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Homestake Creek

Past 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 10308859
MRDS ID A011345
Record type Site
Current site name Homestake Creek
Alternate or previous names Platte Creek
Related records 10107514

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -148.56287, 63.96962 (WGS84)
Relative position Gold placer mining activity has taken place for at least 2 miles along Homestake Creek and its upstream continuation Platte Creek. The map site is in sec. 5, T. 11 S., R. 5 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian. This is location 57 of Clark and Cobb (1972).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Denali(Borough)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Healy D-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Healy N(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Healy C(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

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) -148.56287, 63.96962
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Upper Platte Creek drains en Eocene to Miocene sequence of poorly consolidated pebbly sandstone, claystone, and subituminous coal (Wilson and others, 1998). Lower Platte Creek to its junction with Fox Creek drains schist of the Keevy Peak Formation, which is intruded by Tertiary hypabyssal granitic rocks. The workings at Platte Creek are in well-sorted and rounded gravels 3 to 6 feet thick. Most of the gold is in the lower 2 to 3 feet of the gravel and upper part of schist bedrock. Paystreaks 25 to 60 feet wide were reported (Cobb, 1973: B1374). In Homestake Creek, the gravels are coarse and poorly sorted, and contain abundant cobble and boulder-sized clasts that include large angular blocks of andesite. The gravels in Platte Creek were reported to carry 0.14 ounce of gold per cubic yard. Gravels on bedrock downstream contained 0.14 to 0.43 ounce of gold per cubic yard (Capps, 1912). The most probable sources of the placer gold are Tertiary paleoplacers formed during an earlier erosional cycle of the Alaska Range.
  • 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 Bonnifield

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Most of the production occurred before 1912.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Surface only. The gravels in Platte Creek were reported to carry 0.14 ounce of gold per cubic yard. Gravels on bedrock downstream contained 0.14 to 0.43 ounce of gold per cubic yard (Capps, 1912).

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Cobb, 1978 (OFR 78-1062)

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Deposit Other Comments = The stream gradient in Platte Creek is 100 feet per mile; in Homestake Creek it is 200 feet per mile.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 07-APR-2000 N. Van Wyck Stevens Exploration Management Corporation

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.