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Big Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Arsenic, Copper, Molybdenum, Lead, REE, Antimony, Thorium, Titanium, Uranium, 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 10107526
MRDS ID A012550
Record type Site
Current site name Big Creek
Related records 10208595

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -148.20328, 67.51973 (WGS84)
Relative position This major placer mining area is approximately 5 1/2 miles south of the south end of Squaw Lake. The reference point is at the mine symbol shown on the topographic map and near the downstream limit of the mined area (junction of sections 9, 10, 15, and 16, T. 31 N., R. 3 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian). Chipp (1970) showed that the stream has been placer mined at least a mile upstream from the reference point to its headwaters just below the Chandalar mine area. The location is accurate within a 1/2-mile radius.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Yukon-Koyukuk(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Chandalar C-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Chandalar N(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Chandalar C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Arsenic Critical Secondary
Copper Secondary
Molybdenum Secondary
Lead Secondary
REE Critical Secondary
Antimony Critical Secondary
Thorium Secondary
Titanium Critical Secondary
Uranium Secondary
Tungsten Critical 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) -148.20328, 67.51973
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Big Creek is one of the major placer gold producers in the Chandalar district. It drains directly from the area of several of the Chandalar gold quartz properties (CH040-042). The gravels in the stream are relatively shallow, averaging about 12 feet deep on the uppermost portion of the creek and deepening to about 20 to 22 feet on the lower portion of the mined ground (Reed, 1930, MR 31-4; MR 195-13). The gold occurs in the lower 3 to 5 feet, and there is very little gold on bedrock. The gravel is fairly coarse with numerous greenstone boulders as much as 3 feet in diameter. There is only one generation of placers in the drainage (they are not separable into pre- and post-glacial deposits). The gold is reported to be bright yellow, generally irregular, and shot-like to flattened, but some occurs as crystals. Its size averages 1 mm with many 2- to 3-mm nuggets. A few nuggets contain included quartz crystals, limonite, and goethite. It is also reported that the concentrates contain a large suite of heavy minerals in addition to the gold (Mertie, 1925; White, 1952). These heavy minerals include monazite, magnetite, hematite, rutile, pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, stibnite, molybdenite, scheelite, and uranothorianite. A pan concentrate sample had eU of 0.05 percent (White, 1952, p. 11).? Coarse gold was reported several miles downstream from the mined area, but there is no evidence that mining has occurred in this lower area.?There are at least two reports of a quartz vein in the creek bed on the upper reaches of Big Creek (Chipp, 1970; Heiner and Wolff, 1968). Heiner and Wolff (1968) described it as a gold-bearing mineralized zone that may extend from Big Creek to upper Tobin Creek.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Chandalar

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Big Creek has been a major producer in the Chandalar district. Chipp (1970) reported production from Big Creek to be about 15,000 oz, and Dillon (1982) stated that two-thirds of that total was produced after 1950. There are no reliable figures for later years.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The placers were worked only by small-scale methods until the 1950s, when bulldozers were brought in. Some drift mining was done in the frozen gravel. Mining has continued sporadically through at least the mid-1990s. A small mill was set up in 1909-1910 on the discovery claim to mill ore from a quartz vein on the property, but its use was discontinued shortly thereafter.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mertie, 1925

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = See also: St. Marys Gulch (Creek) (CH044). The first recorded occurrence of monazite in Alaska was from Big Creek (Mertie, 1925, p. 260). Some of the following references describe both the lode and placer occurrences in the Big Creek area.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 17-NOV-1999 J.M. Britton 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.