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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Benson Creek

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. 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 10097519
MRDS ID A012675
Record type Site
Current site name Benson Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.68636, 64.91125 (WGS84)
Relative position Benson Creek is an east tributary of Iron Creek (SO127). Its mouth is 1.3 miles downstream from the head of Iron Creek at the confluence of Canyon and Dome Creeks. This is locality 36 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

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

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(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
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

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Gravel

Nearby scientific data

(1) DOnx
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold mining occurred intermittantly on Benson Creek between 1900 and 1938. Gold could be panned to the headwaters but most of the production was from the lower part of the creek where it crosses bench deposits of Iron Creek (Smith, 1909). Copper-bearing lode mineralization is present in the headwaters (SO125). Bedrock of the area is a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Quaternary; presence of gold-bearing bench deposits indicates two or more cycles of erosion and deposition.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Kougarok

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Small-scale placer gold mining took place along lower Benson Creek intermittantly from 1900 to 1938.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic resources map of the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-445, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-181, 185 p.

  • Deposit

    Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1909, Recent developments in southern Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 379-F, p. 267-301.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Smith, 1909

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-AUG-1999 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

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.