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  3. Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS)

Saddle Creek

Occurrence 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 10308428
Record type Site
Current site name Saddle Creek
Alternate or previous names Crosby Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -166.14945, 65.8923 (WGS84)
Relative position Saddle Creek is the headwater segment of Crosby Creek which drains the south flank of Ear Mountain. Ear Mountain is an isolated upland reaching 2,329 feet elevation in the north-central Teller D-3 quadrangle. It is cored by a Late Cretaceous granite stock (Sainsbury, 1972). This is locality 59 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the name 'Crosby Cr.'.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Teller D-3(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Teller NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Teller C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Shishmaref(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(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) -166.14945, 65.8923
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Saddle Creek has headwaters in the southeast contact zone of the Ear Mountain biotite granite stock. This is a Late Cretaceous (76.7 +/- 2.9 my; Hudson and Arth, 1983, p. 769) composite biotite granite that intrudes an impure and schistose carbonate sequence, with some metapelitic rocks, of unknown but probable Paleozoic age. The country rocks are variably converted to tactite and hornfels around the granite stock (Knopf, 1908, p. 28-29). One of two USBM churn-drill holes on the lower part of the creek (about 340 feet elevation) contained 0.01 pounds of tin per cubic yard. Samples from these holes contain quartz, calcite, grossularite garnet, albite, limonite pseudomorphs after pyrite, traces of blue tourmaline, brown tourmaline, epidote, and idocrase. Cassiterite was also identified (Mulligan, 1959, p. 29).
  • Age = Quaternary

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Two USBM churn-drill holes were completed on the lower part of the creek at approximately 340 feet elevation (Mulligan, 1959, p. 20).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mulligan, 1959 (USBM RI 5493)

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

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