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Bessie-Maple

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Silver, Copper, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Gold, Beryllium, Fluorine-Fluorite
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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. Alteration
  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 10308404
Record type Site
Current site name Bessie-Maple

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -167.1954, 65.45327 (WGS84)
Relative position The Bessie-Maple prospect is located along the Rapid River fault where it crosses a north-south ridge that separates Lost River valley from the Curve Creek drainage. This is on the west side of Lost River valley (elevation 500 to 570 feet) just across and upstream from the mouth of Tin Creek. The Bessie-Maple prospect merges to the east with the Lost River Valley prospect (TE041). This is locality 6 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized rlevant references under the name 'Bessie & Maple'.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Teller B-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Teller SE(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)

Federal lands

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Silver Primary
Copper Primary
Lead Primary
Tin Critical Primary
Zinc Critical Primary
Gold Secondary
Beryllium Critical Secondary
Fluorine-Fluorite Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Stannite Ore
Wolframite Ore
Arsenopyrite Gangue
Pyrite Gangue
Stibnite Gangue
Topaz Gangue
Tourmaline Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) The limestone is commonly dolomitized but the relation of this alteration to sulfide and fluorite mineralization is not clear. Lamprophere dikes are kaolinized and locally contain disseminated tourmaline and fluorite. Fluorite veining and replacement is in effect a type of alteration here that can be thought of as distal alteration to more intense, tin metallization at depth. Mass balance calculations show significant SiO2, Al22O3, alkali, and fluorine enrichment with this type of alteration (Sainsbury, 1968, p. 1567).

Nearby scientific data

(1) -167.1954, 65.45327
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Polymetallic, sulfide-bearing veins, veinlets, replacements, and fracture fillings in Ordovician limestone are locally present over about 1,200 feet of the east-west trending Rapid River fault zone. Sainsbury (1969, 1972) maps the Rapid River fault as a 12-mile long, east-west trending thrust fault in the southern part of the York Mountains although stratigraphic relations across the fault suggest normal displacement. Fluorite and beryllium-bearing mineralization has apparently developed peripheral to the sulfide veins. Lamprophyre dikes and a small plug are present in the mineralized area. Sulfide vein mineralogy is complex. Knopf (1908, p. 57-58) described a 1-foot wide zone of stringer veinlets containing wolframite, stannite, and galena with topaz and fluorite. Steidtmann and Cathcart (1922) described fractured and kaolinized dike rocks, some with disseminated tourmaline and fluorite, cemented with thin seams of galena, pyrite, and chalcopyrite and in places with 3-inch wide vertical stibnite-bearing veins. Sainsbury (1965; 1969, p. 64) described a 1-foot wide diamond drill intercept of semi-massive sulfides containing stannite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, and galena. Grades reported for sulfide-rich samples include trace to 0.03 opt gold, 4.2 to 25.6 opt silver, 0.5 to 9.1 % Pb, 0.48 to 1.53% Cu, about 3% Zn, 0.3 to 1.6% Sn, up to 3.2% WO3 and 3% Sb (Berg and Cobb, 1967, p. 132). Fluorite, chrysoberyl, white mica, and tourmaline are present in replacements of limestone and dolomite peripheral to the sulfide-bearing veins. One sample from the Bessie-Maple adit dump contained 0.39% BeO and 59% fluorite (Sainsbury, 1963, p. 8). Samples from three short USBM diamond drill holes had up to 0.79% BeO and 75% fluorite (Mulligan, 1965). Five inclined diamond drill holes completed by Lost River Mining Corporation through the near vertical fluorite mineralization had average intersections of 60 feet grading 34% fluorite (WGM, 1972, p. 54). Three of these five holes also intersected sulfide mineralization. These intersections were: (1) 10 feet of 0.18% Sn, 0.11% Pb, 4.9% Zn, 0.15% Cu, and 1.34 opt Ag; (2) 4.5 feet of 0.22 % lead, 1.89 % Zn, and 1 opt Ag; and (3) 2 feet of 0.27% Pb and 2.17% Zn (WGM, 1972, p. 72). Another diamond drill hole drilled vertically at a location north of the main Bessie-Maple prospect encountered 46 feet of 21.2 % fluorite, 0.23% Pb, 0.38 % Cu, and 1.3 opt Ag in the uppermost part of the hole (WGM, 1972, p. 72-73).
  • Age = the mineralization is assumed to be related to the development of tin systems in the Lost River area and therefore Late Cretaceous, the age of the tin-mineralizing granites there (Hudson and Arth, 1983).

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Not defined

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Older workings are a 150-foot adit and various suface pits and trenches. The USBM completed three short diamond drill holes totalling 399 feet on the eastern part of the mineralized area near where it merges with the Lost River valley prospect. Lost River Mining Corporation drilled 8 diamond drill holes totalling 1,905 feet in the prospect area (WGM, 1972, p. 63).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Knopf, Adolph, 1908, Geology of the Seward Peninsula tin deposits, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 358, 71 p.

  • Deposit

    Steidtmann, Edward, and Cathcart, S. H., 1922, Geology of the York tin deposits, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 733, 130 p.

  • Deposit

    Sainsbury, C.L., 1963, Beryllium deposits of the western Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 479, 18 p.

  • Deposit

    Mulligan, J.J., 1965, Diamond drill sampling data, fluorite-beryllium deposits, Lost River valley, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 1964, with a section on petrography by Walter L. Gnagy and a section on laboratory concentration tests by Richard Havens: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 7-65, 94 p.

  • Deposit

    Sainsbury, C.L., 1968, Tin and beryllium deposits of the central York Mountains, Alaska, in Ridge, J. D., ed., Ore deposits in the United States, 1933-67: American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Engineers, v. 2, p. 1555-1572.

  • 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

    WGM Ltd., 1972, Preliminary feasibility report on the Lost River fluorite-tin-tungsten: Toronto, Canada, Lost River Mining Company, Limited, unpublished report, 291 p.

  • 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

    Sainsbury, C.L., 1969, Geology and ore deposits of the central York Mountains, western Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1287, 101 p.

  • 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

    Mulligan, J.J., 1965, Diamond drill sampling data, fluorite-beryllium deposits, Lost River valley, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 1964, with a section on petrography by Walter L. Gnagy, and a section on laboratory concentration tests by Richard Havens: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 7-65, 94 p., 1 sheet.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Knopf, 1908 (USGS B 358); Steidtmann, and Cathcart, 1922; Sainsbury, 1963; Mulligan, 1965 (USBM AOF 7-65); Sainsbury, 1969; WGM, 1972

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Fluorite-, beryllium-, and sulfide-bearing veins, veinlets, and replacements in limestone (Sainsbury, 1968)

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

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