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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Unnamed (on present beach of Norton Sound)

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

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10307974
Record type Site
Current site name Unnamed (on present beach of Norton Sound)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.74928, 64.63198 (WGS84)
Relative position Placer gold on the modern beach of Norton Sound was discovered at Nome in 1899. The beach was mined from Quartz Creek to the west (in the Nome C-3 quadrangle) to Cape Nome to the east (in the Nome B-1 quadrangle). The segment of the beach discussed here is in the Nome C-2 quadrangle and includes a mile of the easternmost Nome C-3 quadrangle. The location is the approximate mid-point of the beach in the Nome C-2 quadrangle. This is partly included in locality 142 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome C-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(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
Titanium Critical Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

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

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.74928, 64.63198
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Relatively small amounts of so called beach gold were recovered from the segment of the modern beach between Snake River and a point just west of Quartz Creek in the Nome C-3 quadrangle (Collier and others, 1908). Although some of the gold in this segment probably came from western long-shore drift from the Snake River system, the gold was partly derived from less important auriferous drainages including Penny River (NM184), Cripple River (NM156), Sonora Creek (NM158), and Quartz Creek (NM121 and 122). The modern beach is generally 100 to 150 yards wide. The gold is mainly fine-grained but includes a few small (2 to 3 pennyweight [0.1 to 0.15 ounce]) nuggets. They occur in lenticular deposits associated with concentrations of garnet and magnetite, and lesser amounts of pyrite and ilmenite. Higher concentrations of gold tend to occur on blue clay layers below 1 to about 7 feet of sand and gravel. The pay zones range from a few inches to 2 feet in thickness. Most of the gold is bright and irregular in shape (Schrader and Brooks, 1900, p. 18-19). The average fineness of recovered beach gold was about 890 (Brooks and others, 1901). The present beach is developed along the seaward side of a broader coastal plain containing marine gravel, sand and silt deposits developed during Quaternary marine transgressions (Bundtzen and others, 1994).
  • Age = Holocene.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Local concentrations of gold are still produced during winter storms.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The beach placers were discovered in 1899 and were worked immediately after discovery. In 1899, as much as 1,000,000 dollars (nearly 50,000 ounces) was recovered from the beach deposits, mostly, however, on the more productive segment east of the Nome C-2 quadrangle (Schrader and Brooks, 1900). Production was mostly with rockers, and gold was either caught on blankets or was amalgamated.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Schrader and Brooks, 1900

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Holocene beach placer formed by winnowing by wave action and long-shore currents.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 12-MAR-00 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. 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.