 64.87123 (WGS84)
Relative position The occurrence is on the south side of hill 1690, on the divide between Copper Creek and Dickens Creek. This hill was called Copper Mountain by Cathcart (1922, figure 15). It is locality 7 of Hummel (1962 [MF 242]) and was included with other nearby prospects in locality 16 of Cobb (1972 [MF-463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome D-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Copper Primary
Lead Primary
Silver Secondary
Gold Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Azurite Ore
Bornite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Malachite Ore
Pyrite Ore
Calcite Gangue
Mica Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Development of silica-rich layers, formation of white mica, bleaching of marble, and oxidation.

Host and associated rocks

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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.2122, 64.87123
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Copper Mountain prospect appears to be the most significant of the several copper prospects in this area (NM051, NM053, this prospect, NM055, NM056, and NM115). As reported by Smith (1908), blocks of marble are malachite stained, and hand-picked material contained 15 percent copper, 20 percent lead, rather high silver, and low gold. Bornite, galena, chalcopyrite, and copper carbonates were present in shallow workings that included a 10 foot shaft and an incline. The workings were caved or flooded in 1920 (Cathcart, 1922). Cathcart (1922) describes the mineralization here as sulfide-bearing, silica-rich layers in bleached marble. Some small quartz veinlets and muscovite are parallel to layers in the host metacarbonate rock. This prospect appears to have similarities to several other copper-bearing deposits in the eastern Teller quadrangle (for example, the Ward mine, Hudson, 1998, TE071) and in the western Solomon quadrangle (for example, the Wheeler mine, Hudson, 1999, SO172).? the country rocks here are interlayered pelitic schist and marble that is part of the Nome Group derived from Proterozoic to early Paleozoic protoliths (Thurston, 1985, figure 3A; Till and Dumoulin, 1994). The Nome Group underwent regional blueschist facies metamorphism in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). The blueschist facies rocks were recrystallized to greenschist facies or higher metamorphic grades in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Hudson and Arth, 1983; Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998). Lode gold mineralization on Seward Peninsula is mostly related to the higher temperature metamorphism in the mid-Cretaceous (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993 (thesis); Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997). The relation of the Copper Mountain deposit to the lode gold deposits is uncertain. A mid-Cretaceous age for the stratabound copper deposits is possible, but Copper Mountain could have also formed in late Proterozoic synchronous with emplacement of some orthogneiss or in the early Paleozoic in relation to other plutonism.
  • Age = Late Proterozoic, early Paleozoic, or mid-Cretaceous.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Explored by pits, trenches, a shallow shaft, and an incline; these were caved or water-filled by 1920.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Cathcart, 1922

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Carbonate-hosted, sulfide-bearing silica-rich rock.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 22-OCT-99 Hawley, C.C. Hawley Resource Group
Reporter 22-OCT-99 Travis L. Hudson Hawley Resource Group

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.