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Cape Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Tin
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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 10308383
Record type Site
Current site name Cape Creek
Alternate or previous names American Tinfields, Inc.

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -167.93443, 65.57025 (WGS84)
Relative position Cape Creek, the principal drainage on the east side of the Cape Mountain upland, has headwaters in the contact zone of the Late Cretaceous Cape Mountain biotite granite (Hudson and Arth, 1983) with Mississippian marble (Sainsbury, 1972). The creek flows south about 2 miles from its headwaters at the continental divide to its mouth at Tin City on the Bering Sea coast. The upper reaches of the creek include a west fork with headwaters in the uplands of Cape Mountain and an east fork with headwaters against the continental divide. First Chance Creek (TE007) is a short (0.5 mile long) tributary that enters from the west 0.75 mile upstream from the mouth of Cape Creek. This is locality 25 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the names 'Cape Cr.' and 'American Tinfields, Inc.'.

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)

Imuruk Basin(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

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) -167.93443, 65.57025
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Cape Creek, the principal drainage on the east side of the Cape Mountain upland, has headwaters in the contact zone of the Late Cretaceous Cape Mountain biotite granite (Hudson and Arth, 1983) with Mississippian marble (Sainsbury, 1972). Private company and USBM churn-drill holes defined upper and lower pay sections along most of Cape Creek including the lower part of the east fork. The upper pay streak was related to the active stream drainage, did not have extensive overburden, and contained a few to several ponds of tin per cubic yard. The lower pay streak, separated from the upper by up to 65 feet of silt and minor sand containing marine shells, was 7 feet or less in thickness, developed on and adjacent to bedrock, and high grade in most places. Grades to over 30 pounds of tin per cubic yard were reported by Mulligan and Thorne (1959, p. 40). Mining during the 1970's and 1980's by Lost River Mining Company verified grades of about 30 pounds of tin per cubic yard over large parts of this pay streak (R. Murray, personal communication in Hudson and Reed, 1997, p. 451). Development of these high grades has been attributed to reworking during the marine transgression that flooded the area and led to the thick silt-rich marine section in Cape Creek (Hudson and Reed, 1997, p. 451-452). . Some of the detrital cassiterite is very coarse grained. Washing plant operations in 1982 included a 1.5 inch grizzley and hand picking of the oversize conveyor belt was required to collect coarse aggregates of cassiterite crystals. The largest cassiterite aggregate found in this way weighed 142 pounds (R. Murray, personal communication in Hudson, 1984, p. 8). Some of the cassiterite aggregates are an assemblage of cassiterite, muscovite, quartz, and feldspar (Hudson, 1984, p. 16). The character of this material is consistent with its derivation from lode deposits on slopes above the west headwater of Cape Creek (Mulligan and Thorne, 1959; Mulligan, 1966)
  • 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 = Most of the recorded 1,650 short tons of tin production from the Cape Mountain area (Hudson and Reed, 1997, p. 452) has come from Cape Creek ; over 60% of the total production (1,036 tons) took place between 1979 and 1989 (Bundzten and others, 1990, p. 33). Goodwin Gulch, with between 132 and 650 tons of tin production, has been the only other significant placer source in this area.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Unkown but extensive mining took place in the 1970's and 1980's. Most of the placer deposits, especially the higher grade portions, are probably mined out (Bundzten and others, 1990, p. 33).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = A churn-drill exploration program defined both upper and lower pay streaks before larger scale mining (Mulligan and Thorne, 1959). Early mining was by hand in the west headwater. Power shovels were used later and the recovered pay was hauled by truck to the beach for washing. The latest mining used a dragline to remove overburden, a dozer to consolidate pay in the pit, and a front-end loader to transport pay to a nearby washing plant. Cassiterite-bearing concentrate was placed in 55 gallon barrels and transferred by crane to barges on the beach for transfer to a coastal freighter anchored nearby.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Heide, H.E., and Sanford, R.S., 1948, Churn drilling at Cape Mountain tin placer deposits, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 4345. 14 p.

  • Deposit

    Mulligan, J.J., and Thorne, R.L., 1959, Tin-placer sampling methods and results, Cape Mountain district, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7878, 69 p.

  • Deposit

    Mulligan, J.J., 1966, Tin-lode investigations, Cape Mountain area, Seward Peninsula, Alaska; with a section on petrography by W. L. Gnagy: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 6737, 43 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., and Sainsbury, C.L., 1972, Metallic mineral resource map of the Teller quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-426, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Sainsbury, C.L., 1972, Geologic map of the Teller quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Map I-685, 4 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Hudson, T.L., and Arth, J. G., 1983, Tin-granites of Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, p. 768-790.

  • Deposit

    Bundtzen, T.K., Swainbank, R.C., Deagen, J.R., Moore, J.L., 1990 (1991), Alaska's Mineral Industry 1989: Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Special Report 44, 100 p..

  • Deposit

    Hudson, T.L., and Reed, B.L., 1997, Tin deposits of Alaska, in Goldfarb, R.J., and Miller, L.D., eds., Mineral Deposits of Alaska: Economic Geology Monograph 9, p. 450-465.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1975, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Teller quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 75-587, 130 p.

  • Deposit

    Hudson, T.L., 1984, Tin systems of Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Anchorage, Anaconda Minerals Company internal report, 51 p. (Report held by Cook Inlet Region Inc., Anchorage, Alaska)

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mulligan and Thorne, 1959; Hudson, 1984; Hudson and Reed, 1997..

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.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Alaska resources

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