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Tin Cup

Prospect 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. 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 10308431
Record type Site
Current site name Tin Cup

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.29241, 65.68331 (WGS84)
Relative position The Tin Cup prospect is located on a marble ridgecrest 0.5 miles southwest of the continental divide at an elevation of 1,480 feet between the headwaters of a northwest tributary to Eldorado Creek and Star Creek. This is 1.9 miles west of Kougarok Mountain summit and 2.5 miles southwest of the Main plug at the Kougarok prospect (TE072) in the north-central Teller C-1 quadrangle. The prospect was first identified in 1978 and it is not included in the compilation of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972) or Cobb (1975).

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-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben NW(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)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Tin Critical Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cassiterite Ore

Alteration

  • (Local) Alteration of the felsic dikes is probably weak clay and sericite development.

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.29241, 65.68331
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Tin Cup prospect is in marble that stratigraphically overlies the highly deformed metapelitic schist of the Kougarok Mountain area. The base of the marble is in many places schistose carbonate rocks and quartzite; the contact with underlying metapelitic rocks is probably a deformed unconformity. The marble may be as young as Devonian (Puchner, 1986, p. 1777) but the underlying metapelitic schist could be as old as Precambrian (Gardner and Hudson, 1984). Several felsic dikes intrude the marble at the Tin Cup prospect (Puchner, 1986, p. 1778). These dikes are visible from the air and were the focus of initial exploration that followed up the pan concentrate tin anomalies reported by Marsh and others (1972). Claims staked here by Texasgulf, Inc. in 1978 later became part of the Kougarok project of the Anaconda Minerals Company. The felsic dikes and associated mineralization such as skarn veinlets are assumed to be similar in age to intrusion and related mineralization at the nearby Kougarok prospect. The radiometric ages referenced by Puchner (1986) for the Kougarok prospect include an Rb/Sr age of 72 +/- 2 my for porphyritic biotite granite and a K/Ar age of 70.2 +/- 2.6 my for zinnwaldite granite from the Main plug. . The felsic dikes have various orientations and several intersect in the Tin Cup area. They are weakly altered and have anomalous tin contents. Gravity surveys indicate that the main granite pluton at depth is about 10,000 feet or more below the surface here (Puchner, 1986, p. 1778). Anaconda drilled one diamond drill hole in the Tin Cup prospect area. This veritical hole reached a depth of 1,437 feet, did not encounter significant mineralization, and bottomed in marble. However, below 656 feet depth, ten felsic dikes varying from less than a foot to 34 feet in intercept thickness, were encountered. Numerous skarn veinlets, with up to 400 ppm tin, were also encountered below 656 feet in this hole (Puchner, 1984). Magnetic anomalies are also reported to be present here (Puchner, 1984).
  • Age = Late Cretaceous; the felsic dikes and associated mineralization such as skarn veinlets are assumed to be similar in age to intrusion and related mineralization at the nearby Kougarok prospect. The radiometric ages referenced by Puchner (1986) for the Kougarok prospect include an Rb/Sr age of 72 +/- 2 my for porphyritic biotite granite and a K/Ar age of 70.2 +/- 2.6 my for zinnwaldite granite from the Main plug.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Port Clarence

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = Not defined

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Surface mapping and sampling and one vertical diamond drill hole to a total depth of 1,437 feet have been completed here.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Puchner,1984; Puchner, 1986

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Uncertain; prospect is an area of weakly altered felsic dikes in marble above a buried tin granite complex. Mineralization at depth could include various types of tin greisen, skarn or replacement deposits (models 15c, 14b, and 14c of Cox and Singer, 1986)

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.