Patterson Creek

Occurrence in Alaska, United States with commodities Silver, Lead
Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Nearby scientific data
  8. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  9. Mining district
  10. Links to other databases
  11. Bibliographic references
  12. General comments
  13. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308534
Record type Site
Current site name Patterson Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -162.10338, 65.79939 (WGS84)
Relative position This location is very approximate, probably within one mile. Anderson (1947) reports that drift mine operations exposed galena-bearing veins in bedrock somewherre on Patterson Creek. Patterson Creek is a west tributary to Candle Creek. The mouth of Patterson Creek is 1,500 feet upstream of Camp 19 on Candle Creek. This is locality 10 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; 1975; OFR 75-429).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Bendeleben D-1(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Bendeleben NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Bendeleben(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Goodhope-Spafarief Bay(hydrologic unit)

Northern Seward Peninsula(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Silver Primary
Lead Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Galena Ore

Nearby scientific data

(1) -162.10338, 65.79939

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Anderson (1947, p. 31) reports that drift mine operations on claim no. 4 Above exposed a one foot-wide galena vein (low in silver content); and on claim no. 8 Above several veins from 8 inches to one foot-wide were exposed that carried considerable silver. Anderson (1947) also notes that earlier work uncovered a 3-foot wide galena vein somewhere on the creek but it apparently pinched out at a shallow depth. Local miners indicated in 1982 that they had not encountered such veins or old workings that may have exposed them (Briskey, 1983). Bedrock is extensively covered by tundra but what is exposed in the area is part of a Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986). A small granitic stock is exposed on the ridge south of upper Candle Creek (Till and others, 1986) and Sandvik (1956) notes that granitic rocks have been identified in the headwaters of Jump Creek and Minehaha Creek. Intermediate to felsic dikes and sills crosscutting metamorphic rocks have been exposed in placer workings along Candle Creek (BN074).
  • Age = Cretaceous ; Epigenetic mineralization in metamorphic rocks of Seward Peninsula is primarily of Cretaceous age.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Occurrence
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairhaven

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Early drift mining is reported to have exposed galena-bearing veins in bedrock. A short shaft was apparently sunk on one of these veins but evidence of this early work has not been observed by recent workers (Briskey, 1983).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Anderson, 1947

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Galena-bearing veins in metamorphic rocks

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 15-MAR-1999 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Authoritative Alaska resources

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