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Minnehaha Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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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 10308802
MRDS ID A015705
Record type Site
Current site name Minnehaha Creek
Alternate or previous names Mud Creek
Related records 10135857

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.9934, 65.94939 (WGS84)
Relative position The Minnehaha Creek placer mine is about 2.5 miles northwest of Candle. The mine extends downstream for 1 to 2 miles from near the cabins at the head of Mud Creek, which nearly joins Minnehaha Creek at the south end of the workings. The map site is in section 2, T. 6 N., R. 16 W., of the Kateel River Meridian. Cobb, 1972 (MF-389), location 17. This site is commonly referred to as the Mud Creek mine.

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Northwest Arctic(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Candle D-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Candle N(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Candle(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
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold 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) -161.9934, 65.94939
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = This placer gold deposit reportedly is at the edge of a paleo-lagoon on a 100,000-year-old Sangamon shoreline (Robson and others, 1983). The entire area is blanketed by a thick cover of loess and muck. All ground is frozen. The depth to bedrock is highly variable. The muck section ranges from 6 to 38 feet and the pay or mining section varies from 2 to 63 feet. Bedrock is highly weathered schist often described as sand and clay with schist fragments. Minerals in the concentrate include goethite, magnetite, and galena. Cinnabar has been reported in the concentrate, but the mineral may be rutile. Small-scale underground drifting was done on the property when it was discovered in the early 1900s. A drilling program was done by Havenstrite in 1941 to identify reserves, which they mined for the next few years. Noranda explored the property in 1982-83 with a drilling program. The property has been mined on a small scale almost continuously to the present (1999).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active

Mining district

District name Fairhaven

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Production between 1947 and 1980 was probably about 10,000 ounces of gold from 277,890 cubic yards of gravel. The property has been actively mined since the mid-1980's. From 1992 through 1996, approximately 3,000 ounces were produced.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = In 1941, a drill program by Havenstrite was completed which delineated indicated reserves of 48,000 ounces of gold in 1.8 million cubic yards of gravel. Reevaluation of the drill logs by C. Herbert in 1979 indicated existing reserves of 27,940 ounces of gold, or 1.12 million cubic yards of gravel that contained 0.025 ounces gold per cubic yard. In 1982, Noranda Exploration drilled 72 holes that totaled 4,200 feet. Noranda (1983) calculated reserves at Mud Creek as 73,000 ounces of gold in 2.8 million cubic yards of gravel. Estimated reserves as of October, 1996, were more than 50,000 ounces (Johnson, 1996).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Small-scale underground drifting was done on the property when it was discovered in the early 1900s. Havenstrite completed a drilling program in 1941 and mined the property for a few years. Small-scale surface mining was done until 1982 when Noranda Exploration acquired the claims and drilled 72 holes totaling 4,200 feet. Noranda dropped the claims after a few years and small-scale mining and assessment work continued on the property to the present (1999). The gravel is frozen and ice lenses are present in the muck and gravel.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Mendenhall, W.C., 1902, Reconnaissance from Fort Hamlin to Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, by way of Dall, Kanuti, Allen, and Kowak Rivers: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 10, 68 p.

  • Deposit

    Anderson, Eskil, 1947, Mineral occurrences other than gold deposits in northwestern Alaska: Alaska Territorial Division of Mines Pamphlet 5-R, 48 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1973, Placer deposits of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1374, 213 p.

  • Deposit

    Herbert, C.F., 1979, Mud Creek, Candle Mining District, Alaska: unpublished report prepared for Noranda Exploration, Anchorage, Alaska, 37 p. (Report held by NANA Regional Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska).

  • Deposit

    Robson, J.M., Baer, R.L. and Cobb, W.F., 1983, Mud Creek project summary: unpublished report, Noranda Exploration, Inc., Anchorage, Alaska, 32 p. (Report held by NANA Regional Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska).

  • Deposit

    Johnson, G.W., 1996, letter to NANA Regional Corp., Kotzebue, AK, October 16, 2 p. (Report held by NANA Regional Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska).

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Candle Quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-389, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Robson and others, 1983

General comments

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