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Second Beach

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Silver
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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. Host and associated rocks
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Mining district
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10100996
MRDS ID A012954
Record type Site
Current site name Second Beach
Related records 10160764

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.20437, 64.47512 (WGS84)
Relative position Second Beach is a raised Quaternary strandline that formed during a seastand at about 38 feet above current sea level. It lies a few hundred to 3,000 feet inland of Present Beach (NM255). This beach can be traced westerly from near Hastings Creek, but it is absent where its trace is crossed by Hastings Creek, Nome River, Snake River, and Penny River. The map location is where Little Derby Creek crosses Second Beach, about 6.5 miles southeast of Nome. It is just inside the east boundry of section 2, T. 12 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. Second Beach is locality 135 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]). Other Second Beach locations are near Penny River and about 2 to 5 miles east of Penny River (NM178 and NM179).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

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

Solomon SW(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
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Magnetite Ore
Pyrite Ore
Garnet Gangue

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Unconsolidated Deposit > Sand and Gravel
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Holocene

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.20437, 64.47512
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Second Beach was discovered in 1902 near Peluk Creek; it is termed Second Beach because it was the second beach deposit discovered in the district (Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942). Development of the deposit by drift mining started almost immediately (Brooks, 1905; Moffit, 1906; Collier and others, 1908). Except for gaps near Penny, Snake, and Nome Rivers, and Hastings Creek, the Second Beach is nearly continuous, although not everywhere mineable. Metcalfe and Tuck (1942) interpret the absence of the beach at Penny, Nome, Snake and Hastings, as an absence in sedimentation--'the beach may never have existed here as the [ancestral] streams were flowing into the Second Beach sea at this time.' the beach has been removed by erosion where intersected by Cunningham and Peluk Creeks.? the beach appears to have formed in different depositional environments. East of Hastings Creek, Metcalfe and Tuck (1942) inferred that it formed on an offshore bar. West of Hastings to near Little Derby Creek, and between Otter and Dry Creeks, the beach is at the base of an old escarpment eroded into older marine sediments. In general, gold occurs on clay false-bedrock, but it appears to lie on schist bedrock for a short distance between Peluk and Otter Creeks (Kastelic, 1975; Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942). At the Snake and Nome Rivers, local beaches appear to have formed on sand spits near the mouths of ancestral channels of these drainages.? the beach was generally buried by 10 to 25 feet of frozen sand and gravel. In some areas overburden was very thin and the beach was surface mined, but most of the beach was drift mined over beach widths of 10 to 100 feet. As on Present Beach, gold was fine and flaky and commonly associated with garnet-rich sand. The deposit appears to have been exceptionally rich just west of Otter Creek where 75,000 dollars worth (3,750 ounces) of coarse gold reportedly were recovered. Total production to 1911 was reported by Metcalfe and Tuck (1942) to be about 600,000 dollars (30,000 ounces). Not more than 100,000 dollars (5,000 ounces) has been recovered since then.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active?

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Possibly about 700,000 dollars, or 34,000 ounces of gold, were recovered, mostly before 1912.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Second Beach was discovered in 1902 near Peluk Creek, which had eroded through the deposit. Once known, the beach was easily recognized because it was marked by a surface escarpment about 10 to 40 feet high (Collier and others, 1908). The original prospectors recognized beach characteristics such as rounded quartz pebbles, marine shells, and remnants of marine vertebrates.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Brooks, A.H., 1905, Placer mining in Alaska in 1904: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 259, p. 18-31.

  • Deposit

    Collier, A. J., Hess, F.L., Smith, P.S., and Brooks, A.H., 1908, The gold placers of parts of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, including the Nome, Council, Kougarok, Port Clarence, and Goodhope precincts: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 328, 343 p.

  • Deposit

    Metcalfe, J.B., and Tuck, Ralph, 1942, Placer gold deposits of the Nome district, Alaska: Report for U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Co., 175 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-463, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Kastelic, W.R., 1975, Gold placer exploration, Nome, Alaska: Colorado Mining Association, 1975 Mining Yearbook, p. 85-90.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File report 78-93, 213 p.

  • Deposit

    Moffit, F.H., 1906, Gold mining on Seward Peninsula, Alaska, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Report on progress of investigations of mineral resources in Alaska in 1905: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 284, p. 132-144.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Tuck and Metcalfe, 1942

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer; buried beach.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Hawley, C.C. Hawley Resource Group
Reporter 10-JUL-00 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.