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Buster Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Mercury
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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 10107538
MRDS ID A013411
Record type Site
Current site name Buster Creek
Related records 10136510

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.44987, 61.9032 (WGS84)
Relative position Buster Creek is a west tributary of lower Kako Creek. It is not named on the USGS 1:63,360 topographic map (1952 edition) of the area. The junction of Buster Creek with Kako Creek is 3 miles north-northwest of Kako Landing on the Yukon River. The map site is at the midpoint of about 1 mile of placer workings on Buster Creek, in the NE1/4 sec. 19, T. 21 N., R. 66 W., of the Seward Meridian. It is locality 10 of Hoare and Cobb (1972, 1977). The site is called the 'Kako Mine' on the Russian Mission D-7 topographic map.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Russian Mission D-7(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Russian Mission NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Russian Mission(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Calista Corporation(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
Mercury Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Cassiterite Ore
Cinnabar Ore
Gold Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Magnetite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Garnet Gangue

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 > Alluvium
    Stratigraphic age (youngest) Holocene

Nearby scientific data

(1) -161.44987, 61.9032
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer gold was discovered on Buster Creek in 1920, and about 4,800 feet of the uppermost part of the drainage was mined by WWII. This mining was by hand, scraper, and dragline operations, and an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 ounces of gold were recovered (Hickok and McAtee, 1990). In the 1980's, the Penz family restarted mining with dozer, hoe, loader, and sluice and jig operations. They patented four claims on the creek in 1989. In 1940, H. R. Joesting (written commun. to J. Ramstad, 1940) used exploration drilling results to estimate that there were two unmined segments of the creek with potential economic reserves totaling about 8,000 ounces of gold. About three-quarters of these reserves were downstream of the patented claims. The placer gold is rough, coarse, and irregular in shape. Many pieces are attached to quartz, sericite-altered rhyolite, and, rarely, arsenopyrite (Hickok and McAtee, 1990). Other minerals recovered with the gold include cinnabar, garnet, arsenopyrite, scheelite, cassiterite, magnetite, and ilmenite. Rhyolite pebbles and cobbles are abundant in the stream gravels. The placer gold in Buster Creek is derived from the rhyolite-hosted Kako lode gold prospect (RM007) on the saddle between Buster Creek and East Fork Kuyukutuk River.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Marshall

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 ounces of gold were recovered from Buster Creek before WWII (Hickok and McAtee, 1990).

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = In 1940, R. Joesting (written communication to Mr. J. Ramstad) used exploration drilling results to estimate that there were two unmined segments of the creek with potential economic reserves totaling about 8,000 ounces of gold. About three-quarters of these reserves were downstream of the patented claims.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer gold was discovered on Buster Creek in 1920 and about 4,800 feet of the uppermost part of the drainage was mined by WWII. This mining was by hand, scraper, and dragline, and an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 ounces of gold were recovered (Hickok and McAtee, 1990). In the 1980's, the Penz family restarted mining with dozer, hoe, loader, and sluice and jig operations. They patented four claims on the creek in 1989.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Hickok and McAtee, 1990

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUN-2001 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology
Reporter 10-JUN-2001 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.