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Lower Sweepstakes Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Platinum
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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 10308794
MRDS ID A015725
Record type Site
Current site name Lower Sweepstakes Creek
Alternate or previous names Eagle, Circle, Rampart and Fairbanks claims, A. Johnson, Moon, W. Porter, J. Winder
Related records 10232979, 10003188

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.31331, 65.33939 (WGS84)
Relative position The lower Sweepstakes Creek placer mine is along Sweepstakes Creek at Bear Gulch, an eastward-flowing, informally named tributary which drains Bear Mountain. The mine is in section 3, T. 2 S., R. 13 W., of the Kateel River Meridian. At various times, the claims at this site also have been referred to as Eagle, Circle, Rampart, and Fairbanks; A. Johnson; Moon; W. Porter; and J. Winder. Cobb, 1972 (MF-389), location 41.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

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

Candle S(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Candle(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Norton Bay(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Platinum Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Platinum Ore
Pyrite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Nearby scientific data

(1) -161.31331, 65.33939
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Placer mining at this site was mainly in low bench deposits along the east side of Sweepstakes Creek. On these benches 2 to 6 feet of muck overlies 3 to 6 feet of gravel. Gravels in the creek bed are 6 to 14 feet deep. On lower claims depth to bedrock is 15 feet. Partially decomposed bedrock was excavated during mining to a depth of a few inches. Mining was mainly for gold, but a little platinum was recovered near the mouth of Bear Gulch. Sweepstakes Creek drains the southwestern part of the Cretaceous Granite Mountain monzonite pluton. Samples of concentrates or syenite-rich stream gravels contained chrome spinel, garnet, hematite, hydrothorianite, ilmenite, magnetite, uranothorianite, and zircon (Gault and others, 1953).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Koyuk

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Gold worth $10,000 and an ounce of platinum reportedly were mined in 1917 (gold at $20.67/ounce) (Harrington, 1919). On Moon's claims 9 and 10, a placered area of 1,500 square feet consisted of 6 feet of gravel overlain by 6 feet of tundra. The paystreak was in a half-foot of gravel and 1 foot of bedrock. Moon recovered 9 ounces of gold at $28.50 per ounce (Gault and others, 1953).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Small-scale gold placer mining took place at this site from the 1900's until the 1950's. Some activity was reported in the area in 1989-1991 (Bundtzen and others, 1990; Bundtzen and others, 1992). In 1947 the U.S. Geological Survey sampled the placer to evaluate its radioactive mineral potential.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Harrington, 1919

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Deposit Other Comments = Stream gradient approximately 50 feet per mile.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 12-JAN-00 Williams, Anita U.S. Geological Survey

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.