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Lower Dahl Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Jade
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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 10100965
MRDS ID A011877
Record type Site
Current site name Lower Dahl Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -156.88844, 66.95647 (WGS84)
Relative position The lower Dahl Creek placer deposit is about 3/4 mile north of the Dahl Creek landing strip and about 4 miles by road from Kobuk. The deposit, which extends for about a mile along the creek, is in sections 15, 16, and 21, T. 18 N., R. 9 E., of the Kateel River Meridian. Mayfield and Grybeck (1978), location 30.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Shungnak D-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Shungnak NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Shungnak(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Upper Kobuk River(hydrologic unit)

Kobuk-Selawik Rivers(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

NANA Regional Corporation, Incorporated(ANCSA Region)

ANCSA Region NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Jade Secondary

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) -156.88844, 66.95647
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = At the lower Dahl Creek placer deposit, gold occurs on false bedrock or in glacial drift commonly less than 10 ft. below the surface. The gold is irregularly distributed through the gravel. The gold is fairly coarse but with few nuggets. It was worth about $16.50 per ounce in 1931. Where the stream valley opens into the Kobuk Valley three shafts were sunk through glacial till, two to 25 feet and one to 80 feet. These test holes went through alternating beds of sand and gravel dipping slightly to the south and failed to reach bedrock. Fine colors of gold were found in the sand and gravel in all the holes, but no regular paystreak was found. One-half mile below the mouth of the canyon the depth to bedrock varies from 2 to 8 feet. Two lines, at 500 foot spacing, of three shafts each cross the stream valley in this area. The shafts were sunk to 25 feet and did not reach bedrock. Gold reportedly occurs in a paleo-channel. The ground mined in this area was estimated to yield about $1.02 per cubic yard (Reed, 1931).? Bedrock in the area consists of conglomeratic metasediments and black phyllite of early to mid-Paleozoic age. The black phyllite is cut by numerous quartz veins. Stream gravel is medium fine, containing well waterworn pieces up to 2 inches in diameter. Distributed throughout the gravel are numerous large boulders of greenstone or metamorphosed conglomerate, and an occasional boulder of gneissic granite (Reed, 1931).
  • 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 Shungnak

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Total production from Dahl Creek (also see ARDF number SH003) is estimated to be 15,000 ounces to more than 17,000 ounces (Degenhart and others, 1978).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Gold was first discovered in 1898 and the claims have been worked more or less consistently up to 1968. Starting in 1950, nephrite boulders were recovered during the mining process. This continued into the early 1970's. In 1988 and 1989 NANA took jig samples from each of the claim blocks in an attempt to complete a patenting application on the claims. These data are available by request from NANA Regional Corp.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Reed, 1931

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Deposit Other Comments = Dahl Creek was the main placer gold producer in the district. Nephrite boulders were recovered from stream gravels during placer mining starting in the 1950's. Nephrite was produced from the creek up to the 1970's. The land is owned by NANA Regional Corporation.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 16-DEC-99 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.