Goodwin Gulch

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Tin
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 10308382
Record type Site
Current site name Goodwin Gulch

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -167.91643, 65.58825 (WGS84)
Relative position Goodwin Gulch is an easterly-trending, 1.5 mile-long tributary to upper Goodwin Creek that drains the northeast side of Cape Mountain (Cape Mountain is the upland that forms Cape Prince of Wales adjacent to Bering Strait). This is locality 24 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summariized relevant references under the name 'Goodwin Gulch'.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Teller C-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Teller NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Teller(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Shishmaref(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Wales Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Tin Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 123
USGS model code 39e
Deposit model name Alluvial placer Sn

Nearby scientific data

(1) -167.91643, 65.58825

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The headwaters of Goodwin Gulch are in the contact zone of the Late Cretaceous Cape Mountain biotite granite (Hudson and Arth, 1983) with Mississippian marble (Sainsbury, 1972). The active drainage of Goodwin Gulch contained an alluvial placer deposit of cassiterite. Early mining was by hand and sluice boxes suggesting that overburden was minimal for at least part of the deposit. Later mining apparently used hydraulic methods and some pay was transported to lower parts of Goodwin Creek or the Bering Sea coast for processing because of lack of water. Average tin grades were esitmated by Mulligan (1966, p. 19) to be about 2.5 pounds of tin per cubic yard. The deposit has apparently been mined out although abundant and coarse cassiterite has been traced from the area of previous mining upslope to lode sources above the south headwater fork (Mulligan, 1966, p. 23).
  • Age = Quaternary

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Between 132 and 656 short tons of tin; primarily during the period 1924 to 1940 (Mulligan, 1966, p. 8).

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = the lower 4,500 feet of the 1.25 mile-long active drainage of Goodwin Gulch has been mined; the volume of material remaining upstream is small.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Hand, hydraulic, and power shovel operations have been conducted along the lower 4,500 feet of the active drainage. Premining exploration data have not been recorded. Mulligan (1966) traced detrital cassiterite from areas of previous mining to upstream/upslope lode sources. A proposed churn-drilling program to explore for a deeper channel along the south side of the drainage was not carried out at the time (Mulligan, 1966, p. 67-68).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mulligan and Thorne, 1959; Mulligan, 1966

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-MAY-98 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.