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Columbia Creek

Prospect 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. 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 10307251
Record type Site
Current site name Columbia Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -160.75281, 60.6093 (WGS84)
Relative position Columbia Creek flows northwest to the lower Kisaralik River. This approximately located placer prospect is in the headwaters of Columbia Creek, at an elevation of about 225 feet, and 1.75 mile southwest of USGS Benchmark Naomi (1,658 feet elevation). The map site is in the northern 1/2 of section 18, T 6 N, R 65 W, of the Seward Meridian. It is locality 6 of Cobb (1972 [MF 455]) and of Hoare and Cobb (1977).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Bethel(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bethel C-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bethel NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bethel C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Kuskokwim Delta(hydrologic unit)

Lower Kuskokwim River(hydrologic accounting unit)

Southwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge(National Wildlife Refuge)

National Wildlife Refuge FWS(Type of land area)

FWS(Federal land areas administered by FWS)

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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -160.75281, 60.6093
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = A placer gold deposit was staked and prospected by churn drilling in 1949 or 1950 along this part of Columbia Creek, but mining apparently has not occurred (Hoare and Cobb, 1977, p. 8). Bedrock in the headwaters of the creek includes Jurassic volcanic rocks intruded by a mid-Cretaceous granitic pluton to the west, and an undated diorite and gabbro pluton to the south (Box and others, 1993). Hoare and Cobb (1977) report that hydrothermally altered bedrock in the low divide at the head of the creek (where Box and others, 1993, map diorite or gabbro) was prospected by pits and trenches before 1949. Frost (1990, fig. 1, loc. 4) reports that a quartz vein in sandstone or quartz porphyry from this general area contains 0.40 ppm Au.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Aniak

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Claims were staked and prospected in 1949 or 1950 using a churn drill. Hydrothermally altered bedrock at head of valley was prospected by pits and trenches before 1949.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Cobb, E.H., 1977, Mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bethel, Goodnews, and Russian Mission quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-156, 98 p.

  • Deposit

    Frost, T.P., 1990, Geology and geochemistry of mineralization in the Bethel quadrangle, southwestern Alaska, in Goldfarb, R. J., Nash, J. T., and Stoeser, J. W., eds., Geochemical studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1989: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1950, p. C1-C9.

  • Deposit

    Box, S.E, Moll-Stalcup, E.J., Frost, T.P., and Murphy, J.M., 1993, Preliminary geologic map of the Bethel and southern Russian Mission quadrangles, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2226-A, 20 p., scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bethel quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-455, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Hoare and Cobb, 1977

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 24-MAR-01 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.