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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Unnamed (on Tin Creek, tributary to Lost River)

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Beryllium, Tin, 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. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Links to other databases
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308406
Record type Site
Current site name Unnamed (on Tin Creek, tributary to Lost River)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -167.1264, 65.45827 (WGS84)
Relative position Tin Creek is an east tributary to Lost River whose confluence is located 4.5 miles upstream from the mouth of Lost River on the Bering Sea. Fluorite and beryllium-bearing veins and tactite are mostly developed on the south flank of a hill cored by fine-grained granite (Sainsbury, 1969), that the headwaters of Tin Creek flow around. This rounded hill, between Tin Creek and its small north tributary, reaches elevations of just over 1,150 feet. Mineralization is locally present from creek level (400 feet) upslope (northward) to the contact of the Tin Creek stock at an elevation of about 850 feet. This locality was not identified separately by Cobb and Sainsbury (1972) but relevant information was summarized by Cobb (1975) under the name 'Tin Cr., trib. Lost R.'.

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

Diomede 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
Beryllium Critical Primary
Tin Critical Primary
Fluorine-Fluorite Critical Primary

Comments on the commodity information

  • Gangue = white mica

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore
Chrysoberyl Ore
Fluorite Ore
Helvite Ore
Idocrase Gangue
Magnetite Gangue
Mica Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Calc-silicate, magnetite, and fluorite replacement of limestone

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 43
USGS model code 14b
Deposit model name Sn skarn

Nearby scientific data

(1) -167.1264, 65.45827
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The headwaters of Tin Creek are in an area where a small stock of biotite granite, the Tin Creek stock (Sainsbury, 1969; Hudson and Arth, 1983) intrudes Orovician limestone and dolomite. The Tin Creek stock covers a 1,000 by 2,000 foot area on the crest of the rounded hill between Tin Creek and its northern tributary. The south contact of the stock is irregular and includes granite offshoots, dikes, and apophyses in the bordering carbonate rocks. Two types of mineralization are present in the carbonate country rocks on the south flank of the Tin Creek stock: (1) laminar magnetite-fluorite- idocrase skarn (wrigglite) with helvite, and (2) fluorite-diaspore-white mica veins and replacements that contain chrysoberyl. The laminar skarn forms replacement veins along fractures in limestone and larger irregular bodies adjacent to granite intrusions. The fluorite-diaspore-white mica-chrysoberyl veins, from less than an inch up to a few feet wide, are scattered through limestone and localized along borders to granite dikes. They contain cassiterite, stannite, and other sulfide minerals in places. Oxidation of the sulfide-bearing veins has produced gossanous materials at the surface. The helvite-bearing skarn is reported to carry up to 0.45% BeO (Sainsbury, 1969, p. 80). Three samples of beryllium-bearing veins contained 0.13 to 1.11% BeO (Sainsbury, 1963, p. 13). Samples of skarn from this area contained 1,020 to 4,500 ppm tin and more than 20,000 ppm fluorine; one of these samples contained 175 ppb gold (Hudson, 1983).
  • Ore Material = sulfide minerals
  • Age = the age of 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
Commodity type Both

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Not defined

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = A few surface pits and trenches are present in the area.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Sainsbury, 1963; Sainsbury, 1969

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Veins and tactite in limestone intruded by granite. Tin skarn model (14b) of cox and Singer (1986).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-MAY-1998 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.